Paper Models as Propaganda During the Spanish Civil War

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Just a little bit of housekeeping today. As I was reviewing this thread, I realized I forgot to include two images of the Construcciones Costales models. So, here they are, the sheets for the Zepelin, Number 3, and Un Trimotor, Number 4.

Also, I'm including a group photograph of the eight Recortables Baby military models discussed in this thread. The eighth is represented by the two cavalry figures in the lower left of the photo.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Wad Cutter]

I sincerely hope this thread never comes to an end. I know it has to as all things has a beginning and a finish. In the mean time. Thank you all very much who take the time to bring us all such great entertainments. Very well done. wc

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And thanks Wad Cutter for your thoughtful comments. When I first started this project, I had no idea how expansive this topic would become. It didn’t take too long for me to build the Spanish Civil War models freely available on the internet. That done, I thought the number of undiscovered models would be rather limited until I started receiving help and advice from other interested modelers and collectors. It turns out there is a lot more to this corner of history than I imagined. With the continued help of my newfound internet friends who so generously share their collections, I hope to keep building and describing these interesting and colorful paper models from the Guerra Civil era for some time to come.

The second of the Graficas Reuidas models in my collection is this Renault FT, named by the publisher as Tanque Ligero A-2, or Light Tank, with A-2 being the catalog number. The sky-blue model is a fair representation of the famous Renault tank, except the front idler wheel has been reduced in size to equal the rear-drive sprocket. The model’s hand-drawn artwork is a little funky, as there are a number of elements drawn freehand, but I feel this adds to, rather than detracts from the model. Drawn by A. Romero de Cidon, this model is the roughest example of his work I’ve seen to date. His other models, like the previously described Ambulancia, make more use of his ruler and compass than this FT.

As presented on its single sheet, the model is a simple affair, with little detailing to distinguish it. I took the time to make some of the parts a bit more three-dimensional. Note the rear hatch cover, the mantlet and the open driver’s visor. These were thickened by two or three extra layers of 110 lb. cardstock. The real work was done on the Tanque’s running gear. The wheels were thickened and their negative spaces cut out. The connecting beams between the wheels were likewise made thicker so they would stand proud from the frame. Also, the track tension springs and the bogies were made more three-dimensional. On this model, the visible insides of the Tanque’s running gear are covered with paper parts representing riveted steel panels. The real FT has no such paneling, and the inside of the running gear looks very much like the outside. Señor de Cidon saved me a bit of work with that one.

The designer thoughtfully provided enough track material so the modeler could make two-sided tracks. This goes a long way toward making the model look more complete, and in those vintage tank models that don’t include the extra track, I usually go to the computer and make my own. The copper piping in and out of the muffler was a practical solution, as a small paper part for the curved section would look a little rough. Finally, the turret’s machine gun is made from the part provided on the sheet. Not the most elegant of drawings, but it fits with the overall look of the model.

Originally, most Renault FT’s carried a “tail” or skid at the rear of the machine. This was used to help the tank cross narrow trenches on the scarred battlefields of the Great War. In the Guerra Civil, the FT’s were used by both the Republicans and the Nationalists for patrol work, and were thought of more as armored cars than battle tanks. This tail would have been a hindrance to a tank that was trying to negotiate the narrow streets of Spain’s ancient cities, and the easily removed tail would have been discarded in short order.

As usual, many of the model's parts were stiffened with mat board. So much so, that the Tanque weighs nearly as much as a plastic model of the same size. Tanks are supposed to be heavy, and this one isn’t about to be blown off the shelf by a stiff breeze.

Many thanks go to Tom Greensfelder for sending me a copy of Graficas’ Tanque Ligero from his collection.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Vermin_King]

It never ceases to amaze me how extra care and attention to these 'simple' models can make them into gems.

I'm also glad that the topic doesn't seem to be over yet.

Thanks for sharing

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Measuring 40 X 27.5 cm, or roughly 16 X 11 inches, this model from the Madrid publisher Graficas Reunidas is an interesting addition to the publisher’s catalog. Known as the Hidroavion, or Floatplane, it may be unique among Guerra Civil paper models. Why were American markings chosen for this Spanish wartime biplane? As mentioned before, Madrid was the center of Republican power, and the under-maned and poorly-equipped Republican forces were desperate to elicit support from around the world. While the only government that offered material support was the Soviet Union, socialist and communist men and women from many nations gathered together and created the International Brigades to go to Spain and join the Republicans in the conflict. Of note, the Abraham Lincoln Battalion mustered here in America and sailed for Spain to fight the war. A paper model with American markings would at least show the besieged populous of Madrid who their friends were.

