On Cottages & Lighthouse Keepers

Regular readers of my irregular offerings may remember the cottages I wrote about late last year. They were plain ornaments for burning or some mysterious other function. I, however, spotted their potential and the other day they came to the top of the to-do list. 

I pondered on how to paint them: black Plastikote and then paint up from there? I decided to use the following scheme.

1. I decided the walls looked absolutely fine as they were. The seated figures at the front of each cottage were chiselled gently away.
2. The thatch was done with emulsion paints from tester pots: dark brown base and a lighter brown/yellow dry-brushed over it. 
3. The chimney pots: Vallejo black base coat, dry brush grey then white. Once dry they were given an Army Painter wash. 
4. The windows: Vallejo dark blue with a Vallejo pale blue highlight. I picked out the frames in a light grey.
5. The front doors were constructed from coffee stirrers and matchsticks. Painted with a wash of watered down Vallejo grey. Then a watered down Army Painter wash.

 

 A Cottage

Cottages Rear View

Loading Contraband Or Unloading Supplies?

Lighthouse Len & Salty Sam

Len Close-up

The figures and vehicle are from several manufacturers. Lighthouse Len is descended from a long line of lighthouse keepers. His belief in the power of light is so strong he carries a permanently lit lamp at all times. Sam isn't a sailor, he does like plenty of sodium chloride on his grub though. Len and Sam work here of course.

All the best!

Brown & Black Shirts In The Desert

Hello!

I've been working on this gang of state-sponsored n'er-do-wells for a while and finally, finally, finished them. Joy! So, what have we got then, Mr Tin? Well, what we have here is a group of Pulp German N*zis and one Italian F*scist. Four male figures and one female: Helga, She-Wolf of the EssEss.

Oberfuehrer Fritz von Toppgitz

The leader of the group. A tough street fighter and true believer. Nasty.

Hauptsturmfuehrer Hermann Kartofelnkopf

Assassin. Likes to point at his victims before doing them in. Brutal.

The gang's all here. 

LtoR: Kartofelnkopf, Untersturmfuehrer Helga Fuchs, von Toppgitz, 

Sturmbannfuehrer Horst Wurst (2i/c), Centurione Luigi Bartoletti of the MVSN

Somewhere in the desert searching, possibly in the wrong place, 

for powerful artefacts which may be lost or hidden.

 Can we get these crated up?

 Kartofelnkopf points; Helga & Bartoletti take aim. 

The senior officers sneer.

Aerial view. 

Note the truck and blue-fezzed chap behind the mini sphinx.

The figures are all Bob Murch Pulp figures. There was one head swap: the Italian head from the Empress Miniatures drivers set onto Bartoletti. All painted with Vallejo colours and varnished with Vallejo matt which is my new favourite thing. The Egyptian statues are resin jobs picked up in charity shops.

UATH!

The Hat Squad

This gang has been bimbling along for awhile now so I for one am glad they're finished. I have gone for the double figure idea once again: one in town clothes and one in adventuresome gear. They're a bit of an odd bunch and not all of them wear a hat. The figures are a mix of Copplestone, Bob Murch & Empress. Here they are:

Outside Ottomanelli's in downtown Pulpville

LtoR Brad Sterling, Boats Bailey, Ripcord O'Reilly, Jim Trueman, Smoot Schmid

Up on the roof

Dr Jim Trueman

Archaeologist &  Adventurer

Ripcord O'Reilly

Can fly anything.

Boats Bailey

It is, he likes to be clean shaven and sharply suited when not afloat 

Brad Sterling

Note how pale he is in town and how easily he tans when adventuring!

Smoot Schmid

Enjoys the finer things. A lot.

Field trip

 Ripcord & Jim outside The Darkroom camera shop

 Smoot & Brad outside a greengrocery

Boats passes by the bakery

UATH!

Sisters Before Misters (The Old Instonians) #3

Bit of a Pulp offering today. I'm really pleased I got these toys finished at all given the complete loss of wargamey mojo for most of 2015. Anyways they're done!

What we have here is The Old Instonians (St. Wilfreda's Institute For Girls) or, their preferred moniker, Sisters Before Misters. A sort of Pulp-era incarnation of Charlie's Angels without Charlie and much, much harder. Nails in fact. They don't hate men, they rather like them, they just don't need them to get things done.

I covered two of the SBM in an earlier post but now we see the whole gang assembled. Twice! I've gone down the route of producing two figures for each character. One is in normalish clothing that could be used about town. The second is in outdoors-adventuring kit.

The SBM comprises:
1. Blaze O'Halloran - Archaeologist & Adventurer
2. Phyl Martindel - Geologist & Adventurer
3. 'Red' Mary Quintile - Doctor & Adventurer
4. Wanda 'Wheels-Up' Williams - Pilot & Adventurer
5. 'Dead-Eye-Des' Desdemona Desmond - Scientist & Adventurer

The photos might make this a bit clearer.

 SBM assembled in the Oriental-style town house of 'Wheels-Up'

Shanghai, New York, London? Who knows? ;-)

LtoR: Dead-Eye-Des, Red Mary, Wheels-Up, Blaze, Phyl

 SBM doing the adventure thing in Oasis el-Khazi

LtoR: Wheels-Up, Blaze, Phyl, Red Mary, Dead Eye Des.

 Wheels Up in flight mode & sophisti-chic

Red Mary about town & about adventuring

Dead Eye Des deadly in town or in the field

Happy New Year!

