According to the UK Government's COVID 'road map', we can get back to outdoor wargaming from the end of this month. With this hope in mind I'm planning a Spanish Civil War game and after a review of the available forces I decided to recruit a small unit of Assault Guards - the paramilitary police force which largely sided with the Republican government.
Rather than do anything rash like spending money on expensive but possibly accurate figures, I decided to bodge some from old figures I already had in stock. The key characteristics of the uniform I wanted to replicate were trousers with no puttees or gaiters and the 'Gorillo' or 'cheesecutter' side cap. Or a round-topped peaked cap.
A rummage through a big box of plastic tat yielded Airfix Afrika Korps and Mountain troops who had the correct trouserage. Some knife work carved the caps into more or less the right shape and removed most of the webbing, water bottles, gas mask canisters etc. Blanket/greatcoat rolls and satchels were added to some figures using Milliput. The machine gunner is an old hollowcast metal figure wearing a peaked cap. The uniforms were painted in dark blue and white piping added to the caps using a paint pen. As usual, a finishing coat of Ronseal satin light oak varnish was applied.
18 comments:
Nice to see you've been keeping your talents gainfully employed during the lockdown!
Arriba!!
Those are very nice Tim- rather impressed with the stripes done with a paint pen- which brand did you use?
Cheers,
Pete.
Excellent carving and painting skills Tim! They look quite the part!
Brian Carrick
In these troubled times it’s important not to lose sight of the good things in life!
Simon
Thanks. And now with my pedant’s hat on: Arriba was the Falangist newspaper - I can’t see any of these chaps reading it!
Pete
Paint pens are the lazy wargamer’s friends. Mine are Posca - available in a good range of colours.
Brad DeSantis
Thanks! And as a bonus, no figures were trashed during the process.
Muy Bueno!
Great, I shall look forward to pushing these around in person.
tradgardmastare
Gracias camarada.
Martin Rapier
I'm sure that strong leadership is what these chaps need.
"Rather than do anything rash like spending money on expensive but possibly accurate figures..."
That line nearly sent my coffee through my nose.
John Y
Nice image! I can’t think why you were surprised - you’ve been hanging around here for long enough.
Nice work there on the Conversions TIM- they'l look super in the great outdoors- good luck with the end of Month Outdoor Wargame - just the thing for Spring. We're in Autumn here with heavy rain, floods and evacuations...we're OK where we are SW of Sydney...it has been raining seven days straight. Best Wishes. KEV.
What are you using for vehicles, etc. I do this in 1/300 - bit smaller, but love the large toys. Have found some old Airfix etc I might try converting.
John Koziol
Kev Robertson
Not quite warm enough for outdoor gaming as yet - but hopefully a couple of weeks will make all the difference.
Unknown
With 1/32 figures I use vehicles in scales from 1/50 to 1/35 and aircraft in 1/72. Sounds wrong but looks right. Have a look at the posts on this SCW game here: http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2018/09/news-from-spain-part-1.html
Post a Comment