From BenitoV: Panzer I Ausf A with 20mm Breda Gun (20 points)

In my final entry for this year's challenge, I present one of those armour "rarities" from the Spanish Civil War - the Panzer I A tank with a modified turret designed to mount an Italian Bread 20mm gun. This tank was primarily used by Franco's forces.

The history of this model is closely linked to the T 26 tank. During the Battle of Seseña in October 1936, the rebels were taken aback by the firepower of the Russian T 26, which outmatched the lightly armed Panzer I and CV 35 tanks supplied by Germany and Italy at the beginning of the war.

The response to a new threat was to mount the Bread 20mm gun on a Panzer I hull, which had the capacity to penetrate a frontal 40mm armour plate. Four tanks were quickly converted in 1936. However, after the Nationalist army captured and put into service a significant number of T 26s, the project was abandoned. 

Hence, the Breda Panzer was rarely seen on the real battlefields of Spain in the late 30s. Nevertheless, it will make a nice addition to my gaming table.

This is an Eskice 3D printed model in 28 mm. Although it has a simple design with not a lot of detail, it is enough to add something different to my table. Most Panzer Is used I Spain were painted in the typical panzer grey color of the Wehrmacht. However, I have found evidence that at least one of the Breda models was painted with the cammo scheme used in my model, a sort of yellow-ochre tone (the sources are unclear) over the original grey.  

This entry adds 20 points to this year's Challenge scoring.

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Very interesting research behind this model, Benito. I find it fascinating reading about in-theatre weapon system design as you sense the almost frantic readjustment of plans as events unfold at the front lines. I also really like the one-off camo scheme that you've reflectet here. I think I may have to hunt down this STL file for my own SCW collection. Finally, thank you for joining us this year, Benito. It is always a pleasure to have you in the Challenge.

- Curt 

From PhilH: Loyal to the Republic at Istvaan V (45 Points)

Landing at Istvann V: loyalists or betrayers, with a Spanish Civil War Project on the go? Perfect, I have a couple of dozen People's Militia prepped, based and ready to sling paint onto, so I fished out a handful and got to work.

Along with baffling politics and endless factions and theIR TLAs, the SCW has extrordinary tales of ordinary workers seizing and collectivising their companies and demanding the government distribute arms for them to defend hard-won rights and freedoms from ultraconservative traditionalism erring on fascism. While inexperienced, barely-trained, hurridly organised and lacking much semblence of military discipline, they managed to throw back Franco's battle-hardened Army of Africa and modern allies through their bravery and sheer will to resist.

These join the other motley defenders of the Republic in my collection. They're the start of a platoon of members of the anarcho syndicalist CNT-FAI union, wearing blue workers' overalls with red and blackcaps and neckerchiefs.

They're from the unmatched Empress Miniatures range, I think with a couple of headswaps as I had some duplicate packs. I'm going to need to paint quite a fewmore of these up. Five 28mm figures and the planet bonus is 45 Points, thanks Milady Tamsin. This also represents my first squirrel. Squirrel! Still lagging behind on my side duel with Challenge newcomer JohnE though.

 

Good to see you return to the Spanish Civil War with these five lovelies! Another 45 points for you, young man!

Tamsin

From Curt: Spanish Refugees from Malaga & Dr. Norman Bethune, 1937 (110 Points)

 

Hi All,

Today I return to my Spanish Civil War project with this group of civilian refugees. 

Sarah and I have been fortunate enough to visit both Cebere France and Malaga Spain in previous vacations. Both of these communities are set in beautiful locations, nestled along the Mediterranean coast, but both share a dark history in that they were also sites to horrible events during the Spanish Civil War. I've written about Cebere before, but I've been wanting to do something specific for Malaga as well.

