Monday, January 14, 2013

Still Going Commando

It's been a bear of a weekend. After coming home from a fascinating Army PD event on Saturday (more on that in another post) I was helping Mrs. Padre fix dinner when the flu rushed up and jumped me like a spiv in a back alley. Literally one minute I was fine, the next I was shivering, teeth chattering, aches and pains. Felt better enough on Sunday to go into the base for chapel, but Lord knows what they made of my sermon, it was pretty incoherent. By Sunday afternoon, after my wife sternly and wisely ordered me upstairs for a nap, I felt we'll enough to send pictures of my next Analogue Hobbies painting challenge entry off to Curt (only 5 28mm figures, but it will earn me some points). It will be a day or so before I can show them here, so I thought I would show some more photos of the Warlord Games Commando characters I recently finished for my Weird War Two project.

Speaking of commandos, the blogosphere did me a favour when Sean McLachlan's excellent Civil War Horror blog led me to Jack Badelaire's Post Modern Pulp blog last week, where I discovered that Jack is the author of several novels about Britain's Commandos in World War Two. Such is the awesomeness of the internet. I'm currently reading Jack's WW2 commando novel, Operation Arrowhead, which as a Kindle download is a heck of a deal and is worth checking out. I'll post a review of it down the road.

This fellow here is the 2IC of "S Commando", Capt. Tom "Ginger" Beare (pronounced "beer"). Another lovely Warlord sculpt, and I have to say, while half way through assembling a box of plastic Warlord commandoes, that I prefer working with (but not paying for) lead miniatures.



I haven't thought up much of a Weird War 2 backstory for him yet, but I have some ideas for him. I see Ginger as a fairly simple, stolid chap, the kind of fellow who only reads The Sporting News, horsey face, somewhat protruding front teeth, end many of his sentences with "what". He's a good soldier, athletic, likeable, a competent subordinate, popular with the lads. There is a certain unimaginative personality type that is preferred by Project Alice, on the theory that they will be less susceptible to fear when in contact with the nightmares being cooked up by the Reich.



I like the fact that the figure is wearing a jumper (sweater as we would say in North America). The sculptor has obviously spent time with British army officers. :). For some reason I felt like painting him as a red head, a much maligned type in the army today.



I mentioned in my last post that Mad Major Macallan never goes into battle without his piper. Here's Cpl. Jock ("Pibroch") MacGregor. I've never painted a tartan before, and I resisted trying to copy a specific pattern as I was afraid that would be too intimidating, so I aimed for a more general impression.




Again, not much of a backstory for Jock, but I see him and his family as long time tenants of Kinch, so when the Laird went to war, he naturally took the best piper with him. Jock is a good shot, very handy with the commando's trademark Fairbairn knife. Personally he would rather go into battle with a weapon in his hand, but the young birk of a laird is the boss, and if a wee tune will help the lads, well, Jock is the lad tae gie it tae them (sorry, slipped into bad brogue there, I blame the ghost of James Doohan). Having Jock along on S Commando raids won't help the stealth rolls, but the skirl of the pipes may frighten the wulfentruppen, or, maybe, attract the zombies?









Thanks for looking. These little character vignettes have been helpful for me in defining how I see my own flavour of Weird War Two gaming working out. I'm thinking that in the near future I will write a post on Weird War as a sub genre of gaming and what the parameters for my own campaign will be. If you like that sort of thing, stay tuned.
In the meantime, stay vigilant, chaps, and go commando.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

12 comments:

  1. Nice figures Padre! I wonder if Ginger sounds something like this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1K8d9qXGnI

    btw, your pulp characters went up on Curt's blog a few hours ago and very nice they are too :)

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    Replies
    1. Exactly, Tamsin. I am sure that Ginger would get along famously with Fairfax and Carstairs.
      Glad you liked the pulp figures on Curt's blog. I may not be the most productive of the ronin, but I'm happy with what I've done there.

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  2. I imagine him as a sounding rather like Charters and Caldicott.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3kkvmBWzSs

    And I'll be damned if that bergen doesn't contain a copy of Wisden and the latest Field & Stream.

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  3. Brilliant, young Kinch. I haven't seen The Lady Vanishes in ages, I simply must watch it again. Definitely Charters. The Englishman abroad may be as dense as the American Abroad, but he carries it with more panache, somehow.
    I quite agree. I am sure that while his boss carries a dogeared copy of Ivanhoe, Ginger would indeed carry Wisden and Field and Stream. He is certainly a deft fly fisherman, and doubtless had strong opinions on bodyline bowling at the time.

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  4. We prefer the term strawberry blonde in my house!

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    Replies
    1. No Fran, its Ginger, just like you! Nice work !!!!!

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    2. "Ginger Git" has a nice ring to it.
      "Strawberry Blond Git" is harder to say.
      As a Posties Reject Canadian Chapter member, I feel I have the right to call Fran a "Ginger Git". Ray, I'll just call him "Git".

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  5. Really very nice work padre, as ever. Love the tartan as well!

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  6. Always like reading your backstories to your characters and these continue to impress.

    Good attempt a the tartan, have some kilts of my own that will need painting in the future and I'm somewhat intimidated to paint them up myself.

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  7. Thank you Simon, Col S, and Dai for your kind words. Dai, glad you're enjoying the backstory, it's as much fun as the painting itself, and the suggestions I get in the comments give me further ideas.

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  8. Great looking figures, the shoulder patches are a great touch.

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