Two Weird War Scientists (Mad Or Otherwise)

These two 28mm figures are part of my slowly expanding but yet to be used Weird War Two collection.  The Nazi chap is a Pulp Figures mini from Bob Murch, and the carrot-top civvie is by Artizan.

The sinister fellow in the lab coat is Herr Dokktor Bruno Jaegermeister, head of research for the sinister, occult dominated portion of the SS that specializes in sinister, occult matters.   Perhaps he helps the SS Vampyrs to animate corpses, or he works with the Wulffentruppen on breeding better monsters - he'll be useful in either capacity.   Almost certainly he had a dodgy academic transcript but then denounced his supervisor as a cosmopolitan Jew, stole his research notes, and then made a name for himself promoting the superiority of Aryan genes.   In other words, a total cad.   He will be a high value target for S Commando.

The fellow in the nice cardigan is Dr. Hamish Montfort McGonnigle, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Science and Professor of Science at the University of Edinburgh, who is now the head of research for Project Alice, Britain's secret line of defence against the darkest forces stirring in the Reich.   He's smart, cantankerous, and a hardheaded believer in good science, empiricism and skepticism.   He may find himself forced to accept the existence of some strange things before it's all over.

 
Dr. Jagermeister has a bit of a secret base starting to come together.   I've assembled one of the two MDF quonset huts I got from Sarissa.  I am thinking of painting it in Germany yellow (dunkelgelb) with a camo pattern, as presumably a secret base needs to be hidden from the air.  To the right is a Sarissa MDF searchlight and generator, which could also be used as a death ray projector, I suppose.   Behind that are some resin crates from 6 Squared, since a secret base needs some sinister shipments to secretly stockpile (see what I did there?).

I have some 1/48 scale vehicles for the Nazi secret base thanks to my chum James, and some more Sarissa scenery to add to it.  A backkburner project, but it's slowly coming together.

These figures bring my 2016 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 56; Mounted Figures: 5; Buildings: 2; Terrain Features: 4

6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2

Some Artizan Weird War Two Heroes and Heroines

My Weird War Two project has been slowly growing over the years, even if I’ve never actually played a game with any of these figures - yet.

Hopefully that will change soon.  Here are some heroes and heroines who will struggle to prevent unspeakable dark forces from being unleaded on the world by the occult and ancient evils which the Reich has awakened and made its faustian bargain with.

These figures are all 28mm Artizan sculpts, from their wonderful Thrilling Tales range.  From left to right, the Artizan product codes are PLP165 General Clearwell, PLP133 Sgt Milsom, PLP132 Inspector Dawlish, PLP146 ATS Driver Sally Haines and PLP055 Ivette.

When Mademoiselle is not waitressing at a well known Cafe frequented by high ranking Germans, she is part of a special Resistance network that assists Project Alice’s agents as they learn the scope of the Nazi’s occult projects.

Her undeniable charms have distracted more than a few would be suitors, until too late they see the business end of her Sten gun.

I am a huge fan of the TV show these three characters are clearly inspired by.  Any guesses which show it is?

Oh for goodness sake, it’s easy.

I’ve tried to capture Foyle’s wonderful camelhair overcoat and his blue fedora, and usually Millner wears a grey overcoat with a brown suit and hat.  The Milner/Milsom figure is curiously cast as if he has a slight limp, which fits the character seeing as Milner lost a leg while fighting in Norway before returning to the CID.   In the TV shows, after a while it’s as if he grows his leg back, because Milner gets quite spry in the later seasons.

The police, Detective Inspector Barnaby (couldn’t resist, lots of talk of late about Midsomer Murders) and his assistant, Sergeant Jones, will have top-secret clearance to work with Project Alice on occult incidents manifesting themselves in Britain.   The ATS driver (is there any actress lovelier than Honeysuckle Weeks?) captures the pluck of Sam Stewart’s character, and even has her red hair.  When she’s not driving the detectives around, she might act as the assistant, Katherine Putnam, for Brigadier Kenneth McAllister, commander of Project Alice and it’s military arm, S Commando - some of you with long memories may remember meeting her and the Brigadier here.

Putnam don’t take no crap from Nazi bad girls.  No other excise for this photo than to show how well Artizan figures mixl with Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures.

