Early War SCW Aircraft Extras

I wasn't really intending to add any early war aircraft to the Spanish Civil War Bag the Hun project, but I have given in and ordered a few that can be used for both the Nationalists and Republicans. These include some Nieuport Delage NiD 52 fighters, some Bregiet XIX light bombers and a handful of Dewoitine D.371 fighters. I also have some assorted models that can be used in my spares box, so they might be added to the mix if I need some bombers, reconnaissance or transport aircraft. In the meantime, I'm still working on the later war Republican stuff, most of which is Soviet supplied.

Spanish Civil War Plane Painting

I was going to try and mix and match some paint shades for the Spanish Civil War Republican aircraft models but found this set of base paints to experiment with instead. I've used AK paints before and found them a little thin, so you need more than one coat for effective coverage, but it will save me some time trying to work out alternatives. They should arrive fairly soon and I'm going to get started when the postie drops them off.

Spanish Civil War Republican Air Force

The 1/600th scale models for the Spanish Republican air force have now been assessed and just need magnet basing. This is the line up based on mid to late war:

12 x I-16 Mosca

9 x I-15 Chatos

6 x I-15bis Super Chato

9 x SB-2 Katyushka

3 x MB 200

1 x Polikarpov R-5 Natasha

On to the painting!

Spanish Civil War Republican Air Force Progress

A long afternoon spent at the workbench and I'm nearly finished with assembling the 1/600th scale aircraft for the Bag the Hun Spanish Republican air force. I got sidetracked into converting a Mitsubishi torpedo bomber into an R-5 Natasha, but apart from that I've stuck to the plan. I have six I-152 Super Chato fighters to glue together, then I will be ready to add the magnets and start painting things. 

Republican Fighters and Bombers

A bit of a frustrating day for various reasons but I have made a good start on assembling some 1/600th scale fighters and bombers for the Republicans. I have some more to do but at least count I have twelve I-16 Moscas, six I-15 Chatos and three Bloch MB.200 bombers, the last being all I had in the box but soon to be joined by six more. I'm focussing on 1938-39, so haven't included any of the earlier aircraft just yet. 

Air War Over Spain

I used to have a tatty hard back copy of this book but it literally fell apart after the loft leaked and it got soaked. I've now found a new copy in much better condition and I'm hoping that it will give me some really good material for a set of scenarios, as well as a better grip on the course of the war in the air. The research for scenario projects is something I really enjoy and I'm looking forward to getting started in a couple of weeks when I have done holiday reading time.

Bag the Hun Spanish Civil War Scenario Project

I've been looking for a focus for a Bag the Hun Lard Magazine article for 2026 for a while. Although I do have an existing theme under research, the Arctic Eagles project, its not really ready for development into a full article. As a result, I've been trying to pin down a more manageable alternative. I've decided that this is going to be the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that hasn't been covered in any depth before fir Bag the Hun, apart from some aircraft data tables in one of the old Specials. 

A key factor in this is that I already have the 1/600th scale Tumbling Dice models that I need and some decals from Flightdeck, so any expense will be minimal. I also really love the interwar aircraft involved, especially the Soviet fighters like the Rata and Chato, for example. I'm going to do some preliminary reading and research then plan to get painting as soon as I know what's needed. Tally Ho!

Spanish Civil War Bag the Hun Wargaming

Two new titles from Helion Publishing for my birthday at the weekend, both focussed on the Spanish Civil War, a long time interest of mine but something I haven't yet tried to do. The initial interest is in the potential for a Bag the Hun scenario project, once again focussed on the interwar / early war era. I do like the idea of some linked scenarios focussing on the Republican Air Force, both before and after it was re-equipped with Soviet fighters and bombers. Excellente!

The Spanish Civil War at Sea

I grabbed this today at 80% off the cover price in the Helion Publishing Summer Sale. I've thought about it as a naval project in 1/3000th scale and even filled out a Navwar order from for the required warships, but then Navwar went out of business and I shelves the planned project. Navwar are now back up and running, so this is now a feasible project for next year, making another book for the library a worthwhile use of my pocket money. Excellent!

Spanish Civil War with Find, Fix and Strike

 

This is something I've thought about for quite a few years, as an obvious extension of my early war French and Italian naval projects, but an after-action report on the Naval Wargames (Historical) FB group yesterday really caught my attention. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/171377469665350/permalink/2703018393167899/

This was a scenario played out using Find, Fix and Strike, my preferred set of rules, and Navwar 1/3000th scale ships, so exactly the sort of thing I like to do. I'm away at the moment, in Barcelona of all places, but will be ordering the Republican and Nationalist fleets when I get back. This is a relatively small outlay with lots of destroyers, a handful of cruisers and a couple of battleships, so cheap, quick to paint and easy to use for small scale 'skirmish' level scenarios. Excellent! 

lt Rolls for Ivan

 

I've been following the play testing of these Russian Civil War rules over on Graham Evan's blog and they are now in the proofreading stage, so should be available relatively soon. When I got back into wargaming about twenty years ago, the Russian Civil War in 15mm was my first interest and I even painted up a unit of Bolshevik infantry and a Peter Pig armoured train but as is so often the case I then drifted off to other things when no one at my club was interested, as you inevitably do. 

