Overview

This sculpt represents the type, not a portrait of one named individual: a German motorcyclist attached to the ground element of the Legion Condor in Spain, 1936–39. The name "Condor Legion" is best known today for its Luftwaffe squadrons, but this figure belongs to a much less famous part of the same organisation — its armoured and motorised ground troops. See "Not Aircrew" below for why that distinction matters and how we checked it.

The reference photographs used to design this figure are a small set of period images collected during research (including a group photo showing a sidecar motorcycle and men in the black beret discussed below), not one specific identifiable photo, and are used purely as an internal design reference — they are not reproduced on this page. See Historical References below.

Historical Context

The Legion Condor was the German expeditionary force sent to support the Nationalists — the military faction that rose up against the Spanish Republic in July 1936, eventually led by Francisco Franco — after Adolf Hitler committed direct military aid in late July 1936. Around 20,000 German personnel rotated through Spain over the course of the war, a modest total that historians still credit with outsized influence: the Legion is most remembered for its Luftwaffe bomber and fighter squadrons, whose tactics (and the bombing of Guernica in April 1937) are widely documented, but the same organisation also included anti-aircraft units (88mm Flak), signals troops, and a ground armoured element — the part this figure belongs to.

Sourced from the Wikipedia articles on the Condor Legion and the Condor Legion Tank Badge. Cross-check troop totals and unit names against Molina Franco & Arias Ramos (see Recommended Reading) before quoting figures in print.

Not Aircrew: The Legion's Tank Troops

In October 1936, two German ships delivered Franco's army its first armoured unit: a company of Panzer I light tanks plus the personnel and services to run it. This armoured group was organised under Colonel Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma as Panzergruppe "Imker," with training and combat companies operating under the codename "Gruppe Drohne" — built initially around volunteers from Panzer Regiment 6 "Neuruppin" of the 3rd Panzer Division. Their job was to train Nationalist crews in tank, infantry, artillery, and signals tactics, though the group increasingly took on direct combat roles as the war went on.

The clearest confirmation that this figure's black beret belongs to the tank troops, not the air force, is the Condor Legion Tank Badge itself: instituted in September 1936 by von Thoma and officially recognised by the German state in July 1939 (with around 415 awarded), it depicts a skull and crossbones over a Panzer I tank — and, per the historical record, "the skull and crossbones were derived from the cap insignia of the tank troops of Legion Condor." In other words, the same skull badge worn on this figure's beret is a tank-arm symbol first, not an air force one.

Worth being precise about here: the skull motif itself is much older than the Nazi period, rooted in a German cavalry/hussar tradition (the "Leibhusaren" regiments) that the new Panzer arm adopted separately in the 1930s for its own unit tradition. It is visually similar to, but a distinct tradition from, the SS's use of the same skull-and-crossbones imagery in the same period — worth knowing so the two aren't conflated when discussing this figure.

Sourced from the Wikipedia article on the Condor Legion Tank Badge, citing Littlejohn & Dodkins, Orders, Decorations, Medals and Badges of the Third Reich (1968) and Klietmann, Auszeichnungen des Deutschen Reiches (1981).

Clothing & Equipment

Beret (Schutzmütze): the German Panzer arm's M1934 black beret, introduced November 1934 as its exclusive official headgear. Its distinctive rounded shape comes from an internal rigid rubber crash-helmet liner (a six-section oilskin lining with a tan leather sweatband) worn under the black wool cover — genuine protective headgear for men working inside cramped tank hulls, not just a fashion choice. Insignia was a white oak-leaf wreath and tricolour cockade from 1934, with the national eagle added by regulation in October 1935, plus the tank troops' skull-and-crossbones badge at the front (see Not Aircrew above). This kit offers two beret options: a bulkier one with the crash-helmet liner in place (the strict regulation look), and a slouchier one worn more to the side, as if the liner had been removed — which crews genuinely did in practice, since the padded liner was hot and cumbersome outside the tank. Neither is more "correct" than the other.

