Italy Regia Marina to WW2

Zara is one of the four heavy cruisers of the Fiume class were the best in the Italian fleet in WW2. Three of them had the misfortune to be overwhelmed by gunfire from HMS Warspite in the night action off Cape Matapan. The model is made by Neptun in Germany, 1532


The model best represents Zara as operating in 1938, Fiume & Gorizia were similar while Pola was originally fitted as a flagship and had a bridge linked to the forward funnel (see NN1530).
 

Good looking model of the heavy cruiser that was a member of the Trento class but with enough alterations to almost appear a separate class. Armed with 8 x 8" main guns in four turrets, Bolzano was a powerful cruiser, serving many of the same missions as her sister ships. Hit three times by 6" rounds from the British cruiser HMS Neptune in the battle of Calabria, two deaths and minor damage below the waterline was sustained but quickly repaired. Another round hit "B" turret but the guns continued to fire undeterred while a third round struck the torpedo room, where the two fatalities took place. At the beginning of the battle of Spartivento, her Ro.43 flying boat was the first to spot the British fleet 20 miles off Algeria. On 25 August 1941, while returning from an abortive attempt to intercept minelayer HMS Manxman, used by the British on ressuply missions, Bolzanowas damaged by a torpedo from the British submarine HMS Triumph near the Straits of Messina. With steering damaged, she was towed to Messina for repairs lasting three months, but hit again during an air raid.

In August 1942, when participation in the interception of the Pedestal convoy had been cancelled, she was again torpedoed while returning to base. Bolzano and the light cruiser Muzio Attendolo were both seriously damaged by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Unbroken off the Aeolian Islands on 13 August. The damage required her magazines to be flooded and she was beached at the island of Panarea. After a month, she was salvaged and taken to Naples, then to La Spezia for repairs. At La Spezia in September the Italians surrendered and Bolzano was captured by the Germans but her damage made her unusable and subsequently she was sunk by human torpedoes in a combined Italian and British raid on 21 June 1944, being refloated and sold for scrap in 1947.

A 1/1000 scale secondhand model of Varese, a second-class battleship of the Garibaldi class that enjoyed sales success world-wide in the early 1900s. This is a card-mounted wargamer's model in dark grey with several missing secondary gun barrels, see photograph.

Eritrea is a 1/1250 scale waterline, secondhand model of the Italian colonial sloop and training ship which served in and around the Red Sea during WW2. The metal model was made in Germany by Star  number 118 is in grey with dark grey decks and wood effect quarter deck and is in excellent condtion for its age, see photograph.

German, WW1 & WW2 & Italian Touch up Paint Pot

There is a brush in the bottle cap and a ball agitator in the glass bottle.