New set of 1:72 flags for Spanish Civil War

Just as promised some days ago, here you have the three latest additions to our range of 1:72^nd scale flags for 20mm Spanish Civil War gaming: Requete militias, Moroccan Mehalla and 5º Regimiento. They come under form of small DIN A7 paper sheets with three historical flag designs each, slightly textured so as to simulate fabric waving under wind effect.

Range will grow further in next weeks, alongside to its 15mm equivalent. Upcoming novelties will be Falangist militias, Spanish Foreign Legion and Basque and Catalan armies --all of which already on workbench.

Please check our current offer of 20mm flags in this page.

New 1:100 SCW flags added

Our range of 1:100^th scale flags for 15mm Spanish Civil War gaming has just grown with three novelties: Female battalions, Requete militias and Moroccan Mehalla. As usual, these A7 flags sheets come with three historical flag designs each, slightly textured so as to simulate fabric waving under wind effect.

Range will grow further in next weeks, thanks to the addition of flag sheets for Falangist militias, Communist 5^th Regiment, Nationalist Cavalry and Moroccan Regulares, as well as Basque and Catalan armies --that are already being drawn right now. Please check our current offer of 15mm flags in this page.

A similar range of flags in 1:72^nd scale will also experience a substantial growth soon, too. Please stay tuned!

1:72 BT-5 Fast Tank released

We are happy to present you our latest addition to Minairons' ever growing 1/72 Spanish Civil War vehicles range: the BT-5 fast tank --another intermediate step in the tanks family started by J. Walter Christie's early designs and ending in the ultimate T-34 Soviet medium tank. Capable of a remarkable 72 km/h speed and reasonably well armed for its time, BT-5 was a potentially dangerous weapon. Up to 50 BTs were used by both sides in SCW latest stages (Ebro battle and Catalonia invasion, mainly).

As for model itself, it is quite easy to build as usual. It consists of just 6 main parts cast in resin, two of which are turret hatchets, while the seventh part is a finely shaped brass barrel. Kit is sold individually in box, along with a decals sheet --the same one already used for T-26 tanks.

Our 1/72 BT-5 Fast Tank retails at €12.95 and can already be ordered in our website, or alternatively requested from our retailers and distributors. Separate brass barrels will be available for purchase in the next few days too.

New 1:72 Downed fighter

We've got now available a new piece of scenery for 20mm SCW gaming: a shot down Polikarpov I-15 fighter at 1:72^nd scale. As it can be seen by the captions below, model is resin cast from a single piece:

It can already be found following this link of our website, where it retails at €4.95. Just for persuading you to purchase it, please take a look at the pictures below, where the model shows as painted by Rubén Torregrosa of Heresy Brush:

New release: ERA racing cars

We are happy to announce release of a new 1938 Grand Prix item, at both 1:72^nd and 1:100^th scales altogether. This new addition to range is ERA racer --an acronym standing for English Racing Automobiles.

Model kit is extremely simple at both scales, as you can see by the images below --first, the 1:72 version, that has been superbly painted by Carlos Vidal in Siamese livery:

And now its smaller 1:100 version, painted by myself. Well, not any master piece unlike the one above, but it will do nicely on a racing circuit anyway. Please do not take it as a suitable model of English livery, but choose a quite darker green for it instead --I admittedly mistook the shade!

ERA racers are already available from our website, if interested please follow the links: 1:72 version here and 1:100 version there. True that we had planned first a combined release in a 2-cars boxed set; but at one point we've found ourselves with ERA cars at both scales already cast, while the second car (a Bugatty most probably) hasn't ever started to be designed. So we've thought it better not to make you wait.

Battlegroup Spain supplement?

I guess that some of you already know (of have learnt about) the excellent Battlegroup WWII wargame rules series published by Iron Fist and sponsored by The Plastic Soldier Company; rules that are set mainly at 15mm to 20mm and can be played at different engagement sizes --typically, platoon to battalion levels. Well, the matter is that a group of gamers particularly attached to this ruleset have thoroughly prepared a supplement of it for Spanish Civil War --something that quickly attracted my attention like a magnet.

A PDF copy of that Spanish Civil War supplement draft was then submitted to Iron Fist and PSC teams, and they agreed it to be consistent enough for being worked out toward an ultimate version --provided that a more thoroughful testing might derive in any eventual amendment. It was also judged plausible to publish it in some form (even as a PDF), but for doing so it is compulsorily required to meet the designing high quality standards Battlegroup series has got us accustomed to.

Plain and simple, this means having lots of real contemporary pictures, as well as appropriate photos of figures and models in beatifully depicted scenarios. And I alone don't enjoy the resources needed for gathering such a large collection of pictures --or paying for these to be taken, either. This is why I would like to make a call to all those of you who would love a Battlegroup SCW supplement, to help us gathering as much and as good graphical stuff as possible, in order to illustrate such supplement accordingly to the high standards expected.

Related to all this, perhaps some of you will be glad to know that the making of appropriate Vehicle Data Cards for SCW is under study too. We would be granted full permission from owners above for doing so, provided the ultimate product meets their approval. I was thinking of a khaki brown for Republican AFV cards, while a khaki green for the Nationalist ones; would you agree to this, or would you suggest a different colour pattern instead?

A Henschel truck of my own

I've been taking advantage of this long Summer season for pushing forward some projects for my own collection. One of these is a Henschel type 33 truck, painted for Condor Legion service with some German crewmen of Xan Miniatures replacing the default Spanish driver. Not any master piece of work, but it will do nicely on tabletop.

Here you have the original article in my personal painting blog (Catalan language only, sorry)

Minairons next release

Once back from holidays, it's time for making things run again. As a proof of such, I'd like to share with Minairons friends our upcoming release, no other than BT-5 fast tank! - at 1/72^nd scale. Here below you have an ultimate sample:

Hull and mudguards are cast in one single piece, while running gears and turret are additional separate parts. Worth to be noted that following the suggestion of one customer, gun barrel will be neither resin or white metal but highly detailed brass instead! Such 45mm barrels made by RB-Models from Poland will also be separately available, so as to improve your T-26 tanks or similarly armed vehicles!

If everything keeps running as reasonably good as so far, we expect to release BT-5 fast tank in September. It will most likely retail in single model boxes inclusive of a decals sheet for Soviet, Finnish, Turkish and Spanish service (both sides) - same than for our T-26.