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Wednesday 30 July 2014

Out of the Shed: My 1:300th-scale Spanish Civil War armies ... and an unexpected bonus

The sorting out of the contents of the shed continues. When I opened one of the crates I discovered a storage box that contained my long-lost 1:300th-scale Spanish Civil War armies. These were created from a mixture of World War II and Colonial figures from the ranges produced by Heroics & Ros, and were used to demonstrate the earlier versions of my Spanish Civil War rules, ¡ARRIBA ESPAÑA!

The Nationalists
The Nationalist forces were made up of two 'battalions' of infantry (actually a Bandera of the Spanish Foreign Legion and a Tabor of Moroccan Regulares), a battery of field artillery, and a tank company.



The Republicans
The Republicans were made up of both regular and militia forces.

The regulars consisted of a battalion of Peninsulares (Spanish conscripts who served on the Spanish mainland and not in North Africa), two companies of Assault Guards (para-military police), a Grupo of field artillery, a battery of anti-tank guns, and a tank company.



The militia consisted of three 'battalions' of Trade Unionist and members of political movements. These were the PCE (Partido Comunista de España [Communist Party of Spain]), the UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores [General Union of Workers]), and the FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica [Iberian Anarchist Federation]).



An added bonus was the fact that the box these armies were stored in contained three scratch-built 15mm-scale model Vickers six-ton tanks.



These were built many years ago for my Chaco War project ... and I can certainly find a use for them today!

6 comments:

  1. Love those scratch-built tanks! How did you make them? I can't work out how you did the running gear
    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ian Dury,

    The bulk of the model is made from an Airfix Universal Carrier. The original wheels were cut off, thin Plasticard was cut out and glued in their place, and tiny wheels (which cannot be seen!) made from thin cross sections of plastic cocktail stick. The rest of the running gear on each track was made from two triangles of thin Plasticard.

    The turret was made from a depth charge from the Airfix E-Boat, the armament was a piece of plastic cocktail stick, and the superstructure was made from the floor of an Airfix ambulance. The rest was made from parts of the Universal Carrier.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Bob,

    Love the tanks and am even more impressed that you are able to describe how they came about! How long have they been lurking in storage I wonder?

    I am also impressed with the 1/300th armies - do you have any plans for them now?

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete
  4. David Crook,

    The tanks were constructed in the late 1970s, and have been in storage since I got married in 1982. As to how they were constructed ... well I was so pleased with the way I built them that the process was easy to remember.

    I am thinking about using my 1:300th-scale SCW armies with my Heroscape terrain and Morschauser Modern rules, with each base representing either a company or a battalion.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  5. Didn't Wayne do SCW in 1:300 at COW a few years back? If you need to expand those forces I think Irregular do a useful range.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nigel Drury,

    I remember Wayne and David's SCW session at COW. It was an interesting session, and incorporated some innovative game mechanisms.

    I doubt that I will expand this collection, but if I do I will certainly bear your suggestion in mind.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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