Republican Asalto Company

 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.