Fruits of the Kickstarter - Soviet Women of WW2

 

Today I got delivery of the first Kickstarter I've backed in ages (over two years?).  This one was Women of WW2: Soviet Russia from Bad Squiddo Games, which finished on 15 April and in true Bad Squiddo fashion is being fulfiled quickly and promptly.

The purple box of delights

WW2 isn't really my thing, so I did a very small pledge - a token of support really - chosing some items that would fit in with my Pulp theme.  As a result, I've got four figures, lovely sclupts by Alan Marsh, very crisply and cleanly cast.

Nightwitches

Sniper team

Spacemen and Space Monsters

Back on Saturday I posted that I had just ordered some of Cold War Minis astronauts (to me, these are definitely Spacemen, and that's how they will be referred to from now on!  I don't know what the gender-neutral version of Spacemen is.)

Well they arrived this morning (it's Wednesday), and are rather nice.

Looking at them, it strikes me that they might make a good match for Statuesque Miniatures Statuesque Starport range.  Those may end up next on the shopping list...

And by a stroke a serendipity, this morning I spotted some suitable Alien Opponents in the charity shop.  Great, eh?

And yes, I do know the story of the origins of the Rust Monster et al.

Shopping

I wandered into the City yesterday and managed to pick up a couple of things.  Nothing special, but it's a long time since I bought any figures...

First up, I picked up my pre-ordered copy of the Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed starter set.  As I said in my ramble the other night, I've been feeling pulpy.

Hopefully I'll give it a go over the next few days.

I also popped into one of the shops that sells secondhand gaming stuff and picked up these

Anything by Pulp Figures is worth getting at less than half-price, so that was a no-brainer; the West Wind Arthurian figures (not a range I knew they did) will come in for D&D.

Also, spotted this morning on Facebook thanks to Christopher Sheets, is the fact that Cold War Miniatures have a half-price sale on some rather nice astronauts.  So I've ordered some of them.  At 32mm, they may be a bit large. but we'll see.

It's not a company I was aware of before.  They have a good range of Not Flash Gordon figures (with Mong's Men just in pre-order) and zombies.  I shall keep an eye on them.

Feelin' Pulpy

Stream of consciousness follows as I'm in a restless mood...

I've been in a Pulpish frame of mind of late.  Over the last year or so, I've been picking up books by Edgar Rice Burrows when I come across them (not actively seeking them out, but...) and have got some HP Lovecraft and HLP Mythos ones.  With the exception of a couple of the Barsoom books I've not read any, but still.

Reading a novel based on Dashiell Hammett (Joe Gores, Hammett, which I'd recommend), last week reminded me that while I'd read the Continental Op stories, I hadn't read The Maltese Falcon!  That's probably because I know the film so well.  Anyway, I took the copy that I've had for 30 years off my shelf and am a third of the way through it.  First surprise, Sam Spade is blonde!

I've always liked Pulp in the form of space opera and other sci-fi.  Can anyone recommend any modern examples?  I'm not a fan of the current trend for Military Science Fiction though.  The examples I've read in the past have just been so poorly written (a surprising criticism when talking about Pulp Literature, I know!).

My favorite Pulp genre has always been Lost Worlds.  As a kid I loved Conan Doyle's Lost World and Verne's Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, and I was 12 when 'Warlords of Atlantis' came out in the pictures, which made me the target audience.  Great stuff.

As far as gaming goes, I love the minis that Antediluvian Miniatures have done based on 'Warlords' and 'At the Earth's Core'.  I just wish I had an excuse to use them.  Somewhere I have the quick rules for the Hollow Earth RPG.  I really should bone up on them and offer to do a one-shot at the FLGS, but with The Wife being ill, I have very little free time to offer at the moment and am having to miss out on our regular games as it is.

Solo gaming is probably the answer.  Dino Egg Hunt is a fall-back (I never ran the game I threatened to at Easter).  'Eat Hitler' appeals.  Another option is 7th Edn Call of Cthuhlu.  I ordered the starter pack with the store credit I won last month, and will hopefully be picking it up this weekend.

