Big Spanish Civil War Project Part 2: Dinamiteros

I finished these off ages ago, but only got around to writing them up now. They're very characterful figures from Peter Pig. 

Dinamiteros were militia who fought using nothing but homemade explosives and slings, the most simple of all ranged weapons. I have had trouble finding many primary sources, but this article provides a lot of information. Time Article

I've read secondary sources which claim Dinamiteros were also used by the Nationalist faction, but can't find any evidence to support this.

The claim that captured Dinamiteros were executed immediately by the Nationalists does not seem particularly unusual to me. This level of aggression towards captured Republicans seems to be fairly universal. Hugh Thomas argues that both leaders and rank and file Republicans were executed without much thought in "The Spanish Civil War", (1986). He uses an acvount in which Franco was said to have ordered three ordinary militiawomen to be shot as an example of this brutality. 

Many sources I've read strongly associate Dinamiteros with Asturias, a region notable in this period for its mines and unionised workers. The mines were a ready source of explosives.

However, they seem to have been more widespread than just Asturias. At the 30 second mark of this footage, you can see a group of Dinamiteros fighting at the siege of the Alcazar in Toledo: Footage

In this photo, the banner identifies the Dinamiteros as "Vascos" (Basques). Some appear to be wearing slings tied around their necks. Image here

This photo (and others) by Gerda Taro show Dinamiteros during the Siege of Madrid. Image

Since "dinamitero" means simply "dynamiter", I don't think slings were used by everyone in the above sources. There's no denying that explosive slingers make great gaming units though. 

Enough historical nonsense! On to the models themselves 😊

The whole group. Four bases of two-man teams. 

Some close ups