Just had a holiday in Northern Spain

[John in York]

and playing BAIT tomorrow night

[martin goddard]

So UK exit just has not stopped you!

[martin goddard]

Excellent
How about a brief description of the scenery.


martin

[Quebec]

Hello. I've been living in León in Northern Spain for over 30 years. I'd just like to say most photos of SCW wargames tables are diametrically opposed in their representation of Northern Spain. People would not be wrong in thinking that these photos represent an imaginary civil war in Australia!

Where I go running, we have hedges which would not look out of place in Normandy, there are dozens of rivers that come down from the mountain ranges into the central plain, others go into the Cantabrian Sea and one or two even gol into the Atlantic. Most importantly, León was a divided province, the SCW frente del norte front line runs across the north of the province so it is not a province where the rebels had it all their way. The Condor Legion was based in the city of León for a reason, and that was to bomb the trenchlines in the north. Even today you can still see tens of  casemates and blockhouses along the entire frontline. After the war, the Maquis resistance movement in the province was not suppressed until the early 50s

Another factor to take into account is that of the weather. We have winters where -20º are relatively common - I took a train at -15º a few years back, the train doors would not open at the stations, when they did, they would no longer close! The highlight being the extraordinary amount of original swearing  in the local vernacular by the the train driver! Summers are torrid and temperatures of 40º are, again, relatively commonplace. So the countryside looks from Spring to Winter like Normandy or Wales (depending on the distance from the Mountains) then turns drier, more shades of orange, yellow and brown though the areas of water and trees are still green and finally, the countryside turns into an alpine snow covered and frozen landscape in winter

I have loads of original photos of the area and can help with links to pictures of frontline fortifications, here is a youtube link -hopefully it will work


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGgN4IE0vs


PS In Spanish houses, all window frames and doors should be painted in green as were all  house and pub-doors in England because in Western Europe Green was traditionally the colour the Devil detested.

[Administrator]

very useful commentary. Wargames have a very stereotypical view of the world.

[Quebec]

Here are some helpful links

http://guerraenlauniversidad.blogspot.com.es/2011/08/el-frente-de-los-puertos.html

http://asturtsalia.blogspot.com.es/2015/05/el-espacio-historico-frente-del-nalon.html

http://www.abc.es/fotos-espana/20110713/guerra-civil-castilla-leon-80581.html

The previous link has pictures I've never seen before. Lovely picture of International Brigade soldiers by a roadside....could perfectly be set in Normandy in 1944

[martin goddard]

Now that is very helpful.  Is it Ok if i filed some questions over the next month or so. It would be educational and makes for good discussion.

[Quebec]

Hello all,

Martin, I'd be honoured to collaborate.

I also have a couple of photos that I'd like to get on the forum of my BAIT table, but apparently I'm too "fick" to know how. In them, I have home-made buildings, bocage and roads and layout of a typical village in the province of León squared and prepared for BAIT and  PP figures.

Tables with bocage-which are easy to represent are much easier to play one-offs with Civil Guards mounted on 1p/1c coins trying to track down maquis members before these reach the other side of the table. In real life, maquisards would take firewater, called "orujo" and sprinkle it behind them to put the Guardia Civil hounds off their tracks! A PP beret figure in a black leather jacket is perfect! Remember, without the support of family members in local village, "los maquis" (sic) could not be expected to last long.

[martin goddard]

You can always send the photos to em and I will put them on the PP website and readers can click on them ther?

Question 1  Do roads tend to have ditches along the side in the countryside??? Not the main roads, they have probably been improved since the war.

[Quebec]

All tertiary roads have ditches along them...without ditches there is no drainage and  there is no bocage.

Send the photos to "em"...who's "em"?

I'd be able to illustrate each question with a photo. You have my email through this site, if you want I'd happily send you a private email with relevant photos of buildings and the countryside. I don't think my table is good enough to illustrate the Peter Pig website. It's still very much work in progress. It does, however, give the feel of a northern Spanish village. Again I'd happily send them to you for you to judge.

[Quebec]

With Kilgore's help, here goes...layout of the table showing ""prados" and "sebes" (fields and bocage)

[Quebec]

[Quebec]

Please excuse the shiny figures, they have been varnished with Army Painter mid tone. They will rerceive a green drybrush of the base and a definitive matt varnish cover. As the table was showing scratches which exposed the white MDF below, I also paited the whole table with AP varnish which gave it a humid waterlogged spring look. Again, I will varnish with matt paint after drybrushing it with ochre.

[Quebec]

In some of the pictures, the village and the trees are off the actual table in order to maximise playing area. The houses are scratchbuilt after 1930s houses of the area. Corduroy material for pantiled roofs...there should be a fruit tree in each yard, the ones I have are too big.

I hope not to disappoint.

Regards

Joe

[Colonel Kilgore]

That's a nice-looking table, Joe - well done on wrestling with the photo-posting!

Those corduroy roofs are very effective - I particularly like the church tower.

Many thanks for posting,

Simon