I have a fair knowledge of world aviation, but I cannot identify this particular plane. Biplane floatplanes were not uncommon, but this model appears to be the designer’s own creation. The model sports a number of interesting features.

Firstly is the enclosed cabin ahead of the pilot’s seat. While rare, there have been a few specially modified Navy biplanes that allowed the admiral to visit the fleet in comfort. These fragile craft wouldn’t have been launched by catapult, but rather lowered onto the water by crane on the leeward side of a stationary battleship. The way the model was originally designed, the back of the cabin was left open, leaving a great, white void. With my aversion to unprinted white cardstock, I made up a custom part to close off the offending space. I also covered the pilot’s position with a piece of black card, as there were no interior parts provided on the sheet.

The main float is a bit idiosyncratic. It was known for many years prior to the publishing of this model that a float needed a step built into its bottom surface. This allowed the float to break the suction of the water and more easily lift the airplane into the air. Yes, this float has a step, but it is inexplicitly found on the top and rear of the main float. You can see it in the photograph of the back of the biplane. The step-less wingtip floats have a more hydrodynamic shape to them, but the flat-bottomed main float is a lousy design for an ocean-going aircraft.

The enlarged fin and rudder are surprisingly correct, as a floatplane needs extra surface area in the empennage to counteract the aerodynamic forces generated by the wetted surfaces of the added floats. Point to the designer, Pedro Sabidon Feliu.

Speaking of which, Feliu does not sign his name to his work, he only offers the attached cypher that reads PSF. Feliu also designed paper models for at least one other publisher, namely Ediciones Uriarte of Zaragoza, Spain. I’ll continue to look for his cypher on other models of the era.

The model shown is my second attempt at building this biplane. There were a few fit problems, and these were anticipated in the second build. I usually try to eliminate the strut’s visible double-tabs and their position markings on the wings, as I think they are unsightly. But in this case, they were needed because once the two wings were attached by the struts, they needed to be manually pushed around until they looked their best. The strut’s position markings on the top and bottom wings don’t line up. The ugly tabs helped to keep things together when the wings were being forced into position.

The usual computer tricks were employed, namely filling in some of the printer's holidays and deepening and brightening the colors on the 80 year old model. I like the look of this odd little biplane, and was happy to put it on my shelf. Thanks go to Tom Greensfelder for providing me with this copy from his collection.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Don Boose]

The current issue of the Journal of Military History [80:3 (July 2016)] has a most interesting article on “The Spanish Military and the Tank, 1909–1939,” by José Vicente Herrero Pérez.

Here is the abstract: "The conventional wisdom holds that Spain took only a limited interest in armored warfare until the European powers that intervened in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the USSR, demonstrated its importance on the battlefield. The author, tapping into the previously ignored professional military literature in Spain, reveals that, to the contrary, officers in the Spanish army early on took a lively interest in armor, an interest fed not only by what they knew of developments elsewhere in Europe but by the possibility of using tanks and other armored vehicles to advantage in Spain’s colonial wars in Morocco. It was not so much lack of interest that retarded Spanish development of armored units as lack of funds. Over the interwar years, upwards of 50 percent of the Spanish military budget was spent on personnel, particularly the army’s bloated officer corps."

Vol. 80 No. 3 | The Society for Military History

I think this is relevant to your overall topic, especially in light of the models of tanks you have presented, in particular, that excellent Tanque Ligero.

Don

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

After a quick re-read of today's post, I thought it best to make it clear that the dimensions I gave at the top of the post are the measurements of the original printed sheet, and not the size of the completed model.

Thanks Don, for reminding me of the limited but interesting story of tanque development in Spain during the years before the Spanish Civil War. It seems from your comments that the Spanish Army had fallen into the trap of having more generals than armored fighting vehicles.

Attached find some historical images of two of the tanques under development in the pre-war years. The Carro Barbastro resembled the rhomboidal tanks of the Great War, while the Carro de Combate was a light tanque that shared many of its features with the groundbreaking Renault FT.

There were other tanques that saw one-off prototypes and those that never got off the drawing board. The Spanish Civil War was not to be a tank war, it was the armored car that brought the terror of mobile firepower to the people of Spain.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Many collectors search long and hard to find that final piece that completes their collection. When it comes to collecting the total output of paper models produced by the Spanish wartime publisher known as Editorial Lya, my search was short and sweet. I had already found Lya’s El Tren Blindado on the internet, and it was profiled in this thread on April 4th, 2016. The next day, Tom Greensfelder posted his copy of the model shown here, the Tanque de Guerra. It is possible that these two examples may be the only paper models ever published by this little known company.

