1:35 IRA Fighter with Rifle (1 Figure / 3D-Printed)

The flying column

The Irish side fought the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 against a far stronger opponent and made up for its numerical disadvantage with mobility. The basic fighting unit became the so-called flying column: twenty to thirty men living away from home, who struck at a patrol or a police barracks and melted away into the countryside before reinforcements arrived. What decided matters was not firepower but knowledge of every field boundary and the certainty that the garrison of a fortified post would never sleep easy.

The rifle he holds

Weapons were obtained wherever possible. Most often they were short repeating rifles captured in raids, supplemented by older single-shot pieces smuggled in before the war and by personal revolvers. The shortage of cartridges was constant and it dictated the tactics: men fired briefly, at close range and only where a line of retreat was certain.

An appearance that cannot be mistaken

The typical picture was made up of a long waterproof coat, a soft cap and a bandolier over civilian clothes. Most of the men had no uniform, which was a practical problem and a political argument at the same time. The casting works with this appearance, so it suits a country scene with a stone wall as well as a town alley. The stone wall is the more rewarding of the two, because it gives the figure both support and a difference in height.

The building sequence

The recommended order of work: take the supporting structures off with a sharp cut, look at the part against the light for remains of the supports, sand it and apply a covering primer. Only on the primer can you tell whether the surface is really smooth.