Don’t let his rotund appearance fool you.   As a young subaltern in the Midsomer Regiment, he won the MC for taking command of a decimated battalion as the sole surviving officer during the Retreat from Mons and led his men back to safety.   As a staff officer assigned to the Canadian Corps, he was involved in the incident (officially denied by the War Office) of the Werewolf of the Trenches, the backstory for the Rockies Ablaze, which is the backstory to my Weird War 2 project.  But I digress.    Because of his experience of the occult, McCallister was picked to head Project Alice, and his network of contacts, including DI Barnaby (a CSM in the Midsomer Regt during the Great War), has proved invaluable as he put his team together.

Painting this figure makes me want to watch the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp again.

OK, lots of fluff for just five figures.  Thanks for being patient if you got this far.

 

These figures bring my 2016 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 34; Mounted Figures: 3; Buildings: 1

6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2

Last Painted Figures Of 2015, Part One of Two

2015 is almost in the bag and these are the last figures off my painting bench.  All the minis shown in this post are 28mm and are from the less serious side of my painting interests.

First up are two figures for my Weird War Two project.  On the left is Gefreiter Arnold Schwarsenjaeger.  He’s a Bob Murch Pulp Figures mini from the Stahl Mask Doom Squad pack.  On the right is the Artizan sculpt, Father Sweeney.

The Fr. Sweeney figure will represent one of the heroes of my Weird War project, Fr. Tristram Mercer, scholar and vampire hunter, before he entered the military.  I love his hair.  I think he also plays bass in a 1980s New Wave band.

 

Next up are two baddies for my Middle Earth project.  Both are Games Workshop figures.  On the left is Gothmog, Captain of Mordor who will make an excellent orc commander.  On the right is an Orc Taskmaster.   Leadership is a pretty simple science in Mordor.

The taskmaster is quite a corpulent fellow.  He must eat the runty orcs who fail basic training.

Gothmog is an orc of style and sports some natty yellow trousers.  He must be an hussar at heart.

Finally, a refurbished GW Rohirrim Horse Archer.  Not a great picture.  I gave him a red shield just to break the pattern of green shields done thus far.

Horse archer vs Gothmog.  Who will win?

 

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 85; Mounted Figures: 15, Artillery: 2, Vehicles: 2, Scenic Pieces: 2

20mm:  Vehicles: 1; Artillery: 1, Foot Figures: 6

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5; 15mm Scenic Pieces: 5

6mm:  Scenic pieces:  7

Hapless Heer and Horrible Hans

Here are three lovely Artizan 28mm sculpts from their Europe Ablaze series.  They will be useful in my Weird War Two project as sentries, guards, and general-duty human targets.  They are really just asking for a Fairbairn-Sykes knife in the back, if you ask me.  

I’ve painted them as bog-standard Wehrmacht troops.  The way I see the project unfolding, the various occult branches of the SS and other sinister organizations will need spear-carriers to provide their outer-perimeter security or even as bait to lure the Allies into the clutches of unspeakable horrors. But don’t tell these fellows that.

 I amy augment these fellows with some of the Foundry 28mm German sentries and guards sets.

Halt!  Papers!   

Commandoes’ eye view.

The boys like my 4Ground Sentry Box and Gate kits.

Forbidding Fritz.

Sergeant Schlachter.  He fancies his moustache makes him a hit with the ladies.

Laconic Lars.  He doesn’t say much.

And here is Horrible Hans,  He’s a wonderful figure from two-fisted sculptor, fellow Canadian Bob Murch.

With his bundle of seven stick grenade, it’s not clear if there will be anything left to stab, but you never know.  I figure my mad scientists will need some hulking psychopaths as their bodyguards.

Just don’t get in his way.

 

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 65; Mounted Figures: 11, Artillery: 2, Vehicles: 2, Scenic Pieces: 2

20mm:  Vehicles: 1; Artillery: 1, Foot Figures: 6

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5; 15mm Scenic Pieces: 5

6mm:  Scenic pieces:  7

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Paint Table Saturday: Nasty Nazis

The nasty orcses featured here recently have tromped off the painting table en route to the basing station.   I hope they don’t squabble and kill each other on the way.   

In their place, the nasty theme continues as I turn to Nazis for my Weird War Two pulp project.  

We have some grim madchens from the SS Werewulfentruppen (Bob Mulch Pulp Figures), a couple of sinister officers (Westwind, I think) and a trio of hapless Wehrmacht sentries to give S Commando some practice in hand to hand combat.

Blessings to your brushes and whatever you’re painting.  Go Blue Jays!

MP+

 

Two Grumpy Old Men

These two crotchety gents are the prizes for the Play by Blog/Email Diplomacy game that finished here last month.   

