Desert Objective Markers

I really enjoy making my own bits of terrain and objective markers, and something that I think turned out rather well is this delightful fascist obelisk, hereafter abbreviated as ‘DFO’.

This DFO was based photos on an actual DFO, built by the Italians outside of Sidi Barrani in 1940.

It bore an inscription on the side which read:

"LA 3 COMP. ARTIERI

SOTTO l’INSIDIA NEMICA

PER LA SAPIENTE GUIDA

DEL GENERALE C. NEGRONI

E VIRTU’ DI FANTI GENIERI E CCRR

DOMATE LE SABBIE ROVENTI

DA SOLLUM A SIDI EL BARRANI

QUI ANNODO’ LE LITORANEE

LIBICA ED EGIZIANA

20 NOVEMBRE 1940"

…which translates to…

“THE 3RD SAPPER COMPANY

UNDER ENEMY DANGER

THROUGH THE SKILFUL GUIDANCE

OF GENERAL C. NEGRONI

AND BY VIRTUE OF THE ENGINEER AND CCRR INFANTRYMEN

HAVING CONQUERED THE SCORCHING SANDS

FROM SOLLUM TO SIDI EL BARRANI

HEREBY LINKED THE

LIBYAN AND EGYPTIAN COASTLINES

20 NOVEMBER 1940”

I took a bit of artistic license with my homebrew DFO, and adding the inscription was beyond my skillset. It’s built on a Battlefront medium base and made from Sculpey clay, but each part made individually, and the fascios were the more difficult part. I started by making one fascio out of a base of thin clay, overlaid with wire, then pressed that into clay to create a mold.

Another objective marker, and one of great importance in the desert, is this well.

It was very loosely based on some images I found of desert wells, but mostly conjecture. It was built from Sculpey clay on a Battlefront medium base, with the timbers being made from toothpicks and the rope from wire.