Bank Holiday Update: More Carlists

Quick bank holiday afternoon with a few more Spanish Civil War Carlist Requetes. Just three this time, leaving ten or so still to be painted. 

Once again, I enjoyed coming up with bedroll patterns to liven them up (humm, as if they need more livening with those jolly berets!). But they take ages, so the next batch may well all end up plain to speed things up a bit! 

I'm off to Partizan in Newark on Sunday. No particular shopping list, perhaps some supplies and a pass at the Empress stand. I seem to be feeling a bit uninspired hobby-wise except for these SCW, maybe a decent show will perk up my creativeness.  

'Viva, Cristo, Rey!': Carlist Requetes

The workbench reveals it's summer goodies at last: a group of Carlist Requetes for the Spanish Civil War. The Requetes were a motivated, well-equipped Traditionalist militia that fought for the Nationalist cause. The centre of their strength was the region of Navarre. They were distinctive for their dashing great red berets - bravery and faith were order of the day over camouflage!

I wanted my Requetes to look like a better equipped force than usual, so they're more uniform than my Carabineros, I sprinkled in some helmeted heads but kept some variety for the ragtag look. I read *somewhere* that early in the conflict helmets were rushed to frontline units unpainted, later being were painted in the field. I can't find the reference now, but I liked this idea - it almost gives a medieval look. For later batches, I'll probably do them a typical colour. The miniatures are all from the peerless Empress SCW range, a couple having head swaps and one or two being from a Foreign Legion pack - I needed 24 Requetes and preferred not to triple up on either of the riflemen packs. The webbing is slightly different but it isn't noticeable and adds to the ragtag look. 

I'm delighted with how this force is coming together. But gosh it's slow, partly because of summer distractions but also as they take a long time. Despite efforts to speed up my technique by minimising the use of washes, the high contrast style uses a lot of highlights as I shy away from big jumps in highlights. That, the numerous colours and patterned blanket rolls on top! 

Getting more adventurous with my patterns

I've been reading Antony Beevor's Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. I'm only a few chapters in, but it seems exceptionally well written and very readable, so far presenting clearly and succinctly what is often a confusing conflict.  

Chain of Command: First Carlist Requetes

Humm, April. April was meant to have me bursting through the Spanish Civil War project to get some games of chain of Command at Wvvern: most of the club have their forces painted. That meant blitzing a section of Carlist Requetes and then onto some support choices. Then for May I'd be free to focus on some odds and ends for the Sudan to put on a game at the Club's Lardy day, "Operation Market Larden 3: A Bridge too Lard".

I suspect it will surprise few of you to learn that those timescales are slipping, but I do have some small progress to report. Frustratingly, I haven't been able to source a colour that I'm happy with for the Carlists' beige shirts (vallejo recommendations warmly welcomed). I would have used the old GW favourite Khemri Brown as a base, but as it's discontinued and a fairly key colour for the Sudan project, I'm rationing it to essential uses only. 

Still, a couple of the Empress Carlists aren't wearing shirts, like this chap in a natty jacket. 

I settled on grey, which is so 1936, using the gent on the right as inspiration:



I'm also led to understand that the Requetes wore colourful civilian blanket rolls over their shoulders. Further damage to my hopes of a quick job, so I went the whole hog with this stripey number. 

I've also decided to put more effort into my unit markings - something I rarely bother with. But this has turned into a bit of a showcase project for me and as I'm trying to develop my painting, it feels like these touches are worth it. On the downside, they add more free handing (I need to practice, these took a fair while) to each mini. So this Sargento has his green chevron on his sleeves, which is appropriate according to Balagan. I won't fully mark them up, it'll depend the sculpts and me being able to decipher source material on how they should look.

Next up was this chap in a more traditional uniform. So a bit of googling around to figure out what colour I'm after for the  Nationalist uniform: 'greenish tinged khaki', apparently, but I this seems to manifest in many shade in people's collections. Spain-based Miniarons kindly offer the painting guide from the back of their sets on their website gave a vallejo shade: 70.822 US Uniform.



Duly used, but even used as e highlight, it appears to be rather less 'greenish tinged khaki' and more...green. It looks a bit brighter in real life too. Hummmm.

I like it, but it doesn't seem right (or is it?!) for when I move onto the Nationalist infantry on the prep table. Once again, thoughts of those more steeped in SCW and with better reference material would be very helpful.

On the rank markings, may be able to see his two stars (ahem blobs) on his sleeves and 'galetta' on his left breast, ranking him as a 'Teniete'. And what else should a Teniete be doing but scrutinising the lay of the land?

All in all, pretty chuffed with how these two Empress sculpts have come out. But that's just two of 24 done and I've still not got a colour for the uniform of the rest!