In February 1937, the Mediterranean port town of Malaga found itself threatened by the rapid advance of Nationalist forces. In a state of panic, 120-150,000 people, composed of men, women and children, fled along the coastal road leading to Almeria, 200 kilometers away. In an act of barbaric cruelty, the Nationalists and their Italian allies harried the refugee column for days, submitting it to both air attacks and off-shore bombardment.  Thousands were killed and wounded during the flight, in what many regard as a war crime exceeding that of the infamous bombing of Guernica. 

At this time, a volunteer Canadian surgeon, by the name of Norman Bethune, was working in the area with is independent blood transfusion ambulance. 

Hearing what was occurring along the coastal road, Bethune and his team quickly drove to the stricken column to give what assistance he could.  For three days and three nights Bethune and his assistants helped evacuate some of the most vulnerable to Almeria, and then provided medical care to the most grievously wounded.

In 2007, the city of Malaga officially honoured Bethune's heroic and humanitarian acts with a commemorative plaque and by naming that portion of the Malaga-Almeria road, Paseo de los Canadienses (The Canadian Promenade). In order to visit the plaque and pay our respects, Sarah and I spent a nice afternoon cycling up to the promenade, situated just a few kilometers outside of Malaga.

A fine way to spend a wonderful day in sunny Spain.

Accordingly, I've done up these figures and vehicles in homage to those events in Malaga. The saloon car and most of the figures are from 1st Corps, the Phenom Granit ambulance is from Empress Miniatures and the poor fellow with the crutches is from Eureka Miniatures. 

My only criticism of the 1st Corps range is that there are not many elderly people, nor any children, in the mix. It's very sad, but it is something that I think should be represented in figures depicting a refugee column. Maybe they will add some in future releases.

Small quibbles aside, I quite like the 1st Corps figures as they are well-sculpted and very characterful. Even more so is this wounded chap on crutches from Empress Miniatures - a brilliant mini.  

The two vehicles were fun to work on, especially the saloon, with its roof haphazardly overloaded with all manner of assorted household items. You really get a sense of a harried family that just threw what they could atop their car and headed off.

I had to get a bit creative in sourcing something for Dr. Bethune. I ended up using a German officer figure from Artizan which I cut away most of his military detail and modeled some baggy civilian trousers out of greenstuff. Granted, a bit crude, but I think he does an okay job at mimicking the good doctor.

Another 'one yard squint' is the ambulance. It's definitely not a close match to Bethune's vehicle, but has the benefit of being generally the right shape. 

I really wanted to include the identifying Spanish script on the vehicle's side panel, but my decal-making skills are sorely lacking, so I simply colour printed  what I needed, carefully cut it out, and glued it into place. Again, forgive me in my somewhat clumsy homage. 

As to points, the 14 figures will give me 70 points, and the two vehicles another 40, so 110 total.

This will give me another point for our Squirrel Duel (my fourth).

This will also allow me to mark off the letter 'B' for 'Bethune' in my Alphabet Soup Challenge.

Aaand, it will check off another task for my overall Challenge project list! Four out of twelve... Yeeash, this is going to be a slog.

1. French Indochina
2. 10mm Fantasy
3. Moonstone
4. Malta
5. Italian Wars
6. Sisters of Battle
7. 28mm Napoleonics
8. Spanish Civil War
9. 28mm Modern
10. 20mm WWII
11. Retreat from Moscow
12. Dungeon Crawl

Thanks for dropping in and have a great week everyone!

- Curt

Excellent work on thee refuges amigo.    A part of every war but definitely  must for SCW.  I always enjoy a history lesson and appreciated the Bethune connection.  I especially like the battered private car loaded down with possessions. 

I believe that Bad Squiddo has some Blitz era child evacuees which might fill one gap you noted above.   

At the rate you're going you'll have hunted down more squirrels that Oscar this challenge.

From BenitoM: Gallery of Ancestors - Spanish Republican Fighter 1936-39 (25 points)

This is a somewhat emotional post, as it links directly with a personal situation but also the not so far away history of Spain. First, I must confess that I envy the tales that many of you have posted about your ancestors, fighting a war to liberate Europe from the yoke fascism: British, Americans, Canadians, Australians... voluntary or conscripted, at least they fought for the good cause, the good fight

Unfortunately I can't  tell the same tale. This is the story of my grandfather (abuelo) Paco or at least the little I know about him. Abuelo Paco was born in Peñarroya, a small village near Cordoba and worked in the mine that supplied coal to the local power plant.