The fellow on the left goes to Edwin King, who played Italy, and won the prize for Best Roleplaying. The fellow on the right goes to Mark Haughey, who led the game as England when we had to stop.  Well done, lads.  Sorry it’s taken so long to get these done.

 Both these figures are Artizan, from their French Foreign Legion range.   Edwin first suggested these figures to me when we were discussing a figure that might do for the persona he created, Count di Graspi.   Edwin wrote a lot of brilliant fluff for our in-game newspaper, The Daily Dissembler.  My favourite entry has to be this one, in which he is a charming schemer and lecher. I have no idea what Italian generals wore in the early 1900s, but I liked the dark green uniform to suggest the traditional in-game colour for Italy in Diplomacy.

 The other fellow was painted as per Mark’s specifications, kind of English, kind of French.   With the moustache he calls to mind Sir John French of the BEF, if French wasn’t such a total Francophobe.  I’ll get these chaps in the mail early next week.  

Cheers,  MP+

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 6; Mounted Figures: 10

20mm 

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5

6mm:

Kilometres Run: 80

Thesis Pages Written:  75

Saturday Painting Desk

New up on the painting desk is a collection of Artizan figures for my Weird War Two project, and a stand of Yanks getting their banner fixed (a perennial problem).  The Russian Dragoons featured here last week are done, I’ll show them off tomorrow.  Off to game tonight, hurrah!

Blessings to your brushes! 

MP+

A Beautiful Mind In A Terrible Place: Weird War Two Character Alistair Kitchings

This fellow was an entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge V and I promised when I posted him there that I’d provide a bit of fluff for his backstory.   He’s an Artizan sculpt, and a very fine one, from their Cadd’s Commandos set, which makes him sound like a bit of a rotter.  He’s decidedly non-regulation, shockingly long hair, a rather civvie looking scarf, no cap or beret, and the Webley in one hand and the bottle of champagne in the other suggests either a looter or someone who’s a bit unstable and possibly dangerous.  The Artizan catalogue describes him as “Captain Withnail” which suggests the film that I’ve never seen.

I gave him an officer’s British Warm overcoat, somewhat muddied, and painted the scarf in the colours of Trinity College, Cambridge, since I had an idea that my the Allied Force for my Weird War Two campaign needed a resident scientist and Trinity is famous for its science faculty.  So he’s Alistair Kitchings, a brilliant young physicist who finds himself in a world his research never prepared him for.   Possibly tedious fluff follows.  If nothing else, these sorts of posts help me sort out plot points that I may write up later.

Some years before the war, Kitchings got into a conversation with some fellow dons over whether it was possible to prove the existence of the supernatural.  That led him to write a paper speculating on alternate realities and dimensions that might be connected in some way to earthly reality.   The paper was entirely hypothetical, and done as a bit of a lark, simply to prove an intellectual argument made in the common room.  As a sceptic and non-believer, he was just interested in the mathematics of it, and was satisfied when it was published in a small journal dedicated to arcane theoretical physics, providing a pleasing bump to his career.   When the war came along he was working on particle physics, and was in touch with a team of emigre scientists now working in American universities.   There were rumours of a new US research project, and when the War Office called, Kitchings was expecting to be sent to the US to join his colleagues.  Imagine his surprise when he was told that he was being “recruited” as an expert in the occult.  He tore up the letter in anger, suddenly remembering the article, and forgot about it until three days later, when two burly detectives arrived at Cambridge and told him he had half an hour to pack and come with them.

In the year since, Kitchings has found himself in the secretive world of Project Alice, and is confronted regularly with evidence of things he wants to refuse to believe in.  His job is to conduct analysis of supernatural phenomenon, and to try and determine whether science and reason can provide explanations, and perhaps weapons, to fight this new menace.  However, since there is clearly a theological part to all of those - the undead, pure evil, etc - he has to work with concepts and people that he despises.   This will make Kitchings an excellent foil for Major the Rev’d Tristram Mercer, Project Alice’s senior clergyman and religious adviser.   I expect the two to be thrown together in several situations with some excellent opportunities for banter and debate.   

Since Kitchings regards himself as a prisoner, sworn to secrecy, cut off from academia, and unable to leave Project Alice until the war’s over, he’s a bit of a rebel.  He often wears his Trinity College scarf to show what he considers his true identity and to annoy the military types in Project Alice.  To manage the strain of dealing with things he would rather refuse to believe in, he’s also a bit of a functional alcoholic, and will grab a drink whenever he can, hence the champagne bottle.   Fortunately, the head of Project Alice, Brigadier McAllister, recognizes Kitchings’ brilliance and tolerates his behaviour, provided he gets the job done, and has appointed Fr. Mercer as a minder for the rebellious don.

