Some new icons if you want them, more to follow

[Akkula]

Cant wait to grab those Italian toys... and take them to the Eastern Front

[flakfernrohr]

Hi Akkula, Thank you for your wanting them. I really like them and enjoyed making them. I am especially glad you approve of them. I will be making the file for them and masks, then send it to you in the next few days. I will also post a link from MediaFire here on the forum. I have to make the masks for the Semovente units (four versions) I made too so they can be included. I will be putting copies up on the forum this weekend and making the masks. The Semoventes were just Italian Stugs and were used as such by the Germans in Italy. So I make units that are ATY and AT both.

Now let me say this.............the prototype P43 was really going to be a pretty good tank with an excellent gun, so the Russians would be dealing with a decent Italian tank as an adversary (that is IF you or anyone else uses them in a theoretical scenario, just give them some good stats). The Semovente 90-53 was a really powerful gun on a naked chassis just like the Semovente 149-40 (but only one prototype was built). Both of them could easily kill at a great distance so it minimalized some of the danger to the crews.

I am putting up some pictures of StuG groups I have been working on in this post. I have a large group of Stugs (III and IV) I have been working on including Panzer III. So all of these will be available soon after I get the Italian units masks done.

The "rebuild" Stug IIIF I made is a copy of a model I saw (picture attached as StuG IIIB) that was patterned after a picture of a rebuilt tank school StuG up-gunned late in the war. The genuine StuG in the wartime photo is missing front fenders, so my version is missing them too.

[flakfernrohr]

Here are two StuG IIIG Abt units I will be putting on the forum as soon as I can get the ATY versions done with masks. Lots of work, but lots of fun when I am motivated as I am now. NOTE: These units are scaled down to fit the Gimp image plate. All five of each Abt. will not fit the Gimp image plate in regular size and I did these only as illustrations so that all could be seen and posted in one post of the thread. The ones I made as as individual units with masks are be normal PZC scale sized.

[guille1434]

Excellent work, Flak! I really like them and I am looking for the complete icons & masks!! Thanks for sharing!

[flakfernrohr]

Hi Guille old friend!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your approval is really encouraging. I am working on the ATY versions of the StuG's now. Then the Masks. I am posting the Semovente Italian armor series on the thread tonight. I expect to put up a zip file in Mediafire tomorrow or Sunday at the latest with all of the Italian armor I have put in the thread so far. There are a couple of units I am working on to finalize and see how they turn out before I put the zip file together. At any rate......here are the Semovente units (the Germans liked them, especially the 75-46 and 105-25 series because they had the firepower and good armor and were used in the same employ as the venerable Stug III and Stug IV Panzers).

[flakfernrohr]

Here are the Semovente 75-46 and 105-25 series.........(you will notice the 75-46 German unit has a German AA gun as the Breda MG were not nearly as good).

[guille1434]

Hi, Flak... Yes, I only speak the truth... The attention paid to detail, and the drawing technique developed by you is nothing short of superb... By the way, another pair of suggestions (that you may take note or not, depending the stage you have reached with your work)

- Semovente da 75/18: The gun looks a little bit longer than real life (for me), also, you may try to draw its muzzle brake (look at the photo). Also, watch the gun elevation, as stated by the wikipedia, its maximum gun elevation is 22º (and I suppose it will be similar for the 75/34 and 75/46, not so sure for the 105/25).

- StuG III: The reworked early model chassis with longer gun vehicle shown in the photo uploaded by you has a muzzle brake, may be you can include it in your icon, because I think all long gun versions (L/43 and L/48) of the StuG had a muzzle brake.

Having said that, keep up the good work!!

[flakfernrohr]

Hi Guille, thank you for the kind words and input. As always...I need the input. I will rework the Semovente ATY mode units and the 75-18 barrel. Muzzle brakes are a difficult thing for me as they never come out as sharp on the unit as just a plain barrel on these units at this size. But I will see what I can get done.

The "rebuild" StuG III I made with late war scenarios in mind involving the Germans throwing anything up they could scratch around and find, including Training School tanks. Will work on the muzzle brake issue for it also.
I did not exclude a muzzle brake on the Stug deliberately, but as I said earlier, the muzzle brakes are usually fuzzy looking. Just have to try to make a passable one that looks decent.

So reworking the Semovente ATY models will put off me getting the Italian Zip File done on Media Fire a bit. But it will get there as soon as possible.

POSTSCRIPT:...............FOUND A GOOD REFERENCE FOR ELEVATION ON THE 105-25 (ATTACHED)

[guille1434]

Oh, yes... Muzzle brakes are tricky, but they are a very "prominent" feature of a icon... so we need to make an effort. When in trouble, my procedure is to "borrow" (steal, hehe) some part of another icon, you just need to give credit. No need to reinvent the wheel... For example, here you have a very good icon for the Stug III including a beautifully made muzzle brake, created by Asuser. He was not seen here for a long time now, but I don't think he would be mad if you borrow that part of one of his icons.

