Toffs, Resistance, Heavies and Assassins.

 Catching up with my painting output, here is a collection of figures I've recently completed.

First up is another of the Bad Squiddo Women of the Resistance.  Meet Danish Resistance explosives expert and music composer Else Marie Pade.  One of the things I love about Bad Squiddo's resistance members is that, since most of them are in civilian clothing and many are unarmed, they fit nicely into my interwar labour action games!

These two toffs represent a change from the working class that I've been working on recently.  The gent on the left is from Pulp Figures, while the flapper on the right is a bonus figure that Nic included in my latest order from Eureka Miniatures. 

Nic informed me that she is based on a photo of early Hollywood film star Louise Brooks.  

Also up is a collection of heavies from Pulp Figures and an assassin from Grey For Now Games' 02h00 'Operation Torchlight' set.  

Here's a closeup of the shotgun-toting heavy.

And to round out the group, this mid 19th-Century RN midshipman from Copplestone Castings.  This particular model had been sitting in the old lead pile for many years (ok, decades), long after I painted and in some cases lost the other figures from the same set!

And to round out today's offerings, I also finished up more docks from the Games Workshop Middle-earth Laketown House set.  The slightly darker painted set are the docks that I painted over the past week and the slightly lighter coloured docks are the ones I painted a few years ago.

Dogsled

 The main mode of transportation in the arctic in winter prior to the invention of skidoos and construction of winter roads was the dogsled.  So naturally any gold rush or other arctic gaming will need some dogsleds, and here is the first one in my collection.  This is from Copplestone Castings via North Star Figures.  In addition to the dogsled there are a couple of huskies, one from Copplestone and one from Pulp Figures.

Whenever I build something like a cart or other transport pulled by animals I hem and haw over whether to include the traces and/or reins.  I almost left traces off this time but finally decided to include them.  In this case the traces are made from thread soaked in CA glue. The traces are not accurate, the dogs should be attached in pairs rather than each individually as I've done here.  If a real dog musher connected their dogs this way there would be instant chaos as the dogs would immediately tangle their traces!

I'm happy with this dogsled but will be interested if anyone can recommend other dogsleds in 28mm size.

Arctic adventures

 Arthur and I had a visit to the Vancouver Maritime Museum this afternoon.  The key exhibit at the VMM is the RCMP St Roch, which served communities in the Canadian arctic from 1928 to 1954, including traversing the Northwest Passage multiple times, and was the first ship to circumnavigate North America.  

In addition to the St Roch, the VMM has some great displays about Arctic exploration among its other great displays.  Thus it's a great intro to today's post.  After Arthur and I returned from the EAAE, we hosted a game based on the hunt for the mad trapper of Rat River.  While we picked a bunch of proxy figures from our current collection, few of them were actually fitted to the real event.  This inaccuracy could not be allowed to stand, so i placed an order with North Star Military Figures for some Copplestone Castings polar explorers and Inuit hunters.  Now we will be ready for a replay of the Rat River action!

The four Inuit hunters can be hunters, and can also support the RCMP as special constables.

They are wearing animal skin (sealskin, most likely) for their parkas, mukluks and trousers. The parkas should be whiter shade seen on the two figures on the left but I suppose the other pair could be wearing caribou skin.  I don't know the reason for the tails on the belts of the two on the left, so I just painted them grey.

The four white guys are can be explorers, Mounties, hunters or any other folks depending on the scenario requirements.  Based on my research, they should all be in khaki or beige but that would be far too boring so I added colour where I could.

Finally, a group photo!

And finally, Arthur and I watched 'Death Hunt' last night.  This was a 1981 movie starring Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin, loosely based on the mad trapper hunt.  We had great fun picking out where the movie made mistakes, but also the details it got right.  It was clear from some of the details that the writers had done their research, but then decided to change aspects of the real story.  Arthur generally thought that the real story was plenty dramatic, and the deviations introduced by the filmmakers did not improve the story.

It's a fun movie but not to be taken seriously.

WWI Russian Reinforcements

 As my WWI Russian cavalry had a slightly off-putting 9 cavalrymen, I placed an order to North Star Miniatures to top up the unit to a nice, round number of 10.  But of course I can never order just one thing!  So I added a couple extra packs, and here they are.

First up, here are a pair of generals from Crusader Miniatures Boxer Rebellion line.  I had an idea that Boxer Rebellion would be close enough to WWI, especially for officers.  The officer in the great coat fits in well for WWI, but the chap in the tunic and cap didn't match my other WWI Russians.  On the other hand I thought he was a good fit for my 1880-ish Russian general!  So I gave him a white coat and red trousers to match the Russian forces for Central Asia.

Copplestone identifies these as 'Cossack Standard Bearers', but in my mind the flag poles can just as easily be lances, so two of these are lancers.  The miniatures in the pack are in a mix of uniforms so I painted one to match the WWI cavalry, and the other two to match the Circassian cossacks for Central Asia.

The great thing about the unchanging nature of the uniforms worn by these Circassians is that I can justify using them any time from the mid-nineteenth century right up to WWII.  The black-yellow-white tricolour flag, however, is a bit more specific.  It was phased out in the 1890s in favour of the white-blue-red tricolour of Peter the Great.  So the standard is great for the army conquering Central Asia, but not so much for WWI.

I painted the other Copplestone cavalryman to match the uniform worn by the horsemen I got from Siberia Miniatures.  The Copplestone horse and rider are a bit bigger than the Siberians, but with the same paint scheme they fit together pretty well.

Mixed into the unit, he and his mount are visibly larger, but for my purposes he fits in well enough.

To round out the order, I picked up a Copplestone Castings field gun.  

The base is a funny, wedge-shaped bit of wood that I had in my bits box.  I suppose I could have trimmed off the pointed end, but it does no harm as it is.

Here is the Copplestone field gun next to the Siberia miniatures field gun with navy crew.

Russian Revolutionaries!

 Around three years ago, I picked up the 'Defenders of the Manor' from Siberia Miniatures.  And now I have finally painted their adversaries, the enthusiastic Bolshevik rebels.  According to Siberia's website, many of these rebels are caricatures of modern politicians of the 2010s, but most are unfamiliar to me!

Banners are always fun.  Arthur provided the slogans. The one on the right is 'Land Bread and Freedom', the one on the left is 'Long Live the Revolution'.

The other side of the banner says 'Down with Capitalism', because two sides to the banner means two different slogans.  Correction - it means 'Down with Capitalists' - a subtle but significant difference!

Some rebels.  I couldn't figure out why the one on the left is carrying around a big pole.  The accordion player is a caricature of Putin, and the soldier dancing to his tune is based on Medvedev.

The chap with the sabre is based on Turkish President Erdogan.

Two well-dressed women

And a child rebel leading a bear.  Possibly a metaphor for the changes that the revolution brought to Russia!

I also finished up this Copplestone figure that has been in my lead pile for far longer than I care to admit!

And finally a group shot showing all the Siberia figures, defenders of manor as well as the rebels.

(South) Western Figures

 A few more wild West figures today - clearing out the old lead pile!  Mostly Pulp Figures plus an old Copplestone Castings Urban Cowgirl.  I'm not certain where the other urban cowgirls are - hopefully they turn up sometime.

I had thought that these figures would be enough to ensure that I'd have enough 'Mexican' figures for any random events required in my games.  This based on a slightly stereotypical assumption that Mexican = big sombrero and poncho!  As it happens, I have a baker's dozen of 'figures with big sombreros' - more than enough for any likely encounters.  'Badges? We don need no steenkin' badges!'