New 1/72 Renault FT-17

We are delighted to announce the release of our first entirely hard-plastic model kit of this year, the Renault FT-17 light tank - definitely the most ubiquitous armoured fighting vehicle in History for, despite being considered as obsolescent since mid 1920s, it survived in battlefields well into the 1970s!! - If unbelieving, go ask the Soviet soldiers having fought in Afghanistan, what kind of armour did they meet in Taliban hands!

Back to this our new hard-plastic model, it is the result of a co-operative work with the HäT Industrie Inc. reputed USA company, by which the model kit has been manufactured partly by them, partly by us. This way, in each of our 3-tanks box you'll find 3 sprues including hull and running gear, other 3 sprues comprising 2 alternative turrets each besides of an MG and a cannon that can be fitted on whatever the turret you choose, and last one sheet with a number of different decals for several SCW Basque, generic Communist, VBCW Anglican League and 20^th cent. French markings.

As stated above, 1/72 Renault FT-17 tank is available either in 3 tanks + decals box, or single in bag (with no decals). 20GEC006 decals are separately available too. All them can be purchased at our www.minairons.eu website, or through any of our current distributors/ retailers as usual.

1/72 Vickers 105mm Gun

Sometimes, our designers are commissioned projects that lay apparently aside from our "official" pipeline and wishlist. Such is the case of the design I'm happy to present you now - the Vickers 105mm gun:

Not that aside, though. It belongs to a global project embracing several different models and figures - in a way quite similar to that other one including IGC Sadurní tank, carrier and tractor, altogether with the Schneider 155 howitzer. Besides, the fact of already having two guns (Schneider 155 and Vickers 105) will ultimately allow us to develop artillery crews for both sides - a set of figures admittedly long expected.

Following this global project concept, this new gun will be developed alongside to the Landesa tractor and a white metal driver - and released all together. The running gear we design for this tractor will be also useful for endeavouring next a Landesa improvised tank and last, the Trubia-Naval Basque tank too.

Back to our Vickers 105mm gun concept, it will consist of a pretty small number of parts - roughly, those you can see below:

This whole series will be developed in 1/72 scale first, to be re-scaled later, as usual in Minairons lately.

1/72 Ford AA Bookmobile preview

Besides of the recently announced Renault FT-17 tank, we hope to please all our friends with a second SCW 1/72 scale model kit - this one, a mainly resin softskin vehicle, with a couple hard plastic and white metal parts: The Ford AA Frontline Bookmobile. Here you have one of them superbly painted by Rubén Torregrosa of Heresy Brush:

Thanks to a couple side panels and the help of the accompanying optional decals, the model can otherwise be built as a Republican Ambulance:

Now, please watch both vehicles side by side:

We expect to release this new 1/72 model during September, shortly after the Renault FT-17. It will retail as a boxed single kit, along with the white metal figure you can watch in the pictures, and a decals sheet allowing you those two options above - besides of a humouristic third one, based on the ubiquitous "Keep calm &..." British WWII poster motto.

1/72 Renault FT-17 painted

I'm really happy to show you some pictures of a superb painting job by Heresy Brush on a couple samples of the 1/72 plastic model kit we're going to release next: Renault FT-17 tank, with both round and octagonal turrets.

As already explained in a previous post, this is to be a mixed kit - for the tank hull main sprue is kindly supplied by HäT, whilst a second sprue of our own provides for the two optional turrets and weapons you can watch above. As usual, the 3-tanks boxed set will also comprise a decals sheet with SCW Basque & generic Republican, WWII French and VBCW Anglican League markings.

This new 1/72 model kit will be released in the next few weeks - boxes are in printshop right now! Right afterwards, we're going to explore chances to release it at 1/100 scale too.

New 1/144 Fiat CR.32

Here we are again, after a short pause - during which we haven't gone out for holidays, but have just lowered activity rate instead. Although at such a reduced speed, we've always been there actually, and will still be there all through August!

As if a celebration of Summer it was, please let us present you a new release for this month: the 1:144 version of Fiat CR.32 fighter!

This new kit consists of 2 resin main parts and up to 12 white metal smaller pieces --these latter, comprehensive of a pilot, just as ts 1:100 scale sister. As usual, the set is complimented by a decals sheet including Spanish Nationalist, Italian and Hungarian markings.

It's already available at our webstore, priced at € 10.95 the set.

1/72 Benach M1935 tank preview

The next time you'll see pictures of this model, it will be already on sale!

The images in this article show you a couple of 1/72^nd scale Benach M1935 fast tanks together, one on tracks and the other on road running gear - that is, with the tracks unlinked and tightly locked over the wheels as if mudguards they were. According to the tank patent explanations, the middle wheels had to be then automatically lifted, so as to leave the tank on 4 wheels only.

When launched, the complete boxed set will comprise 2 tanks, with the purpose of allowing the user to build each one in a different running gear configuration if desired. The model kit will be mostly resin, with a few smaller parts in white metal. It will consist of a maximum of 11 parts.

As some of you perhaps recall when we first spread the word about it, Benach M1935 fast tank is how we ultimately christened an unnamed tank design projected and patented in 1935 by the Benach Tractors factory in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia town (Catalonia) - pretty close to our own headquarters location! That factory, renowned by its civilian tractors of that name, is the same one that during the Spanish Civil War produced the Benach improvised tanks first, and the Sadurní d'Anoia tank, carrier and artillery tractor later - all them, already produced by Minairons Miniatures.

Here you have this innovative to its time tank, portraited along with a Minairons T-26, so that you can get an idea on its size - similar to that of a BT-5 fast tank.

1/72 Renault FT-17 preview

Here you have a preview on the next SCW fighting vehicle we are going to release in a few weeks, after a holidays short parenthesis in August. It is a Renault FT-17 fast assembly model kit in black hard-plastic. FT-17 was the pre-war Spanish Army standard light tank, so that some 10 to 12 of them were active at the outbreak of Civil War - such number possibly also including one Fiat 3000 purchased for evaluation. Later, the Basque Government acquired a number of supplementary Renaults, mainly from Poland.

This time we've chosen not to toolmake an entirely new model, but to take advantage of a widely appreciated already existing model and improve it. Our kit then consists of a hull sprue kindly supplied by HäT, complimented by another sprue of our own including both turrets (Renault and Berliet) and two alternative weapons (Hotchkiss MG and Puteaux gun), all in one single kit.

The complete boxed set will comprise 2 or 3 tanks (we're still debating such feature), and a complimentary decals sheet as customary. This latter including SCW Basque and Spanish Communist markings, as well as WWII French insignia and VBCW Anglican League roundels, so as to allow users the most choices in a single set.

If finally packed in 2-tanks box, this new set will be priced € 13.95 like our T-26, while if boxed by the 3 tanks, then it will cost € 18.95, just as our Panzers I A. Whatever the choice, single sprues are to be available too at € 5.95, as well as separate decals at € 2.00. Forecast release deadline within September.

Lovely & fearsome: 1/72 Militiawomen

We are immensely proud to let you know our long expected 20GEF011 SCW Militiawomen set is ready and available at last. Unlike our previous regular infantries sets, this is a special box comprising not just 13 riflewomen and 2 NCOs, but also a reduced format command set comprising a capitana leader, standard bearer, 2-girls LMG team and a flag sheet with the standards of 3 different female battalions. 19 total figures, 19 poses there.

As our releasing letany uses to say, this new figures boxed set is already available through our website - and hopefully soon from our main stockists and retailers too!