Printed in a light, misty blue, the Tanque de Guerra depicts a typical armored car of the Spanish Civil War. The most notable aspect of the model car is the remarkable lack of detail. Rivet counters might find some satisfaction here, but the absence of a radiator grill, vision slits, headlights and partisan insignia will put off the more demanding model connoisseur. However, the model was not produced for picky, modern collectors, but for young boys with only a coin or two to spend on an evening’s entertainment.

As sometimes happens, my first whack at this simple model didn’t turn out too well. It’s funny how a misplaced 32nd of an inch here and there can add up to a backhanded toss into the recycle bin. After making a few scoring adjustments on the reprint, an acceptable model was built. Its big, advertised feature is the rotating turret atop the armored hull. It says so at the top of the page…con torreta y ruedas giratorias. As usual, there are no instructions on how to achieve this rotation. My solution was to glue a small brass rivet to a piece of wire and thrust it through the turret into the hull’s reinforcing mat board. Once again, no provision was made for gun muzzles, and these simple parts were scratchbuilt.

The scale elements of the model are a wonder to behold. The oversized guns, tiny wheels, top-heavy hull and bustle bum make for an oddly shaped toy. When I first saw the printed sheet, I assumed the four cutouts on the underside of the model were for the wheels. As you can see from the photographs, the wheels were properly placed under the fenders on my model. I still don’t know what those four holes are for.

Compared to the offerings of Recortables Baby and other four-color publishers, the monochromatic models of Editorial Lya place this company in the poverty row of paper model producers. Their two known models, drawn by different hands and printed in different colors, just couldn’t compete against the colorful and more cleverly designed products of the larger publishing houses. However, during attic clean-outs and basement purges over the last eighty years, somebody, somewhere, found the sheets for these simple models and set them aside because they saw value in them. To be able to find, build and discuss these scraps of paper after all these years is really quite remarkable. We don’t call it ephemera for nothin’.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

The Canarias was one of a pair of heavy cruisers that served in the Nationalist Navy during the Spanish Civil War. Designed in the U.K., she and her sister, the Baleares, were built in Spain by Sociedad Espanola de Construccion Naval, or SCEN, a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong. Laid down in 1928, eight years passed until she was finally commissioned in 1936, a pivotal year in modern Spanish history. The Canarias served as flagship for the Spanish Navy throughout her career, and her supreme position in 20th century Spanish naval history remains unchallenged.

The paper model seen below was published by Ediciones Uriarte of Zaragoza, Spain. Uriarte was an active publisher, printing models with a similar feel to those published by Graficas Reunitas. In fact, at least one of their designers did work for both companies. The model’s original single sheet was quite large at 63 cm X 50 cm, roughly 24” X 20”. At the top of the sheet, the scale is given as 1/400, meaning it would build into a 19 inch model of the 636 foot long Canarias. Unfortunately, my model is nowhere near that size. I found my copy on the internet, and rather than printing out the whole thing on a single 8 ½ X 11 sheet, I enlarged various sections of the scan with the goal of giving me the largest possible one-piece hull sides. My finished model measures 10 inches long, and scales in at 1/763. I usually don’t work this small, and admittedly, this isn’t my best effort. The scan was a bit foggy and my fitting of the parts was less than perfect. Even the 65 lb. cardstock was too thick in places. However, I wanted to build it to show that apart from the many toy-like models that have been discussed in this thread, accurate, serious, scale models were also being produced in wartime Spain.

The paper model, believed to have been printed in 1938, shows the Canarias as she appeared soon after launch. Along with her ill-fated sister, she sported a unique funnel that resembled an immense high-heeled platform shoe. This was removed later in her career and replaced by two conventional funnels, better to show her British lineage. I decided to use aluminum tubing for the eight turreted guns, but their look is a little heavy-handed for the cruiser. Also, the aluminum masts were not the best choice, but I was going for strength rather than finesse. The battle for territory can get pretty tough on the crowded model shelves around here.

A casual glance at the uncut sheet would lead you to believe that the model was printed only in black ink. But a closer look will reveal color in the seven small flags and the tiny coats of arms found on the sides of the turrets. This means the sheets for the grey model were run on a four-color press. That decision cost the publisher a few more pesetas, but is shows a commitment to quality during the hardships of war.

The Canarias saw battle during her long life, and peace as well. After her wartime service, she became the grande dame of the Spanish fleet. In the early 1970s, it was thought that one more refit would keep her afloat for another generation of sailors, but an extensive survey showed that age had caught up with the old flagship. Decommissioned in 1975, and scrapped in 1977, the Canarias remains an esteemed ship in the long maritime history of Spain.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Don Boose]

Made up into a very good-looking warship model!

Don