Skytrex 15mm Artillery Arrives

I took the opportunity presented by Skytrex's 10% Off offer, which ran until the 31st March to order a variety of 15mm guns from their Command Decision range.

The order was made online late on Monday evening and the parcel arrived today, Thursday. Such a fast turn around can only be regarded as excellent service.

These are very crisp models, well moulded with almost no seamlines or flash. There's not eve any flash where i'd expect it on the spokes of the gun carriage wheels. I'm impressed. Very impressed.

I bought CD581 Italian 75mm FieldGuns, CD548 French 105mm Guns and CD549 French 155mm Howitzers. Needless to say the Italian 75mm guns will join my Italian forces straight away, whilst the heavier French pieces are destined to become generic heavy guns.

For the Italian 75mm I'm sure I could have gotten away with the famous French Schneider 75/28 of which already own several Peter Pig models (Range 16, pack.94 (for WW1, RCW, 1940). However, it's such a hackneyed field piece in wargames terms (along with the German Krupp 77/96) that I wanted something different, but not as scarily different as the Flames of War Italian 75mm field gun.

I'll take a look at the artillery used by the Italian C.T.V. and models available in 15mm, in a later post. For now, if you want to know more about the artillery used during the Spanish Civil War you'll find the following websites incredibly useful.

Artillery Used in the Spanish Civil War - Spanish Site

Grand Atlas of Artillery in Spain in the C20th - Spanish Site

Landships - A great WW1 site in English

Finland used almost as many different types of guns as both sides in the Spanish Civil War, and even sold some to Spain! These are excellent websites in English that have good photo, service histories and lots of technical details.

WinterWar.com

Jager Platoon - a really good resource for historians, wargamers and modellers

Another good website for identifying SCW artillery, but this time dedicated to the Romanian Armed Services in WW2 is this one:

WorldWar2.Ro

And most importantly, don't forget to Wiki. Most artillery pieces will appear in Wikipedia with photos, service history and links to additional external sites by just running the gun's name through your browser's search engine. For instance, I've just typed 'Schneider 105mm' into Google and the very first result was this Wiki for the Canon de 105 mle 1913 Schneider.

15mm SCW Comparisons

Just some quick photos for manufacturer's size comparison.

Basque (Guardi) command (pack SCW002) from The Late Queen

Republicans in Spanish Helmet (Range 13, pack.5) from Peter Pig

I'll take better pics when my camera has recharged.

Project Camicia Nere, Avanti!

Project Camicia Nere (Blackshirt) begins today. Every post you see with this header image will relate to my ongoing project to recreate key elements of the Italian offensive at Guadalajara during the Spanish Civil War in 15mm.

My main source for the battle is LA PARTECIPAZIONE ITALIANA ALLA GUERRA CIVILE SPAGNOLA (1936-1939). There are newer texts and research has moved forward but as it is based upon the C.T.V.s own war diaries and is frequently referred to by later books, I think I can safely compromise given the other research that has come my way. Not forgetting that at the end of the day, I am wargaming, which in itself requires a whole bag of other compromises.

If you are interested in learning more about the battle yourself, there are several resources online. There is a good Wiki, and I can't recommend the La Batalla de Guadalajara and superb Brihuega 1937 websites highly enough.

There are also some videos pertaining to the battle on YouTube. See the separate links below. A word of caution though before you view them. The programme makers have not only used some video footage out of context or from other parts of the war, there are also scenes which have incorporated WW2 filmstock (Panzer II and German MG34's).

Guadalajara Video 1
Guadalajara Video 2
Guadalajara Video 3
Guadalajara Video 4

Not bad though for getting the creative juices flowing and allowing you to build a mental picture of the battle, troops and terrain.

Further videos and documentray shorts on the SCW can be found on YouTube by conducting a search with the term 'Guerra Civil Espanola' or the name of a SCW battle. I've found that it's best to add the year that the battle took place to cut out extraneous results, eg 'Guadalajara 1937'. The difference in the results for a search of 'Brunete' rather than 'Brunete 1937' on YouTube will not be work safe.

Even if you have little or no understanding of Spanish, the images are universal.