Sunday, April 3, 2016

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

24 comments:

  1. Great collection, Michael! The gestation period for any wargaming project is highly variable. They all are delivered in their own good time. It await their reading about the exploits on the gaming table in the future.

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    1. Thank you Jon. You and James Manto have taught me the virtue of taking time to get a project right.

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  2. Nice collection all that's needed now is a table top outing.
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Thank you Stu. I agree about the outing 100%.

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  3. Wonderful, I find it very hard to resist these miniatures and seeing your lovely collection is certainly not making it any easier.

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    1. Judging by your Great Escape entry in the AHPC, you could do this better than anyone I could think of.

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  4. What a superb collection! I'm a big fan of pulp/Weird War II and have lots of lovely Artizan figs waiting to get painted up...one day!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. Go straight to your workdesk and get to work on those Artizan figs - they are a joy to paint.

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  5. That's a great looking collection .

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  6. Replies
    1. Intend to are very much the operative words, CK.
      I have the Savage Worlds rules and have looked at them but never really tried to figure them out.
      There was a supernatural supplement published for Chain of Command which I am keen on - I know C0C quite well and like it.
      Ideally what I want is something that combines role playing with skirmish level action, sneaking up on sentries, firefights in the dark, slavering werewolves, nothing fancy. :)
      What about the Black Ops rules you use for your 1979 Sovs vs Brit resistance games? Do you reckon they would do?

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  7. They are very good, I like the Michael Kitchen figure

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    1. Isn't he nice? If I squint at it, the casting looks like Kitchen does when he sucks on his teeth slightly as he ponders somethign tricky and distateful.

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  8. Some interesting and well painted characters there Padre.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  9. I did get "this far" and am glad to have done so. Fluff and minis are jam packed full of fun character. Good stuff.

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  10. What a great collection of interesting figures delightfully painted so is it Foyles war and Allo Allo? (For the waitress? ) Anyway really nice work.
    Best Iain

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    1. Well spotted, sir. Those are definitely two of the influences behind the project. Thanks!

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