I hope that if you don’t care for the fluff, you like the mini.  Thanks for looking, and blessings to your brushes!

 

These figures bring my 2014 totals to:

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 85, 28mm Artillery: 2; 28mm terrain pieces: 10 (counting that woods base from a recent post).

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 5, 15mm Foot: 26, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 1,086

Thesis Pages Written:  24

Commando Company Coming for Christmas

Well, not a company.  More like an understrength platoon, but that doesn’t alliterate so pleasingly.

With the old year drawing to a close, I can boost my painting totals a bit with twenty 28mm WW2 commandos for my Weird War Two project, a mix of Artizan metal and Warlord plastic sculpts.

The Artizan sculpts comprised my first entry this Thursday for the Analogue Painting Challenge V.  I stayed out of APC IV but decided this would be a good way to motivate myself to get some work done.  The Artizan figures were the first I’ve painted from that company, and were a treat to do.  Very crisp, dynamic figures, with just a touch of cartoony exaggeration.  Perfect for the pulp gaming I have in mind.

Artizan NCOs and Bren gunner.  I used the commando patch and rank stripe decals from the Warlord plastics box, fairly easy to put on.

Artizan riflemen.  Given what’s facing them in the near future, they may wish to fix bayonets.

Practising all-round defence to face unnameable horrors.

I had a Great War Miniatures sniper left over from their British Characters pack, and I figured he would work well as part of this team.

In fact, I rather prefer his stocking cap to the berets that the rest of my commandos are sculpted in.  To my mind the berets and regulation battledress and webbing look a little too late war for my tastes, as opposed to the images of early war commandos that have a desperate, rather improvised look about them.

And here are some of the Warlord figures.  I found it quite a chore to assemble these guys.  There are so many parts that I had trouble visualizing where arms and weapons should be in relation to the torso, so some of them look like they are handling their weapons rather strangely.  I originally assembled them in 2013 before my last military move, and ran into trouble when I was priming them with Army Painter White Spray.  For some reason some of the figures reacted poorly, and the spray went on in globs, obscuring some of the detail.  I even had to discard a few figures, something I almost never do.  So, since I was working on the Artizan figures, I decided I should pull the Warlord guys out and bite the bullet.  They didm’t turn out so badly after all

More Warlord figures.  The chap second from right has a broken rifle - the plastic of the weapons is thin and easily bent/broken.  I shall need to fix or replace it.

Some of the Artizan figures are sculpted with bergens.  The Warlord set gives you the option to add bergens, which I did, so with that rope they look ready to tromp through the mountains and scale a cliff or two.  I realized late in the day that the replica commando bergens I saw online were a dark green with tan straps and sewn edging along the tan flap.  For the most part I was using Vallejo Khaki for the webbing and bergens, but was able to make some a little more green with VJ Russian Uniform.

 

Not that the Warlord figures are terrible.   While the weapons are a little flimsy, they seem a little more accurate than the Artian ones.  In this comparison shot of two Bren gunners, I think the Warlord figure on the left has the more accurate looking weapon.

The Warlord figures also have the merit of allowing you to choose which weapons you’ll kit them out with.  I choose to put a knife in this fellow’s hand for the ever-popular silencing the sentry scene, though it looks more like an American bowie knife than the Fairbairn Sykes commando dagger.

Major Macallan, the Laird of Kinch, welcomes the new lads to S Commando and tells them it’s going to get jolly interesting.   If they think they’re trained and ready now, they’ll soon think again once they go trough the S Commando indoc course. Then he’ll find out how tough this supposedly tough men really are.

 

Class shot of all the figures I’ve completed since 2012 for the Allied contingent of my Weird War Two project.  If you are new to the blog and are curious, check out the Weird War Two labelled postings for the background.  This eclectic group includes a ghost, an undercover agent posing as an Oktoberfest fraulein, a padre, a disgraced Oxford don with a heart of gold, a Canadian cowboy and his cowgirl wife, a ruthless Resistance leader, and assorted other characters.   I predict that we’ll meet more characters in 2015 and maybe even see some gaming, though there is lots to think out still.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!  Blessings to your brushes!  MP+

These figures bring my 2014 totals to:

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 84, 28mm Artillery: 2; 28mm terrain pieces: 10 (counting that woods base from a recent post).

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 5, 15mm Foot: 26, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 1,086

Thesis Pages Written:  24