In July 1936 a military uprising led by a group of army generals resulted in a 3 year bloody civil war. What I know is that abuelo Paco joined the loyalist army of the Republic, but voluntary or conscripted, it's a mystery to me. 

My grad mum, my father (then 6 years old) and my then two very young aunts (babies actually) left the village in haste and arrived after several weeks (or months?) to Valencia, the seat of the Republican government after leaving Madrid and many-many hundreds miles away from my father's birthplace... undoubtedly a terrifying experience.

Next thing I know, all the family is reunited in Valencia, where my two surviving aunts still live. Abuelo Paco started working in a local shipbuilding company where my father (a boy 10-11 years old) also worked. However around 1945, abuelo Paco died from silicosis, a frequent illness among miners and my father still a teenager had to become the earner for the family.

Where did he fight? In which units? How (or if!) he was able to avoid the detention camp that demobilized Republican army soldiers had to go for "re-education"? We have no idea. No papers from my grandfather were found when my grandmother died. And she never wanted to speak about the war... the pact of oblivion... I don't even have a photograph of him to show here.

This model presented is therefore an idealistic representation of my ancestor. A fighter for the doomed Spanish Republic, abandoned by the Western democracies, abused by the Soviets and against all the power of the professional African army supported by the fascist European powers.... and going through the ordeal of a dictatorship until the mid 70s because of Cold War international geopolitics convenience.

The model is from Empress superb Republican army range, expensive but worth every penny given the outstanding suclpting and poses.This from an unfinished project of 8 yeas ago, when we played a long and intense campaign with Chain of Comand SCW rules variant. I bought several blisters of Republican and Nationalists, but never completed the project as my gaming group shift thie sights into other period.

This post therefore adds 25 point to my Challenge scoring: 5 points for the 28mm model + 20 bonus points

Thursday From MartinN: T-26 28 points

When Rubicon released their plastic T-26 late last year I kew I had to get me one of these iconic tanks. As with others of their kits I was rather impressed by both the quality and detail these guys have managed to put into this kit. Once I had chosen which of the ten possible variants I wanted to make the assembly was straightforward. It also came as a pleasant surprise that there were more than enough parts to build another turret to go with the tank.

The soviet made T-26 tank is based on the British Vickers 6-Ton tank. With 23 different versions in serial production it was to become the mainstay of the soviet army with about 11.000 of all marks produced till 1941. It saw service not only in the Red Army but also in the Wehrmacht, the Finnish Army, with Romania, Bulgaria, Afghanistan and in the Spanish Civil War.

During the Spanish Civil War it was the most numerous tank in the theatre as well as the best one, easily outclassing the outdated Spanish tanks of WW1 origin as well as the German Panzer I's and the Italian CV33 or L3/33 tankette. 281 T-26's M36 were supplied by the Soviet Union to the Spanish Republic. It was captured in large numbers by the Rebels and was highly regarded by their new owners. In fact a not inconsiderable prize money was to be paid to each soldier (or group of soldiers) who managed to capture one of these vehicles intact. Especially the Moroccan Regulares seemed to be quite adept in this game.

The second turret I built was the M38RT conical version with horseshoe antenna. The two headlights above the main gun give it a quite sinister appearance in my opinion. Should I come round to build me an early Soviet Force for Operation Barbarossa this beauty will come in handy no doubt.

Radio equipment was quite scarce in the red army and thus only the tanks of platoon commanders if any at all were equipped with radios. Communication within the platoon was through hand or flag signals. Arguably not the most effective way of communication especially once the bullets started flying. Thus any tanks captured by the Germans were to be refitted with radio equipment before they were sent to their new formations.