Pulpy Shinies from Bad Squiddo

Bad Squiddo Games has just announce a couple of new releases sculpted by Paul Muller that scream out"Pulp!".  And I'm a sucker for Pulp...
 

These are available at the pre-order price of £7.50 for the pair (normal price £8.00).  They won't be shipped for a fortnight.

As some of you know, Bad Squiddo is very much a one-person shop.  As anyone who has tried to run a business on their own knows, such businesses are even more at the mercy of Real Life than others.  Earlier this year, Annie had to make an unexpected move from Cardiff to Nottingham, finding new premises and shifting stock etc.  This coincided with the planned dispatch of her latest Kickstarter, which was well and truly effed-up.  That led to a backlog of orders, a huge backlog of e-mail (many of them negative).  Given that Annie has moved away from her support network and the part-time staff she had, this all fell on her shoulders: her health has suffered. 

The other problem caused by these backlogs is one of cashflow - fatal to small businesses.  Despite that, Annie made the decision not to release anything from her new releases queue until she could promise dispatch withing a reasonable period.  Annie is a good sort.  If her stuff appeals to you, I urge you to put an order in and help her out.

Painting Challenge Submissions: Pilots and Tong

Curt's wheeze of having a cull off those who hadn't submitted to the Painting Challenge by 20 Jan served to give me the kick up the backside I needed.  Just in time, I manged to get these fellows done.

The first is from Ironclad Miniature's splendid VSF range - the pilot from their steam helicopter.  I won't be submitting  the (still partially-finished) helicopter as part of the Challenge, as it was started some months ago, but included a picture of him in the aircraft for context..

He has a Bleriot quality

The pilot striding out to his Spitfire or Hurricane is from the ever-reliable Artizan - their Pilot Officer Reynolds.   I decided for khaki rather than RAF uniform as likely to use him in a Pulp setting.  I was rather pleased with how he came out.

For the EAST Bonus Round I thought I would submit some proper East End villains.  So here are Wing Fen, the Limehouse Scholar, and some of his 'students'. 

They were horribly rushed, and I'm far from happy with them - especially the bases.  My original intention was to try to base them with some Victorian paving stones or cobbles, but I didn't really have the time, so instead I went with my usual 'Home Counties gravel quarry' (in this case doubling as the famous yellow mud of the Yangtze).

Dr Wing is from Ironclad Miniatures' series of VSF Characters, whereas the muscle are from Foundry's Victorian range.

So that's my duck broken - hopefully there will be more soon!

Deep Sea Divers (and 600 Up!)

For the latest bonus round - Nautical - of the painting challenge I splashed out on a set of Victorian Divers from Foundry (actually, Casting Room Miniatures).  It's a set I've had my eye on for some time, so I was pleased for the excuse to get and paint them up.

It seems I wasn't alone!  Two other members of the challenge submitted figures from this pack - and completely outclassed me along the way!

Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with them.  They are nice, characterful figures that took quite nicely to paint.

To me, these divers bring up a couple of iconic images.  The first is John Wayne and Ray Millard grappling with each other and battling a giant squid/octopus*

*SPOILER ALERT:  It's often said that 'The Cowboys' was the first film in which Wayne was killed - not so, in 'Reap the Wild Wind' two divers go down to the wreck and only one returns!

But for me Herge will always be the master*, so I thought I would see what I could steal do by way of homage.

*No, not The Master - that's Roger Delgado

Sadly, my rushed photography in advance of the deadline hasn't done them justice*, but I think you get the idea that the Haddock has worked quite well.  Tintin's quiff hasn't survived the diving helmet.  I think he looks more like River Phoenix!

* What PeterD called my 'choice of sepia tones' in presenting the Nosferatu figures! lol.

This is my 600th published post.  Having posted about the death of Robert Audin yesterday has made me realise how much I have gained from blogging and how much I value the contacts I have made thereby.  Thank you for your company and your comments.  There may be prizes...

