¡Viva El Lardistas!

I had hoped to get some painting done today but I have somehow only managed to spend an unproductive day in front of the TV catching up on Longmire with Saul! :-)

I did have a bit of a brainwave part way through one episode, recalling I had the Too Fat Lardies Through the Mud & Blood inter-war PDF supplement Triumphant Standards. Unfortunately this doesn't include any Spanish Civil War material but does have some very useful stuff on the German Civil War which will be useful when I find that bag of Scheltrum miniatures I bought a few Salute back!

However, the Lardies are a good bunch and they have released online articles and army lists covering the Spanish Civil War for Chain of Command which is full of really useful histories and unit TO&E's.

The downloadable lists available are:

Milicias obreras (Workers Militias)
Milicias del 5º Regimiento

Asaltos, Carabineros and Guardia Civil (Security Services)

Milicias de Falange

Requetés

Morroccan Regulares

Tercio de la Legión (Spanish Foreign Legion)

Peninsular Army Infantry
Peninsular Cavalry
Ejército Popular de la República (Popular Army)
Nationalist Army
Corpo Truppe Volontarie
Raggruppamento Repartí Specializzati

Great stuff, I can feel the ooh shiny butterfly might spread his wings soon!

¡No Pasarán!?

I've taken a break from reading an Army at Dawn and currently have my head stuck in George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, an autobiography of his time fighting with one of the republican militias in the Spanish Civil War. A hugely enjoyable work and very well written, it has got the old noggin pondering Spanish Civil War wargaming...

Empress Miniatures Republican Assault Guards (photo Empress Miniatures)

I do have a desire to undertake some inter-war project and I have started a German Civil War one (started as in added some white metal to "Lead Mountain" started) but the struggles and bravery of the militias fighting against the fascists in the early period of the Spanish war is tugging at me and I am considering a small section level project like the Blitzkrieg one. Those Empress figures certainly look tempting...

1920 And All That...

Well I've now watched Battle of Warsaw and can confirm with some relief that it does not feature a Leopard 1A4 in it! What it does have - and to any wargamer this is so freaking cool - FT17's in action!

The film, Bitwa Warszawska 1920 (Battle of Warsaw 1920), to give it it's proper name, may not be the greatest work of cinema ever from a character development point of view and some of the acting is a bit suspect, but as war films go it is pretty damn good. The battle scenes are consistently well done, the attention to detail is fantastic, and the scale is immense. The Red cavalry army looks like an army, hundreds of infantry advance in waves not a dozen, antiquated armoured cars roll across the countryside it is all very, very impressive. There are also some wonderful modelling ideas, Soviet cavalry trombone band anyone?

It would have been easy for the film to be overly nationalistic but it is not. Polish troops run from the enemy, some are portrayed as self-serving bullies, the problems with troops fighting side by side when two years previous they fought in the Austrian, German and Russian armies is shown.

Overall, hugely enjoyable and anyone who likes or good war film along the lines of A Bridge Too Far or The Longest Day or has an interest in twentieth century warfare should pop over to Amazon right now and buy a copy. It'll be the best £3.39 you'll ever spend! Did I mention it has FT-17's in action?

Generic Inter-War Tankette

A few months back I picked up a generic 28mm resin tankette of eBay for no other reason than it was cute looking and very cheap (IIRC about £3). Since then it has been sat on the workbench as I did not have a clue what I was going to use it for. I still don't, but somehow inspired by the Orinoco Miniatures Chaco War range of infantry I decided a generic tankette warranted a generic paintjob...

As you can see it has painted up well and for the price is an absolute bargain (even if it is not historically anything). The Rif miniature is to give some idea of scale...

The tankette brings up the century of painted models this year, 10% of the painting target, however any celebrations are on hold as we are now 15% of the way into 2014 so I need to up my game (and dig out the dip!)

2014 Painting Target: 100/1000

Chaco This Out...La Guerra de la Sed Updated!

