The start of my SCW Republicans

Having recently painted a small contingent of Spanish Foreign Legionaries to get started on the Spanish Civil War, it was only a matter of time till I'd get to the opponents.

Wanting to keep in line with my early war theme I went for the Thälmann-Gruppe under the command of Max Friedmann, which participated in the abolition of the military coup in Barcelona in July 1936. The unit was withdrawn from the frontline in October and in November deployed to help in the defense of Madrid.

They participated in the vicious fighting around Casa de Campo where the were, as far as I know through what little research I did, part of the XI. International Brigade. The Brigade lost about a third of its strength during the battle but was able to dislodge the nationalist troops from their positions, thus preventing the rapid capture of Madrid through Franco's troops.

Again the miniatures are mostly from the superb Spanish Civil War range by Empress Miniatures. Only the medic is from Great War Miniatures line of WW1 Tommy's and probably is supposed to be a priest. He's a bit taller than his fellows but works quite well with the Empress figures.

That's it for today. Enjoy the sunday and have a carefree first of May!