This collection of newly completed models represents my effort to get every WW2 Italian model I had off the shelf and built because my interest had recently been piqued by a desert-themed, 1/72 scale table-top battle my 8-year-old son and I carried out in the garage. These newest additions to the Western Desert are here posed with Italeri’s “African House.”

I think my favorite of the bunch is the Italeri CR.42 AS “Falco,” a sesquiplane (meaning the bottom wing is only about half the size of the upper wing) of pre-war design that came into service in 1939 and flew in all of Italy’s WW2 campaigns. This version, the AS or ground-attack version, appeared most notably above the Libyan and Egyptian deserts from 1940  to 1942. The hardest part of building the kit was definitely working out the fit of the two wings with the twelve separate, steeply inclined struts.

The other aircraft, an MC.200 “Saetta” by HobbyBoss, like all kits in the series, was extremely easy to build, correspondingly light on detail, and fun to paint. No issues there.

The two vehicles looked quite nice in the end, I thought, but I must say the Ace Models AS.37 light truck, with its ambiguous instructions and its sometimes sloppy parts, was not a pleasure to build–except for the real rubber tires. All Ace Models I have tried have been challenging, but I’ll still sometimes buy them because so many of the subjects they produce can’t be found anywhere else that I know of. The funny thing is, after all the struggle of an Ace kit, they do tend to come out pretty well. The other vehicle, an ABM 42 scout car with a 47mm ATG, is from Italeri’s dependable line of 1/72 vehicles.

Combined with the other Italian models we already have, these kits will help make a tidy little force for our next table-top desert war between the British and the Italians. You can see all of our North African subjects here.