Pass in Review: Northeast Indians Figures for Horse & Musket Games

(Image: "Three Lions," Getty Images, F&IW Society, Lake George) 

Back in January I had fellow gamer, Reynor Padilla, paint about 20 North East Indians, from Brigade Games. He did an excellent job on them.

Up close, they look fierce!

Here are a couple pics of East Woodland Indians: 

Here’s a pic of several Delaware Indians: 

And here’s a mixture of tribal Indians I had painted as special characters: 

These figures are now part of my slowly growing French and Indian War/American War of Independence collection.

I have several rule books available. 

At this point I’m not sure what rule set I’ll decide on.

The choices are--

Muskets & Tomahawks

Song of Drums and Tomahawks

Rebels and Patriots

 Sharp Practice  

And, Wiley Games Fistful of Lead's  Horse and Musket Series 

No matter what rules system I decide to use, I intend to enjoy seeing my figures on a game table. 

Bolt Action: Recent Figure Purchases

(Cover art for the 2nd Ed rule book)

 I received my copy of the Bolt Action (BA) core rulebook last week.  I've been collecting unpainted figures for a couple years now.  However, I've been unable to paint them, or get them painted.  The reasons are:  

My hands shake to a varying degree, ever since I woke up from my lung transplant surgery, and everyone I know is busy with their own miniature projects.

So a few weeks ago I took to E-Bay and did some Shopping Therapy.

Just in time, too.

I got great deals on American and German infantry and vehicles, along with one Soviet vehicle.  (I got outbid on the Soviet infantry).

Below is a gallery of my recent acquisitions:

Americans:

For my US Army Infantry platoon, I organized it into 3 x 8-man rifle squads, and a command squad.

(My purchase of pre-painted US Army Infantry)

These finely painted figures are plastic and light weight.  Even though they're not tippy like a lot of my Warhammer 40K figures are, I like the weight of metal.  So I'll be doing two improvements:

1. Supergluing washers underneath the bases.

2. Painting the edges of the bases in various earth-tone colors to help identify each squad.

For American Armor support--I got this M-4A3EZ8:

I'm not too keen on adding anything larger than light-armored vehicles to what's suppose to be a small skirmish, or recon force.  I bought this big boy to "personify" my tank in my recently purchased game, American Tank Ace--Europe, 1944-1945

Switching over to the Eastern Front for a bit, I place bids on a Soviet infantry platoon, and a Lend-Leased M-3 Scout Car.  I lost the bid on the infantry, but won the scout car.

Oh, well. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

I ended up breaking off part of the droopy M2, forward machine gun.  I thought it was bendable metal.  Instead it was plastic.  I actually think it looks better this way.  I'll have to touch-up the muzzle.  I also had to glue down the right side 30 caliber machine gun.

Now for those fighting on both the Eastern and Western Fronts: 

For the German Panzer units, I now have a SdKfz 251 "Hanomag" with crew for a transport/machine gun support vehicle:

Tank support will be provided by a PzKpfw II (Panzer II):

This vehicle will require a bit more touching up.  The paint on the right-side top hull needs to be repainted.  I'm not too concerned about matching the colors perfectly.  "Close enough" for field work will upgrade the panzer to Table Top Quality.  I'll claim the crew repainted it with whatever color they managed to scrounge for.

Ground troops from the German Army ("Heer"), will be this 25-figure infantry platoon.

I organized them into 2 x squads of riflemen, and 1 x command squad; along with a squad of submachine gunners, each armed with a Soviet PPSh-41.  I imagine these guys could be used as scouts, assault troops, or just divvied up between the other squads.

For fire support I now have 3 x MG 42-armed machine gun teams.

There are two versions of each team.  One is in travel mode and the other is in deployed mode.

Oddly enough, the only figure armed with an MP 40 submachine gun is one of the MG-42 loaders.

Today, (Friday, 28 Oct), I placed bids on a few more American vehicles.  The bidding is supposed to close by this Sunday.

Wish me luck!

If I win anything I'll add another Bolt Action gallery post.

Pass in Review: Reaper Pulp Action Figures

While my siblings, friends and I grew up after the Age of  Serial Films, many of them ran on the New York City network-affiliated stations.  These shows aired before the prime time hours, or late Saturday mornings after the cartoons. 

I remember watching some episodes of Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon, and probably a few others I can’t remember; along with listening to a few episodes of  The Shadow which our hometown radio stations brought back on the air for a bit. 

The show that caught our attention the most when we were little kids was Our Gang/The Little Rascals.  One or more of our pet dogs would follow us around on our own misadventures, and we often tried building similar contraptions—go-carts, tree forts and the like—based on what the rascals did in the series. Often with the same calamitous results. 

Then as we got a bit older we got into The Bowery Boys (previously known as The Dead End Kids and East Side Kids).  We use to tussle around in our back yards and re-enact the fight scenes of the most recent episode we watched.  I guess the idea of fighting bad guys (as the “light side” Bowery Boys) in and around New York City appealed to us pre-teen Upstate New Yorkers.

But our lives didn’t just revolve around what was on the “boob tube.”  We read the comic book versions of pulp magazines, primarily Conan the Barbarian, and Solomon Kane.  

Although our moms were a bit leery of the Vampirella comics we read as teenagers, they didn’t outright forbid us from buying any issues. 

Anyway, spicy adventure stories aside, sometime between buying my last issue of Vampirella and the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark, I got into wargaming and role-playing games.

While my main focus is on historical, science fiction and heroic fantasy, I have a few pulp action games in my collection.

I bought Fortune and Glory and the two boxed expansion sets shortly after they were released.

A few years ago, I stumbled across a copy of Justice Inc at Half Price Books.

After last month’s shopping therapy session, I added Rattrap Productions’ .45 Adventure (1st Edition).

Eventually, I’d like to get my Fortune and Glory pieces painted, but in the meantime, my friend Peter finished the handful of pulp action figures for me.

While writing this post I took the time to concoct a title using my Comic Life program:

What follows is my Gallery of Pulp Heroes from Reaper Miniatures (Modern), somewhere on the grimy streets of Midnight City (you may have to scroll down on the linked pages to see the unpainted figure):

1. Agatha Fox, female spy, front view...

...rear view:

2. Sister Maria, front view...

...rear view:

3. Sascha DuBois, time chaser, front view...

...rear view:

4. Nightslip, pulp era heroine, front view...

...confrontation view...

...rear view:

5. The Black Mist, front view...

...rear view:

6. Rex (Dark Future Hero), front view...

...rear view:

7. Meanwhile, Frank Buck, adventurer, is exploring some remote part of the world, front view...

...rear view:

Uh-oh.  Looks like Frank got more adventure than he bargained for...

The "giant" snakes are some cheap kids' gag toys I bought years ago for just such occasions.

Here's a group photo:

Well, it seems like Frank made it back from his Adventure in the Cave of the Giant Snakes, but Agatha Fox must have disappeared on one of her clandestine missions.  (Translation:  I forgot to include her).

When the chips are down, my gang of heroes aren't above to plagiarizing catch-phrases: