[Alt History] Mechanized Infantry, Popular Army

    Been a long while, I got sick with what I think was covid, not sure since I was supposed to get a third covid test but never went so I am Schrodinger's covid victim? sufferer? patient 0? No clue but I either got it or not. ‍� With that out of the way I can tell you that those weeks I was out I spent some time mentally hammering away at some figures, I wish I could have used the time for my backdrops and other dio bits but between the stomach, the runny nose and the tiredness I was out. I went through some of my spare items and I found I could probably make one or two alt history figures set in already existing timeline, to my surprise I actually put together 4 and a rebel, I also did some work on those greco-roman fantasy figures, those are coming along nicely. For those interested my signature's link has all my alt history figures to date in it, so check it out if you are curious, now onto the alt history.

    In 1965, just 8 years after the creation of the Socialist Republic of Puerto Rico, those still loyal to President Torresola would continue to carry out attacks and sabotage against the government and many facilities such as water supply and electrical transmission, terrorist attacks themselves were a rarity with the only prior one being a small bomb that detonated in Fajardo that injured two civilians, the bombing was claimed by "El Frente de Reconstrucción" the reconstruction front, a group that originated from the now defunct Christian Unity Party of 1949. But in 1965 it wasn't the FdR who did the attack, it was the Iron Brigade, formed by President Torresola all the way back in 1937, at the time of the attack it was considered the deadliest such attack in history (the 1982 Cuatro Calles attack would surpass it) the bomb was planted on May 10 1965, at the time of it's planting no one suspected anything, most of the attacks by the brigade had been done to infrastructure and they had never targeted civilian areas such as a train station, the bomb would go off at 4;00 PM local time sending shrapnel all around injuring more than 40 people and killing 20, the scene was described as "A battlefield, as if a bomb had fallen" almost instantly the police cordoned off the area to ensure that medics could take the wounded, concern over other possible attacks were not high at the moment, police was posted around the train station and a curfew was placed, all civilians were to stay at home and if caught outside they would be taken into custody. Though things were horrible no one had expected what was to come, at around 5pm local time gunshots were heard near the district jail followed by more explosions, the police would respond to these but found themselves outgunned and outmatched, a policeman on scene identified the perpetrators as "Camouflage wearing men, wearing the old uniforms" with this it became obvious that the iron brigade was behind this, almost immediately the nearby San Miguel military base went into full alert and infantry troops poured into the streets, army troops would also arrive at the district jail were they would engage in a gunfight, killing 8 and inuring 3, an unspecified number of prisoners were recaptured however the lack of documents made knowing for certain if all had been aprehended as the enemy forces had set the records room ablaze.
At around 8:30pm a series of gunshots were heard downtown coming from El Museo Nacional de Historia, there security guard Mario Hidalgo was killed and his coworker Rafael Bernardo was injured, members of the iron brigade made their way inside in hopes of liberating still operational equipment from the museum's archives, their interest being bazookas, rifles and some artillery pieces that were there, police responded and a gunfight would ensue with a detachment of mechanized infantry arriving not soon after, from 8:30 pm to around 2:00AM local time the police and military engaged in a firefight with the nationalist rebels, the fight saw the deployment of a Sherman tank and at least two armored trucks that were used to block streets, the rebels on the other hand used artillery pieces to create barricades in their attempt to escape. By 5:00 AM the next day the military had already gained control of the museum, in it lay dead 10 rebels, 6 injured and 7 captured, outside the museum and strewn across the street another 5 lay dead. The Popular Army mechanized infantry would go on to respond to similar events,  ultimately leading to the creation of the Battalion Mecanizado Especializado in 1971.

A member of the Mechanized Infantry sits on a German made 8.8 cm Raketenwerfer that was stored in the museum, the gun was to be displayed along with other German made weapons for an exhibition dealing with the Batallón Expedicionario Nacional which saw action during WWII on the side of the allies, photo by Gustavo Mader, photographer for newspaper El Nuevo Camino.

Well that's that, fun, quick-ish bash, actually had to look up how to make the harness for him, didn't want to use a WWII one. Also the "new wall", mostly just added strength to it and now it's no longer warped plus I'm working on the other side of this one, hopefully soon I'll finish it, 3 more to come from this series unless I whip up something else, also looking at a possible rework of a prior figure so I can add the saber he deserves. For now stay safe out there and keep having fun.