I have a big stash of Peter Pig figures, guns and vehicles in the lead pile, however, so this new set of rules may just see them dusted off. although 10mm might be a more realistic option given the large number of cavalry that are probably a given. It's a great subject for wargaming either way, so I'm keen to get my hands on the rules when they're published, but I'm still focussed on an SCW project first using For Whom the Dice Rolls!

Bath Tubs and Clanky Tanks

Thanks to a tip off from Graham and Neil, I have now ordered a couple of 15mm models from Syborg 3D Printing for the SCW project, both of which are fairly unusual and of limited use but are good additions nonetheless. The first is a Constructora Field improvised armoured car that I can use with my anarchist unit as an optional extra, as an alternative to the more expensive Peter Pig model and alongside some home made, scratch built improvised armoured trucks. 

The second is a favourite WW1 tank that I also have in 28mm for my Back of Beyond Bolshevik army, a Schneider CA1, a very small number of which were used by the Republicans at the start of the war in Madrid. I haven't found a cheap 15mm version of one before, so I'm chuffed to add one to the line up, even if it's a 3D printed model which I'm not keen on. I'll use this one as ad hoc armoured support for the anarchists again, if only so I can paint it up with lots of slogans and perhaps a flag?

Tiznao or Never

 

I've been trying to find some 15mm and/or 1/100 scale models of improvised armoured vehicles for my For Whom The Dice Rolls Spanish Civil War project but without much luck. There used to be some available from, both Stronghold Miniatures and QRF but both of these options are no longer available. Peter Pig have a handful of various armoured cars and trucks but they are resin and have thick cast on bases, which I'd have to remove to make them look half decent, while they're also not cheap at about a fiver a pop, not including postage. 

I think the only option will be to do some scratch building with plastic card, lego blocks and other bits and bobs, to create some generic armoured 'tiznao' for my Anarchist militia. I don't think it would be too difficult but they might not be exactly like the actual vehicles, although I suspect only the purists and rivet counters would notice? I have found this site, which includes several larger scale card models to download, some of which might re-scale to 1/100 with a bit of work, with another possibility being to use them as templates for my own plastic card construction efforts:

Landships II

More Minairons Motors

I was so pleased with the Minairons Bilbao armoured cars that I ordered a Hispano Suiza MC-36 from the same trader, although it cost me quite a bit. This is a lovely model too, smoothly cast in resin with no bubbles or seams at all, plus an excellent sheet of decals. There were only a handful of these and I'll be using mine for the Nationalists, possibly with a T-26 turret. Very nice. 

Republican Holiday Reading

 

I have some holiday coming up at the end of next week, so have downloaded a couple of books on the Republican army of the Spanish Civil War, both of which are focussed on the military organisation, equipment and training (or otherwise) of the armed forces of the government. I'm particularly keen to read Fighting for Spain having added an International Brigade centuria to my Republican forces. I have read quite a few books, aside from the usual Osprey titles, on the International Brigades but this one is clearly more wargame friendly than some others, which tend to focus more on the political angle rather than the military.

Peter Pig Price Rise

 

Along with everything else, the price of wargames figures is going up, which is not the manufacturers fault but inevitable due to overheads, costs and probably Brexit too. I remembered last night that Peter Pig were raising their basic pack price from £3.75 to £4.10, so quickly sent off an order for two Tabors worth of Moorish infantry for my SCW project. That will have to be it for the moment, as I have enough lead to equip both the Republicans and Nationalists, so can't really justify or afford any more. I wonder where this will all end? 

Minairons Bilbao A/C

I  found a trader on eBay who had a box of the 1/100th scale Bilbao armoured cars in stock, so I will shortly have four of them to add to my Republican and Nationalist forces. At least one will go to my Assaltos as that's what they were designed for, with the others split between my regular Republicans and Nationalists, who often used captured examples. I may use the last one as a militia armoured car or as support for the International Brigade centuria. Not cheap but also much less expensive than ordering direct from Spain. 

QRF Panzer 1 Ausf B

 

The three Panzer 1 Ausf B arrived from QRF today and they are lovely models, with crisp details and very little flash. I've put one together next to a Peter Pig T-26 and random Falangist, to compare them for scale purposes, and I think they it looks spot on. Very good value for £2.50 each plus postage and they arrived in super quick order as well. They will look great painted up in Nationalist camouflage patterns, like the Spanish Foreign Legion example above, or just in plain tank grey.

Nationalist Armour

I have a spare 15mm Peter Pig T-26 that I can gift to the Nationalists but I wanted to get hold of some more light armour to deploy in games. I've been looking for an affordable Panzer 1a but they have been difficult to locate for less than £6.50 (metal), £5.00 (resin) or too expensive due to the cost of postage and tax from the EU (Minairons). As a second best, I have found a QRF Panzer 1b for only £2.50 a pop, which is far less expensive and also suitable for the Spanish Civil War, although they were less common than the shorter hull Panzer 1a. I'm pretty sure that no one will notice the difference anyway?

Topping Up

 

Peter Pig are having a price rise at the start of next month, putting the basic cost of a pack up to an eyewatering £4.10, so I decided to get in first and order some top up figures for my Nationalist army including some HMG's and infantry that I am a a pack or two short of. I was also intending to get some Carlists for the Nationalists but instead I ordered enough figures in berets and pasamontanas for an International Brigade battalion, mainly due to the fact that I really don't like fascists. With the ever increasing costs of metal figures this is probably the last order I'm going to put in for the For Whom The Dice Rolls project, although I may well be able to pick up some stuff second hand if I'm lucky.