Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A Very British Civil War - Socialist militia platoon

My order from Pendraken Miniatures arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I got busy painting 'em up. First off the block is the Socialist militia platoon...



...these lads and lasses are eager volunteers from the towns and cities, willing to do their part to reform society along more egalitarian lines - at the point of a gun if necessary.

Their uniforms are basically blue dungarees supplied by collectivized clothing factories in their hometown. A smart red "cheesecutter" cap shows their allegiance and solidarity with their comrades fighting in Spain. The platoon standard is based on an International Socialist banner, and reads British Socialists with a central motif showing a combined wheat-ear and cogwheel around a raised fist.

To the right of the picture is the women's platoon. They have their own banner which reads SWA for Socialist Women's Alliance. The two arrows allude to the anti-fascist insignia popular across Europe. Their colors are red, for socialism, and gold and silver, reflecting a recent speech by Annie Lee, Manchester's first socialist woman alderman, in which she said "Who needs gold and silver? Women are the true wealth of the world!"

Organization: The platoon has four sections of twelve, with a three person command element. It lacks light machine guns and support weapons, but there's every hope of acquiring these in the near future.

The figures are all from Pendraken's SCW range. The women's section commander and standard bearer were - ahem! - modified from male figurines using strategically-placed drops of filler.

I like the figures. They're clean-cast, easy to paint (I can work up a whole section in a couple hours), and easy to store. 

Next up, the Local Defence Volunteers, motto - Adepto mea terra -  Get off my land! 

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