The T-26 was almost obsolete as early as the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Still it soldiered on and even in 1944 some units of the Leningrad front were still equipped with T26's. The last recorded combat action it saw as late as August 1945 during the fighting against the Japanese in Manchuria.

My only gripe with this kit would be the M36 turret missing the rear turret hatch which afaik all Spanish models featured. Still as mentioned above it's an awesome kit and well worth the money. At the moment I'm thinking about getting me another one... or two.

Despite the kit coming with a big sheet of decals, also containing some suitable for the SCW, the Rebel insignia on the M33 turret were painted by hand and honestly I'm quite chuffed how they turned out. So 20 points for the tank and maybe another five for the additional turret?

As this is my last submission before the "free for all" week I want to thank Iain for having been an excellent minion. I haven't managed to submit that much, but still I'm proud to have been part of Team Thursday.

Awesome T26, it's one of my favourite tanks of the interwar period,it's not a tankette, it's a proper tank! I've got a Rubicon T34/85 to build ,to be honest I've been put off by all the bits! You've done a fantastic job on this Soviet/ Nationalist tank , so 20 for the tank, 5 for the turret and 3 for the handpainted insignia, 28 points, you might not have submitted much but it has all been of excellent standard!

All the best Iain 

From MartinN: Spanish Civil War Milicianas & Milicianos (95 points)

It's almost been a month since my last entry, which is a shame as I had the miniatures for this submission sitting almost finished on my desk, for the best part of two weeks.

Real life got in the way and thus I only came round to take pictures this week.

But to make up for my inexcusable lack of activity today's submission, at least partially, consists of my contribution to the most important and illustrious part of the challenge aka "Sarah's Choice".

These eight pugnacious ladies are, of course, from the excellent Spanish Civi War range by Empress Miniatures. You'll find quite a few iterations of these figures on this very blog, thus I thought it high time to have a crack at them myself.

In 1936 many young (and some more elderly) women decided to take up arms in order to defend the Republic against the fascist rebellion led by General Franco. These courageous women joined the ranks of the various militia units and fought and died alongside their male comrades.

After the shock of the initial months of the war wore off, many of these women found themselves transferred to rear echelon units. Some, no doubt male, members of the republican leadership obviously deeming it unsuitable for women to fight. Of course most of the milicianas strongly detested this recall from front-line service, which they saw as a step back from the gains in, to use a more modern term here, gender equality.

Nonetheless women still played a vital part in the republican propaganda.

First I wanted to go down the route of reason and paint up my milicianas as part of a communist militia unit like the UHP in order to field them alongside my International Brigades.

But it only took a little mulling over the matter to decide it would be much more 'flashy' to let them sport the red/ black colours of the Anarchists. And looking at the standard bearer below I'm sure you'll agree it was the right decision. After all, who's to stop me from painting up a whole anarchist militia force to support these fine ladies? The standard, of course, was provided by the excellent Flags of War.

While speaking of strong women in the Spanish Civil War we may not forget German born photographer Gerda Taro. She was probably the first female 'embedded' war photographer and certainly the first to die in that capacity. Sadly today she's mostly forgotten and if remembered at all than mostly for her being the partner of Robert Capa. 

The figure below clearly is inspired by one of her more famous photographs, even if some detail was changed unfortunately. I would have preferred for the sculpt to be as close to the original as possible.  I imagine her to be the daughter of some wealthy aristocrat who ran away to fight for her youthful ideals.

Regrettably the female miniatures in this post are all that are available through Empress. To flash out the ranks a little further I'm currently thinking about getting me some of the "Women of the Home Front" by Bad Squiddo Games. When painted accordingly they should fit in rather well I hope.

Now back to the more mundane things in wargaming, i.e. male miniatures.

First off are three minor conversions I did using miniatures from other ranges. I'm not sure from whom the first one is but he's been a journalist or the like until kitted out with rifle and helmet. The second one was a WW1 British officer from Great War Miniatures. Last in the row is a former banker by Footsore Miniatures. He seems to had a major rethink about his former trade so decided to join the ranks of the Republic... or is he maybe the father of the young lady above?

