Overview

This figure represents a composite type — the freelance photojournalists who arrived in Spain from 1936 onward to cover a war unlike any before it. Two cameras hang from straps at his chest: a Leica IIIa (1935), the fast 35mm rangefinder that put unposed, in-the-moment combat photography within reach for the first time, and a Rolleiflex Standard 622, the square-format twin-lens reflex that was just as common among the leading photographers of the era. The kit includes two interchangeable heads — with cap and bareheaded — so you can build either version.

Historical Context

The Spanish Civil War is widely regarded as the first war covered by modern media — the first conflict where compact, fast cameras let photographers work at the front line itself rather than behind it, and where the results reached the public within days through a new generation of illustrated magazines: Life, Picture Post, Regards, Vu and others. Photographers came from across Europe and North America, many covering a war for the first time in their lives, and the images they sent back shaped how the outside world understood the conflict as it happened — arguably for the first time in history.

The Leica IIIa, introduced in 1935 with a top shutter speed of 1/1000s, was the camera many of the photographers who made their names in Spain carried into the field — fast to use, small enough to work unnoticed, and built for the 35mm film that let a photographer shoot dozens of frames without reloading. The Rolleiflex, with its slower, more deliberate square-format waist-level workflow, was just as often the second body slung around the same reporter's neck, or the primary camera of colleagues working alongside them. It made international reputations — and it cost lives: several photographers who covered Spain died doing it, including at least one woman killed on the front line, a first in the history of war photography.

Sourced from Magnum Photos: Robert Capa and the Spanish Civil War, Camera-wiki: Leica IIIa, mikeeckman.com: Rolleiflex Standard K2 Type 622, and Wikipedia: Gerda Taro.

Clothing & Equipment

Gorra (flat cap): a grey civilian newsboy/flat cap — one of two interchangeable head options included with this kit, the other being bareheaded. Neither head is military issue; this figure is a civilian press photographer, not a combatant.

Camisa (shirt): a cream/off-white button shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbow — plain civilian workwear suited to the heat and the job.

Pantalón (trousers) and botas (boots): brown trousers and brown leather boots, practical rather than uniform — the everyday kit of a working reporter who spent long days on foot near the front.

Leica IIIa: held to the eye in both hands, the primary camera — a 35mm rangefinder, the tool that came to define fast, unposed combat photography in this war.

Rolleiflex Standard 622: a boxier twin-lens reflex camera worn on a neck strap at chest height, its square viewing hood distinguishing it clearly from the Leica — the second camera, associated with the era's slower, more considered medium-format work.

This figure is a composite type and does not depict a named individual — see Historical References below.

Colours Overview

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

Glossary

Leica IIIa: a German 35mm rangefinder camera introduced in 1935, one of the most widely used press cameras of the late 1930s, prized for its speed and compact size.

Rolleiflex Standard 622: a German twin-lens reflex camera producing square medium-format negatives on roll film, viewed from above through a waist-level hood rather than held to the eye.

Twin-lens reflex (TLR): a camera design with two matched lenses stacked vertically — one for taking the photograph, one feeding a viewing screen — as opposed to a rangefinder's single lens and optical viewfinder.

This glossary is shared across the Linden Models Spanish Civil War series. Terms already defined on other guide pages are not repeated here.

Historical References

This figure is a composite type representing the freelance photojournalists who covered the Spanish Civil War, rather than a portrait of a named individual. The two cameras he carries — a Leica IIIa and a Rolleiflex Standard 622 — echo the kit most closely associated with Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, the best-known photographers of this war and partners both professionally and personally; Taro, who photographed largely with a Rolleiflex, was killed covering the Battle of Brunete in July 1937, the first woman war photographer to die on the front line. This figure honours that history without depicting either of them specifically.

Sourced from Magnum Photos: Robert Capa and the Spanish Civil War, Wikipedia: Gerda Taro, Camera-wiki: Leica IIIa, mikeeckman.com: Rolleiflex Standard K2 Type 622, and Wikipedia: History of Spanish photojournalism.

Recommended Reading

• Robert Capa: Death in the Making — Capa, Taro & Chim's own 1938 Spanish Civil War photobook (2020 reissue)
• The Mexican Suitcase — Cynthia Young, ed. (the rediscovered Spanish Civil War negatives of Capa, Taro and Chim)
• Waiting for Robert Capa — Susana Fortes (novel, on Capa and Taro)
• The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 — Antony Beevor

Links carry the lindenmodels-20 Amazon Associates tag. Death in the Making is the actual wartime photobook by the photographers this figure is inspired by; the Fortes title is a fictionalised account, not a strict biography.

Downloads

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

Other Figures in This Series