Pulpy Goodness

I've taken the opportunity of a pre-order offer (which at the time of writing is about to close) to obtain Mak and Gauge, the latest figures from Statuesque Miniatures.  They're from their Pulp Alley range and therefore also available in the States through Pulp Alley themselves.  Andrew at Statuesque is Good People (as are David and Mila at Pulp Alley) and has been sending me updates on the order and a slight (one day!) delay.

Mak looks to me as if he could do as a Not-Tintin and Gauge's usefulness as a Kayley has be commented on elsewhere.

I also took the advantage of picking up at the Vice Alley supplement to Pulp Alley and a couple of the other figures from the range.

On The Kindness of Bloggers

It is often remarked that the area of the blogosphere dedicated to our hobby is populated by a fine bunch of generous people.

The other week I posted that I was feeling out of sorts and mojo-less given that I rarely get a game in.  I was flooded with commiserations and useful suggestions.  Jonathan Freitag was of the opinion (and not to be dissuaded) that what I needed was some shiny goodness.  Accordingly, this lot appeared yesterday

Cowled Cultists 1

Evil Hooded Minions 1

Now, you can't ask for anything more pulpy than that can you?

The miniatures are of course from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures stable.  Despite how some might have read my recent post on cultists, I do like this sort of thing, and they will form a very useful group (or two) alongside the Artezan cultists I was lucky enough to get from The Kiwi as my Secret Santa last year.

The 'Tooth and Claw' rules are of course to help with my Lost World/Egg Hunt set-up.  I haven't yet had a good look at them (small print on a grey background conspired against bedtime reading), but will probably stick with Pulp Alley for the main part (I like the simplicity and how quickly things flow).  What I'm really looking for from T&C are ideas on how create the beasts and what mechanisms to use for their actions.  So far it looks as if will prove very useful.

AHPCV #1: The Man of (Cold) Steel

No not Superman.

My take on the 'Cold' Bonus Round is Cold War, and for me that means Josif Vissarionovich Stalin.  Here he is resplendent in uniform, ready for his holiday on the Black Sea and his summer job.

And you don't get 'Colder' than Stalin selling ice-cream in Yalta.

However, for my domestic (Pulpish) purposes he's not Uncle Joe, but Boris Mikhailovich Panin the well-known Stalin look-alike.

Panin was big in the '80s, making popular appearances at Party parties, but that dropped off under Gorbachev and he was reduced to comparing at Jack Rabbit Slimski's, a theme-bar aimed at the flood of foreign businessmen visiting Moscow.  After the 1991 coup d'état attempt he went underground.  He re-emerged in Tashkent in 1995, declaring himself Generalissimus of the New Soviet Union.  He has attracted a large following looking for a return to the old Soviet certainties (and helped a little by the rumour that he is in fact Stalin's illegitimate son).

The real mystery however, is just who is funding his well-supplied private army.  The FSB, MI6, the CIA and other (more secret) organisations need to find the answer...

I realise that when sending details to Curt, I forgot to talk about the figure itself.  It's 28mm and from Black Tree Design.

(Not) Paint Table Sunday

I had, of course, hoped to share some photos today of work done on the paint table.  Sadly, there hasn't been any...

But fortunately (The Wife doesn't quite see this point of view), we had a Smoke and Flame Incident in the kitchen.

Now, as we know, the makers of modern appliances aren't too keen on you getting into their machines in order to canabalise (of heaven forefend, repair!) them.  

So a delicate surgical procedure was necessary...

Overseen by Prof Morrison and Herr Doktor

"You know, Professor, we should employ some Minions..."

I had hoped that there would be lots of cogs for me to use in my Secret Project, but instead I got more of a crashed spaceship vibe...

So Junior packed up the pieces for reverse-engineering.

In other news, I was fortunate enough to be given some boxes.

"A box for your crates, Sir?"