Charity Shops Are Goldmines #2

As should be obvious by now if you aren't checking your local charity/thrift/£/$ stores for loot you really should be. Yesterday I found this pair of resin buildings and at £3.99 each it would have been rude to say no. They are pretty heavy lumps and, I think, are some form of incense burner. Or something.

Anyway they are very well detailed: nice thatch, good door detail and leaded windows.They also scale perfectly with 28mm figures. I'm going to repaint them, well paint them, and add a door to the opening you can see in picture 1. Sadly there's no way to access the interiors but they are a valuable addition to my Pulp Universe. They will go well with The Lighthouse Of Horror should a suitable adventure ignite!

 RH Cottage showing smoke hole, windows and thatch

LH cottage showing back door and window detail

 LH Cottage side elevation window detail

UATH!

Lighthouse of Horror

So, there I am in a charity shop in Mere Green (Birmingham) and I spot a plastic lighthouse. It's a novelty light, this is probably why it ended up in a charity shop. I picked it up, had a look, thought naaah and put it back on the shelf. Fortunately my friend was with me and he said 'What are you doing? That'll be great for your Pulp games!' He was right.

It had seen better days. I think it must have been thrown outside at some point given the amount of mud clogging the battery compartment. I cleaned it up, and drained off the rain water that had gotten inside. After a soapy wash and rinse it didn't look too bad. Sadly the battery compartment had been damaged beyond economical repair so no light action.

I masked off the main light panels and the windows. I then sprayed it matt black overall. Once that was dry I got the white emulsion tester pots out and started painting. I tried to avoid completely filling in the gaps between the building stones. Mostly successful, I wanted to suggest a building that is slightly seedy and not quite what it seems. I painted the roof, front door and railing with Vallejo Red 70926 and then highlighted with Vallejo Red 70947. The windows I painted with a very watery Vallejo 70947 to get a 'House That Dripped Blood' vibe going. Sort of.

The rock base was dry brushed with a grey emulsion and then a lighter grey Vallejo London Grey mixed with a bit of white. The marine plants were painted with a variety of Vallejo Greens and then highlighted with Vallejo Yellow. I dry-brushed my way through this to maintain the black undercoat in the fronds and recessed areas of the plants. I also stippled the base with various greens to suggest sea plant growth.
The steps were dry brushed white, then grey then stippled with greens to suggest marine growths as per the rest of the rock.

 As bought, post wash

Matt black undercoat

 Aft

Finished item with ranting Cultist for scale

So what's the plan? Well, a team of right-thinking do-gooders will almost certainly investigate this place before too long. What will they discover there? Cultists performing their foul rites? Captives held in durance vile? Who knows but I'm certain we'll find out!

UATH!

Update 1: I managed to remove the battery compartment gubbins without damaging the model! Following a test with a tea-light (it was a brief test) the lights will be back on. Maybe one of those flickering flame ones people use on wargames tables inside black cotton wool to suggest burning. 

Update 2: I decided the building's paint job looked too fresh and new. To calm it down, and up the seedy, I used a large brush to apply generously watered down Army Painter Dark Tone over the white. I also glued some bunches of moss to the building to imply lack of maintenance. 

Seedy?

The Cult Of CuYuHu

The dreadful puns continue with this latest Pulp faction. Dedicated to the overthrow of humanity and the reign of A Dreadful Being From Another Dimension. They are completely bonkers. There is, however, one thing they have that keeps them strong. They believe and belief is enough to sustain them in their numerous failures and subsequent plotting.

In An Underground Lair With Obligatory Altar

 Cult Leader Frank

The Keeper Of Secrets

 Cult Number Two Pierre

The Giver Of Orders

Henchman Oleg

The Doer Of Biddings

 Henchman Phil

The Sprayer Of Death

Henchman Ringenstingen

The Keeper Of The Purifying Flame

Coming to a Pulp adventure near you soon!

Citizens Of Pulpville

Bought the Swell Dolls set from Copplestone Castings the other day. They are a group of five figures all standing in neutral poses but all are individuals. Some are dressed in general day wear others are for a night out. Being a bit rubbish at this sort of thing I decided to stick to a simple palette with each figure being painted in just two main colours. I've also included a sinister male figure to add some balance to the scene.

None of them are part of a faction or gang being instead Expendable Extras. They'll also help to flesh out games by being innocent bystanders. And, as we all know, that usually means being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 Main Street

 Waiting For Their Friend

Swanks On The Town

 Some bins

All the best!

Kapitan Krunk's Machine Gun Mercenaries

These boys are not a German army unit. They are, however, the deadliest machine-gunners available for hire just about anywhere. Our machine-gunners have all seen active service on a number of fronts and are all from different parts of the world. Fitted out with surplus Great War equipment and weaponry and clothed in an all-purpose uniform designed by the good Kapitan himself. If your price is right they will machine-gun your cause to victory with the minimum of fuss. Collateral damage is a speciality unless otherwise requested.

The figures, I think, are all Perry Great War miniatures. I've had them for years and decided to re-paint them in a more Pulp style. As they are they can take part in adventures just about anywhere in the world.

Kapitan Krunk's Machine Gun Mercenaries

Sergeant Spooner

MG Team 1

 MG Team 1

MG Team 2

MG Team 3

 MG Team 4

The good Kapitan himself wasn't available for the photo shoot. As soon as he returns from a very important business meeting I'll get his mug-shot. Until then......

Updates as they happen, chumrades!