SCW 20mm Militiawomen by Minairons

[marcusluis]

 

[Burnin Coal]

  Absolutely wonderful miniatures  ....but not in 28mm     

I can appreciate that you need to push your excellent 20mm range....but I think you would be VERY surprised at how many of these you would sell in 28mm....thanks for sharing and hope your sales are high with these

[scrivs]

They do look excellent, but rather too small for my needs.

[Slayer]

looks like ill be a first classme customer. perfect for my VECW

[maxxon]

However, a second ship named "Yorkbrook" brought in over 400 Suomi later.

Interesting. That is an extremely high number considering we only had 4000 of them when the Winter War started.

Can you date this shipment?

I'll have to check my books if I can find more on export numbers.

[WillieB]

I can only chime in that I would certainly buy them in 28mm, as well as multiple boxes/sets of your Republican and Nationalist infantry.
That said these 20mm sets are lovely and I sincerely hope they sell like hot cakes.

Perhaps a Kickstarter for 28mm?

[maxxon]

I just wanted to add that these will probably sell better than the 28mm vehicles currently offered.

The vehicles are for a very specific period, their price point is fairly high (as is typical for vehicles in this scale) and most gamers won't need more than a couple at most. 28mm vehicles don't sell too well for any period, let alone a fairly obscure one.

I do realize you can't just rescale them like with digital sculpting, but the examples clearly show the skill is there. Maybe you could do a set of 8 as a test?

Unlike the vehicles the figures would be more universal, have more attractive price point and can easily be bought in multiples by a single gamer.

[Burnin Coal]

I do realize you can't just rescale them like with digital sculpting, but the examples clearly show the skill is there. Maybe you could do a set of 8 as a test?

Unlike the vehicles the figures would be more universal, have more attractive price point and can easily be bought in multiples by a single gamer.

What he said....it's the one thing that is missing in 28mm....

That said these 20mm sets are lovely and I sincerely hope they sell like hot cakes.....Perhaps a Kickstarter for 28mm?

What he said as well....I'm in

[Arlequín]

What he said....it's the one thing that is missing in 28mm....

Not quite, a few of us gave Empress a quite long list of what was missing in 28mm a while ago and it wasn't just milicianas. They appear to be working their way through it. 

Personally I quite like there being an excellent quality range in either scale. I'm even tempted to dabble in both, as has been mentioned 28mm vehicles tend to be far more costly and their use somewhat limited on a typical table.

Small 'infantry' forces in 28mm and larger 'combined-arms' ones in 20mm will probably work out no more expensive than just one size and will be far more practical as regards playing area. 

I can of course see why people should want these in 28mm, they are rather special. 

[Durutti]

Republican forces certainly had access to the Suomi and the PPD34
http://www.sbhac.net/Republica/Fuerzas/Armas/Infanteria/Subfusiles/Subfusiles.htm

Yorkbrook, could not find Suomi's listed on its cargo manifest, it was said to be carrying Japanese field guns, and its quite a famous ship
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=95969&hilit


Lovely figures, something I would have liked to have got round to, had I not sold Anglian.

[Lluís of Minairons]

...a quite long list of what was missing in 28mm a while ago and it wasn't just milicianas. They appear to be working their way through it.

This is the real matter behind. All I've learnt at this regard is that every shy trial I've given to 1/56 scale has been quickly countered and overtaken by several new releases by... other brands you all know. I cannot take the risk of entering into a crazy race against a quite stronger and long reputed brand without pitifully wrecking sooner than later. And starting to make figures means getting involved in such a race for sure, because one single figures set would never be enough incentive for boosting a whole range. Instead, I'd be requested to expand the range furthermore. That is, thrown straight into the race.

Perhaps a Kickstarter for 28mm?

Perhaps, just perhaps - it couldn't be a Kickstarter though, because it's restricted to US and UK based endeavourings. It should be an IndieGogo or similar - quite less popular, as you know.

Yorkbrook, could not find Suomi's listed on its cargo manifest

My source is "Atlas Ilustrado de Armas y Uniformes de la Guerra Civil Española", Susaeta publisher, ISBN 978-84-305-7036-2, hardcover, 252 pages.
Submachine guns are discussed in pages 192-194. There they state 410 Suomi mod. 31 cal. 9mm Parabellum to have been brought by "Yorkbrook" - although that precise paragraph is not supported by a bibliographical quotation as we'd greet.

Cheers,
Lluís

[Burnin Coal]

This is the real matter behind. All I've learnt at this regard is that every shy trial I've given to 1/56 scale has been quickly countered and overtaken by several new releases by... other brands you all know....
Cheers,
Lluís

Can completely understand this Lluis - my wishing for 28mm was simply because they are so good....wouldn't want anything to derail all your endeavours....so I wish you good fortune amigo

[Arlequín]

The problem with a lot of Republican arms shipments is that they were not usually listed on cargo manifests for obvious reasons, except on Soviet ships. The old stereotypical line about 'machine parts' and 'agricultural implements' meaning guns on manifests probably had its origins with SCW blockade runners. Republican records on what was received sometimes give the truth, but these are often lost or destroyed.

The book Lluís gives is an excellent resource and the authors seem not to have listed weapons often 'imagined' to have been supplied, but for which there is no actual evidence. If they have listed Suomis they most likely had some documentation to support that statement. How those weapons were acquired is probably an interesting story in itself.

[maxxon]

Republican forces certainly had access to the Suomi and the PPD34
http://www.sbhac.net/Republica/Fuerzas/Armas/Infanteria/Subfusiles/Subfusiles.htm

Yorkbrook, could not find Suomi's listed on its cargo manifest, it was said to be carrying Japanese field guns, and its quite a famous ship
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=95969&hilit

I do not doubt the guns were there, I'm just very curious where they really came from. Even the link you gave me claims there's discrepancies in the information (gun serial numbers being later production than the shipment date).

I know we sold off a old post-Russian Japanese "mountain guns", but the army actually getting rid of submachineguns seems very odd. The Japanese guns were sold because they were found not good enough and the army wanted to replace them all with something else.

Here's numbers produced for the Finnish Army prior to the War:

pre-1935 275 pcs
1935 500 pcs
1936 1000 pcs
1937 1264 pcs
1938 150 pcs
1939 1172 pcs totaling 4361 pcs

As you can see, skimming 400 guns off the top in 1936 would have been a very sizable chunk, nevermind that these guns were present in Winter War. In addition, given the political climate of the time, direct sales to Republicans would have been very odd.

The guns were manufactured by a private company that did do export on the side, but it's very hard to find exact information about this.

I have an article about those mountain guns somewhere. I'll try to dig it up and see if there's any additional information.

[Arlequín]

It does seem to be an anomaly. Almost regardless, the weapons sold/supplied to both sides were older surplus items. The only exceptions seem to be things like the Soviet BT-5 tanks and I-16 fighters in the main. Even the new German types were retained by the Condor Legion, with the exception of the 'dead ends' like the HE-112.

Short of a fantastical James Bond-like tale involving Finnish communists working within the factory or elsewhere, I can think of no way that these weapons could of ended up in Spain. Certainly it is a mystery, to which the actual story of their journey is probably far less exciting than I imagine it to be.