Minor progress to be certain, but the wheels are still turning for this project on my hobby table...
Here is my brilliant (?) idea - pictured above is a Redoubt spearman with his weapon. Lead/pewter spears can be a pain to straighten (and keep straight), so I thought that it might be nice to replace the shaft with brass tube. The tube is nearly the same diameter as the spear, and would stay straight, while the interesting spear tip and butt would be added to the tube. This would require a hole to be drilled into the spear tip so a length of brass rod could be glued in, and the assembly could then be glued into the tube:
Here is the procedure party of the way through. This is the easy part.
The result! The first two spears were made without a problem, but on the third I encountered the defining issue - the spear tip is not much bigger than the drill bit used to bore it out, and with one slip I put the drill bit into my finger. So, further thought is required.
Also shown above is the inside of the huge Redoubt Figure-8 shields; lovely. The Eureka shields have no detail on the inside.
The pic above shows the options I have come up with so far - my brass composite; a spear purchased from Footsore; a piece of plastic rod that I shaped into a crude likeness of the original Redoubt spear; and a piece of steel rod that could have a spear tip added.
The thickness of the original spear, brass tube, and plastic rod seem to be a bit thick for my tastes. However, the Footsore spear is too plain in my eyes. Decisions, decisions.
One last pic:
.
It has been a long time - over two years - since infantry from my Spanish Civil War project graced the pages of this blog:
This is an infantry section for the Republican army, circa 1937, as outlined in the marvelous España supplement for Chain of Command, along with a figure that will be used to represent a Medical Orderly (above and right of the center of the pic). 15 soldiers - 3 squads of 5 - and a sargento (a junior leader for CoC) make up the section. The sargento is the fellow on the rightmost of the above pic, and he is being assembled from pieces from a Zvezda WW2 Soviet gunner sprue with a Minairons head in Adrian helmet.
Another pic of the troops:
None of the figures are complete, although some just need some detailing and matte overcoat.
A better pic of the two special figures:
The Medical Orderly is a Minairons infantryman that will be modified with a new right hand, courtesy of the Zvezda sprue, and a satchel. The sargento has already been glued down to the base, and a hole has been drilled for the new head. A little more glue and he will be assembled...
A really simple conversion made easy by the nice individual parts of the Zvezda sprue, and the Minairons head selection that is available separately. The figure is a bit different than the standard infantry from Minairons - a bit more stocky, different boots, a more delicate rifle, etc. The kneeling position, however, hides the extra 'pounds' on the figure and if anything will make it stand out a bit more than his troops.
There are a total of three sections in a Republican platoon for CoC, so 2 more will need to be made!
.