Both miniatures were simple head swaps to make them fit the setting.

The banker will travel to Canada in the forseeable future as my nod towards Curt for taking up the SCW challenge this year again, albeit failing miserably it seems ;-)

Seven more milicianos than form the rest of my submission for this week. First time I tried to paint cord fabric and frankly I quite like the look of it. Gives the miniatures a distinctive 1930's look I think.

This submission sees me finishing a playable force for the SCW supplement for Chain of Command, which has recently become our rule set of choice for anything 20th century.

A final group shot of all the miniatures together 

So, that's 18 miniatures in 28mm, which should equate to 90 points.

I conclude this rather lengthy post with a band I only recently stumbled upon. For some reason they've managed to evade my attention but now, on my never ending search for "more noise" (tm), they've secured themselves a secure place in my personal hit list. Maybe something for you again Millsy?

Interpret: Brennstoff

Song: Mein Freund











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A truly fantastic submission, Nick. Everything about this submission is exemplary, from the wonderful, lustrous colour of the paint, to the careful and subtle conversions, to the utility of the figures and the deep, rich knowledge and love of the history behind these remarkable people.

I love the way you’ve not just painted the figures, but painted them in the clothing they may have worn in 1936 – from the polka-dot dress, to the pin striped trousers, from the blue boiler suits to the re-purposed helmet on the war-weary journalist. Terrific work, and remarkable to have a former banker now turned anarchist – especially one still wearing his Windsor-knotted tie!!

These figures would be worthy of a place on any table, from Zaragoza to Granada, and from Valencia to Oviedo. Lovely, just lovely.

90 points, with an extra 5 for the conversions and the history, brings you to 95 points, each one woven with great skill around this fine entry. 

From TeemuL: Spanish Civil and Age of Sigmar (69 points)

This week saws all kinds of stuff from me. Firstly I painted three Nurgling Bases from the Blightwar box to get some more "troopers" for my Mixed Chaos army for our Firestorm campaign. I decided to use quite bright colors, Moot Green, Biel-Tan Green wash and some yellow and blue drybrushing for the skin. They are not masterpieces, but better than I expected from them.

Then the last four unpainted Spanish Civil War Republican Militia members I have. I bought a pack last year from Empress Miniatures for the Curtgeld purposes and this year I finally managed paint the last of them. I gave all these blue trousers as well, just to keep an unified look on different sculpts. Limited palette helps with that of course, there is actually dirty white and dirty yellow on clothes, but they are not that visible in the photos. I gave them a plain red flag (with my extraordinary green stuff skills), which would allow them to fight in pretty much any force. Now I only need the opposing force, some rules and an opponent... The first two are probably the easiest. :) I could use those Crooked Dice Nazi Lizards against them, but they all have fancy sub-machine guns, so it is probably an overkill. :)

My whole Republican Militia force, 13 models

The stretch goal for this week was this Bloodstoker, which I just managed to finish. I just need add some tufts to the base, which I forgot. This fellow comes from the Age of Sigmar starter set and uses his whip to make the Khorne fighters to run even faster in to the battle. The blade on the right arm is actually stuck into his arm stump, he is not holding it with his fingers or anything. Looks quite brutal with the barbed whip.

Torn pants

Scoring wise the 4 Spanish guys are worth 5 points a piece, so 20 points.

Curt scored the Nurglings earlier in this Challenge with this formula: "...round out the Nurglings on the mass bases as 15mm figures", what that means, I have no idea. I feel sorry for you, my minion.

Bloodstoker is the same size as some other Khorne models I painted last year, which were counted as 40mms, so 7 points.

That gives me a total of 27 and some points.

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Oh I do like a scoring challenge!  Fortunately Curt has already led the way with the Nurglings so using his method I'm plumping for 42 points for the little chaps giving you a grand tally of 69 for the entry, well done Teemu!