Butterfly Painting.......

 Its a real pot pourri of different, recently painted figures tonight, the butterfly that often affects my purchasing decisions, has now manifested itself in my painting, too!

First up, for the sake of completeness, it's the last pair of 1st Corps Fallschirmjaegers

Next, the first of the 28mm Spanish Civil War figures from Templar Miniatures - these are Republican Assault Guards

The Cuerpo de Seguridad y Asalto (English: Security and Assault Corps) was the heavy reserve force of the blue-uniformed urban police force of Spain under the Spanish Second Republic. The Assault Guards were special paramilitary units created by the Spanish Republic in 1931 to deal with urban and political violence. Most of the recruits in the Assault Guards were ex-military personnel, many of whom were veterans. They would later on be reformed and utilized in the Spanish Civil War as army infantry divisions.

At the onset of the Spanish Civil War there were 18,000 Assault Guards. About 12,600 stayed loyal to the Republican government, while another 5,400 joined the rebel faction. Many of its units fought against the Franco supporting armies and their allies. Their siding with the former Spanish Republic's government brought about the disbandment of the corps at the end of the Civil War. The members of the Guardia de Asalto who had survived the war and the ensuing Francoist purges were made part of the Policía Armada, the corps that replaced it.

Of all the reserve forces that had remained in the government zone, the Assault Guards were the most highly regarded by most of the population. This made a large number of serving soldiers decide to join this body; to avoid the misgivings and suspicions that military affiliation had created among the workers' militias. This fact reached the point that the President of the Ministry of War, Largo Caballero, had to prohibit Army officers from joining the Assault Guard without authorization from the Ministry of War. The Assault Guards distinguished themselves as a reliable and shock infantry to which the Republic always entrusted its most delicate operations, such as the battles of Madrid and Guadalajara, the securing of Belchite, and the suppression of the events in Barcelona during May. Later in the war, the Assault Corps became the elite of the Spanish Republican Army. The writer George Orwell reflected on it in one of his most outstanding works:

"They were splendid troops, much the best I had seen in Spain [...]. I was used to the ragged, scarcely armed militia on the Aragón front, and I had not known that the Republic possessed troops like these. It was not only that they were picked men physically, but it was also their weapons that most astonished me..."

The Carabineros (frontier guards) and the Assault Guards were the Spanish police and paramilitary corps where the 1936 coup found the least support. When the Civil War began, over 70% of the Assault Guards stayed loyal to the Spanish Republic. On the other hand, in the Guardia Civil the breakup of loyalists and rebels was distributed evenly at around 50%, although the highest authority of the corps, Inspector General Sebastián Pozas, remained loyal to the republican government.

Next, some characters for Pulp games or civilian bystanders for 1930 or 1940 era games ie SCW or WWII - these are from the excellent Brigade Games Mob Wars range.

And finally, the first four Renegade Woodland Indians have also had some warpaint applied - although I decided not to do actual facial warpaint on this batch - that may change on some of the future batches of these figures.

I hope you have enjoyed the variety of figures on offer tonight - not sure what will be up next, but I should get in one more post before the end of March!