Can anyone recommend a beginners guide to the the period please s I am thinking of having a go at it

Cheers

Hello Fenton

What sort of guide are you looking for? History, uniform, OB, ?

General Info from Bob Cordrey - http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/scw/scwindex.htm

History

The Battle for Spain - Anthony Beevor
The Spanish Civil War - Hugh Thomas
Osprey Essential History - Spanish Civil War

These are fairly balanced but be aware that some histories of the Passionate War can be biased  

Uniforms

Scans of Bueno's work on uniforms - http://mundosgm.com/uniformes-y-regalia/uniformes-de-la-guerra-civil-espanola/?PHPSESSID=og71gv8l2vl0nmegvgijjpbbd7

Osprey has a number of Men at Arms on the war including a new one on Nationalists which I haven't seen yet:-

Wargaming

If you can find a copy - La Ultima Cruzada: A Wargamers Guide to the SCW - B Cordery

Armies of the Spanish Civil War http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/98090/Armies-of-the-Spanish-Civil-War-Armies?filters=300_0_0_0_0

Cheers, let me know if you need some more detailed info.

GrumpyOldMan

Too Fat Lardies have done a load of free stuff, but aimed at platoon level for Chain of Command. I'll try and find a link later.

I can recommend Beevor's book as well. Steven Balangans site has lots of useful stuff too; again I'll find a link later when I'm at home.

Lardy stuff has been revised and consolidated into a single version 2 document downloadable from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kunsSnxsRpTVhQOUtfczcwWEk/edit

Many thanks everyone...I will try track down the Beevor book and download the Lardies stuff as well

Just looks like an interesting period and wanted a balanced view of it, being where I am from I know all about  slanted views of history

Some more useful stuff to whet your appetite:

http://bobrowen.com/nymas/soviet_tank_operations_in_the_sp.htm

http://balagan.info/industrial-warfare/spanish-civil-war

http://mr-home.staff.shef.ac.uk/rules/sbscw.html

http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/model/spain/index.html

http://miniaturasmilitaresalfonscanovas.blogspot.fr/search/label/GUERRA%20CIVIL%20ESPA%C3%91OLA

http://mundosgm.com/uniformes-y-regalia/uniformes-de-la-guerra-civil-espanola/?PHPSESSID=dhng19ddfsla8kbknslo8fob05

http://tanks-and-support-vehicles-1925to1950.blogspot.fr/search/label/Spain

Hope these are of use to you? It certainly is a colourful period full of lots of character, with plenty of forces to choose from.

http://www.wargames.cat/Dwnload/Vex/

Cheers Steve

This lot will either tip me over the edge or completely overwhelm me

Maybe read some of the Wikipaedia articles to see if it really does interest you before heading in too deep?

This is a useful link for Italian CTV uniforms. 

http://miniaturasmilitaresalfonscanovas.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/boletim-n-25-de-la-agupacion-de.html