Coat (Kradmantel): the German motorcyclist's protective coat, introduced in 1934: a 3/4-length, double-breasted grey-green rubberized coat with a deep wool collar (dark green cloth for this 1936–39 period — the collar only changed to field-grey uniform cloth from 1940 onward), buttonholes at the hem that could be fastened around the legs for riding, and a deep caped panel across the back. It's a single rubberized layer rather than a padded winter garment, which is why it reads leaner than the bulkier coats associated with WWII-era photos — a genuine period difference, not an underscaled sculpt.

Eyewear: deliberately not included. The reference photographs used for this figure don't show goggles, so none were sculpted — a choice based on the specific source images rather than a general assumption that all motorcyclists of the period wore them.

Motorcycle: a large flat-twin sidecar motorcycle of the type used by the German military through the 1930s (BMW R12 or similar) — treat this as a plausible type match rather than a confirmed identification from the (fairly low-resolution) reference photographs.

Where the two kit-supplied beret options differ, or where coat weathering is concerned, there's genuine room to interpret — this section explains why the underlying reference photos show a leaner silhouette than a typical WWII tanker figure, not that anything about the sculpt is inaccurate.

Colours Overview

Colour names are generic mixing targets, not brand-specific codes. Swap in your preferred paint range (Vallejo, AK Interactive, Scale75, etc.).

Glossary

Legion Condor: the German expeditionary force sent to support the Nationalists in Spain from 1936, comprising Luftwaffe air units alongside anti-aircraft, signals, and armoured ground troops.

Panzergruppe "Imker" / "Gruppe Drohne": the Legion's armoured training and combat element, commanded by Colonel Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, equipped with Panzer I light tanks from October 1936.

Schutzmütze: the M1934 black Panzer beret with its internal rubber crash-helmet liner — the German tank arm's distinctive protective headgear.

Kradmantel: the German military's 3/4-length rubberized motorcyclist's protective coat, introduced 1934.

Totenkopf: literally "death's head" — the skull-and-crossbones motif used by several distinct German military traditions in this period (including the Panzer arm and the SS) with different origins; not a single unified symbol, and not interchangeable between those traditions.

Nationalist faction: the side of the Spanish Civil War led by the military officers who rose up against the Republic in July 1936, eventually under Francisco Franco — the side the Legion Condor supported.

This glossary is shared across the Linden Models Spanish Civil War series. Terms already defined on other guide pages are not repeated here — see the Republican Miliciana, Young Falangist, and British Volunteer guides for those.

Historical References

This figure is a composite type rather than a portrait, assembled from a small set of period reference photographs (including a group photo showing men in the black beret discussed above, standing beside a sidecar motorcycle). None of these are individually identifiable to one named person, and we have not established the rights holder for any of them, so out of caution none are reproduced or linked here.

General background sourced from the Wikipedia articles on the Condor Legion and the Condor Legion Tank Badge, and the Imperial War Museums' catalogue entries for the M1934 Schutzmütze (Panzer beret) and the M1940 Kradmantel. Our own studio photography of the sculpted and painted figure is the primary visual reference on this page.

Recommended Reading

• Soldiers of von Thoma: Legion Condor Ground Forces in the Spanish Civil War — Lucas Molina Franco & José Mª Arias Ramos
• The Condor Legion: German Troops in the Spanish Civil War — Carlos Caballero Jurado
• Legion Condor 1936–39: The Luftwaffe Develops Blitzkrieg in the Spanish Civil War — James S. Corum
• The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 — Antony Beevor
• The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge — Paul Preston

Links carry the lindenmodels-20 Amazon Associates tag. The first two are specifically about the Legion's ground forces (the first covers von Thoma's units directly); the Corum title focuses on the Luftwaffe side for contrast; Beevor and Preston are general histories for wider context.

Downloads

A print-ready PDF of this guide — handy to keep next to your paints while you work.

Other Figures in This Series