A little while back I was looking into the possibilities of playing some AirWar: 1918 games during the Chaco War. Whilst a few models could be found there were some big gaps. Enter Mike Pennock at Arctic Skunk to fill those gaps via Shapeways!

Here is an update on model availability...

Cuerpo de Aviación Boliviano (Bolivian Air Force):

Breguet 19: is now available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Curtiss Falcon: will soon be available in 1/144th from Arctic Skunk.

Curtiss Hawk: is available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Curtiss Osprey: is also available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Vickers Type 143 Scout: is now available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Vickers Type 149 Vespa III: is now available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Fuerza Aereas del Ejercito Nacional Paraguayo (Paraguayan Air Force):

Fiat C.R.20 bis: available from Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Potez 25: also available from Artic Skunk (Shapeways) in 1/144th.

Wibault 73: is now available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Mike is also planning a Junkers K43/W34 which was also used as a bomber in the war so I think my joy is pretty much complete. I just need to plan out an order for the new planes and set aside some time to paint them.

More Planes from Shapeways...

A nice big box turned up today from Shapeways containing some more planes. They are terribly addictive! :-)

I picked up some more Der Kampfflieger WWI planes in the form of an Albatros C.III, Aviatik DI Berg, Phonix DI and a Sopwith Baby. The Albatros will be painted up as an Ottoman Air Force plane, the Aviatik and Phonix will see service as Austro-Hungarian planes. The Baby was bought for no other reason than I like the design.

I have also started a small Chaco War collection using designs from Arctic Skunk, picking up a Curtiss Hawk, Curtiss Ospry, Fiat CR.20 and Potez 25. These models show a slightly different approach from Der Kampfflieger coming with pilots and observers/rear gunners moulded in. I was really surprised that the machine guns are cast and don't need adding.

Right, back to the Eastern Front...

(Plane Month) La Guerra de la Sed

Suffering that debilitating male disease known as a runny nose (aka the sniffles) I have bravely been sat in front of the television and laptop today rather than finishing off my half painted Blackburn Kangaroo. However all is not lost as I have been investigating the possibility of undertaking a small AirWar: 1918 project - the Chaco War 1932-35.

The Chaco War was the bloodiest military conflict in South America during the 20th century fought between two of South America's poorest countries Bolivia and Paraguay. The war was for control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region (known as Chaco Boreal), which was thought to be rich in oil (which it didn't). It is also referred to as La Guerra de la Sed ("The War of the Thirst") for being fought in the semi-arid Chaco.

Whilst air combat was not as commonplace as in WWI, the Chaco War did see dogfights and there is an interesting mix of interwar designs in action. The only issue is how practical an idea is it and what models are available? I have been looking at 1/144th as my preferred scale given that is what I am using for WWI and WWII.

Cuerpo de Aviación Boliviano (Bolivian Air Force):

Breguet 19: despite 2700 of these being made during the Inter-war period, no one produces a model in 1/144th. That said it did not do a lot in the Gran Chaco War.

Curtiss Falcon: also appears to be unavailable in 1/144th,

Curtiss Hawk: is available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Curtiss Osprey: is also available via Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Vickers Type 143 Scout: sadly not available though I suspect there might be something out there that could be converted to act as a Scout (maybe a Bulldog?)

Vickers Type 149 Vespa III: also not available.

Fuerza Aereas del Ejercito Nacional Paraguayo (Paraguayan Air Force):

Fiat C.R.20 bis: available from Artic Skunk (Shapeways).

Potez 25: also available from Artic Skunk (Shapeways) in 1/144th.

Wibault 73: unsurprisingly not available.

Initial air battles featured the Scouts, Vespas and Wilbauts before being replaced by the Curtiss models and Fiats. The Potezs' served throughout the war. There were other aircraft in both air forces but do not appear to have taken part in air operations.

Looking at the models available it would appear that the later air operations are the more gameable with two of the Curtiss and the Fiat and Potez available in miniature. However one should not give up hope given the proliferation of 3D print designers making all sorts of weird and wonderful aircraft and Gran Chaco is certainly interesting enough that hopefully one day someone will take a punt at producing the missing aircraft.