Guardia Civil Espanola

Guardia Civil Espanola

This year marks the 180th anniversary of the founding of the Guardia during the reign of Queen Isabel II. At the start of the civil war the Guardia Civil split virtually evenly between those who remained loyal to the Republic (about 53%) who changed their name to Guardia Nacional Republicana and those that joined the Rebels. The highest ranking officer Inspector General Sebastián Pozas remained loyal to the Republic. 

I needed some Guardia Civil for my SCW set-up so I ordered 24 figure unit pack Irregular Miniatures (at £13.20 plus postage I think this is great value). 

Now Irregular are an old school company and the figures may not be as super detailed as some, but I quite like them and the service is always top class. For me the only downside is the limited number of poses, but Irregular have found a way to add variation even in the same basic sculpt.

First thing of course was to dig out my notes and find a decent painting guide.

This one by José María Bueno Carrera

His uniform illustrations do tend to have a more "washed" lighter look to them.

 I`ve tried something new with these - a clear varnish spray top coat

Here we see the three poses, note  figures 1 & 4 had SMGs (looked like MP28s with side magazines) I cut them back so to roughly convert the SMGs into looking like cavalry carbines.

More examples of my painting including an unmodified SMG (no 3)

Examples of Figure variation

L-R - trousers, leather gaiters, puttees & puttees (note this guy had a fine mustasch too), figure with puttees plus rolled blanket

L-R - left hand on hip, left hand free, added rolled blanket

Officer figure - wearing cloak (with mustasch), without cloak (no tasch)

Two complete 12-man platoons

10 rifle/carbine armed, a NCO with SMG and an officer

Lone Regulares NCO with SMG 

(a freebee - thanks Ian 😁)

I`ve painted him up as a member of Grupo Regulares de Tetuan (blue sash)