[flakfernrohr]

Thank you Guille, Yes, I know ASUSER, I contacted him to rework some of his units which are posted in this thread. He liked the work done. I think it was the JPanthers and he has also sent me his StuG work some time ago.
In the meantime, I am posting some more Italian units I made based on images found.......Interesting combination. There were some Russian T34's captured by the Italians and they had 1941 turrets and 1942 chassis. Of course this was on the "glorius" run for Stalingrad and the Volga before the winter of '42-'43. Guess the Russians got their tanks back in the end.

[flakfernrohr]

And here are the units (the masks will be in the Italian zip file I am making).

[Akkula]

Interesting captured unit. I love it
Waiting for that Italian pack!.

[flakfernrohr]

Dear Comrade Akkula, I am reworking the ATY versions of the Semoventes and will wrap things up probably tomorrow. Guille pointed out something I needed to change, barrel elevations. There will be some surprises in the Italian pack. I just finished two more units today. One more and then the Semoventes reworked and it is done. Zip file on Mediafire will come soon!

PS: Did you notice the T34 in the captured photos was a STZ? So are the ones I did too!

[flakfernrohr]

Here are a couple more Italian captured Soviet tanks, the BT-7. The masks and units will be in the Italian pack when it is done.

[flakfernrohr]

Here are the last of the Italian units I have done. I am now reworking the Semovente 75-18 units and the ATY versions of the three other Semovente, 75-34, 75-46 and 105-25. I think you (I hope) will be pleased with the end result. The P43 I posted in an earlier post is of course conjecture and fantasy, but nevertheless a formidable tank in the class with a Panther MKV (except maybe for the rivets ). And included in the final set is the projected M16-43 Sahariano fast tank (the Italians lost Africa before it could be used for its intended purposes). I did two versions since they are fantasy, the prototype was a 47-40 gun, but I have also included a 75-34 version. The units are only different in the gun barrels (47-40 is a bit darker with the tank on the top). There is also the pip squeek M11-39 and the sad L6-40 and Semovente 47-40 that became T34 fodder in the Soviet encirclement of Stalingrad (when the Soviets got their T34 and BT-7's back).

I copied these stats from a war game board (maybe WOT or War Thunder) that has lots of tank play, pretty serious. Maybe they will come in useful to those of you who want to put some of the Italian tanks to use in fighting.
"The Pz I equivalent would be the CV-33, CV-35, CV-38 series (these were also known as L3/33 etc)
The Pz II equivalent would be the L6/40
The Pz III equivalent would be the M11/39 to M15/42 series
The Pz IV equivalent would be the P26/40 (only a few pre-production models) (75-34)
The Panther equivalent would probably be the P43 (only to wooden model stage - 100mm frontal armour and long 75mm gun) (75-46)
The Tiger I equivalent might be the P43bis (105-25 or 90MM in various barrel lengths such as L71, 90-53, 90-42)
The M16/43 looks like it might have matched the M24 Chafee so it would be the late war light tank if it had actually gone into production (the Germans didn't have an equivalent - the Luchs was vastly inferior to both)"

[flakfernrohr]

I am finally happy with the Italian Units I have made after the excellent input from the forum. I reworked the Semovente files, all units and also reworked the slope of the frontal armor on the M16-43 since I really wasn't happy with the angle of the first set. So here they all are with a Media Fire link in the last post. I am only reposting the Semoventes and M16-43 units I reworked. All other examples are already posted in the thread. The Aty Semoventes have a 21.8 degree elevation.

[flakfernrohr]

Here are the reworked Semovente 75-18 and the Sahariano units. I am experimenting with camo skins for the Semoventes and the tanks as the Italians sort of had their own patterns which looked great. That being said, that type of skin when put on a unit usually eliminates lots of details and looks just like a big blob of camo to me. So I will see what I can come up with. If it is decent and looks good, I will put a link on the thread.

MEDIAFIRE LINK TO ITALIAN UNITS BY FLAKFERNROHR (about 38 masked units)..............with generous donations of skill and art from too many to name.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/u8ene ... IAFIRE.zip

[flakfernrohr]

Here are some units I found interesting and pretty good looking, especially the R35 with a T26 turret and 45mm gun (it looks like a little beast). The R35 45mm and R35-T26 were actually done by Romania and Germany, I just made up the Hotchkiss versions since they are so similar tanks. The Hotchkiss tanks have the German style commander hatch, two sided that were installed on the German captured Hotchkiss tanks used. The 45mm Russian anti tank guns were used for the duration of the war and were effective on most any target but a Tiger or Panther class tank.

[flakfernrohr]

Here are the units and Mediafire link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/g96qr ... mm-T26.zip

[flakfernrohr]

Here are some Italian Semovente tanks the Germans used in the same manner as StuG III and StuG IV. The Semoventes gave a good account of themselves and were well liked by the Germans manning them. So put some of these tanks in your games and change some things up a little for variety if you like.