Latest arrivals From the USA - WARNING R18 - Viewer Discretion Advised!!

I don't know how I found these figures originally a few months back, but since I did, I have had a mind to purchase a few and see if they are really as good as they looked on the Effincool Minis website

Effincool Miniatures – Effincool Miniatures (effincoolminis.com)

These figures will be used in my pulp adventures - somehow! - and I can report that they are, in fact, as nice as they seem in the images. John the guy at EffinCool was great to deal with - he felt one of the figures (the Sitarist) was below standard and the mold needs remaking - so added "some goodies" as compensation. Firstly, the figure looked pretty good to me when it arrived, and secondly, the "goodies" were two additional figures from the range - which, at US$7 each, is a fair bit of goodness, particularly as I only ordered 7 in the first place!

Anyways, here are the images, lifted straight from the website. The only surprise I got was, I had somehow assumed these would be resin, but they are, in fact, very nice, crisp metal castings. John tells me they are 32mm figures but that's fine by me for Pulp, as they can easily be explained away as an entire race of super models! 

The concept is basically a Sultana (female sultan, not a dried fruit!) and her court.....

Sultana Heteira

The Sitarist

Wot it says ..... :)

Water Bearer

Lounging Courtier

Fire Breathing Entertainer

Snake Charmer

Dancing Entertainer

The Sultana's companion.

Looking at the images again, I have to say, the details such as the chains of pearls on the figure above are not as "proud" as they look here on the actual figures, but in all other respects, they ae very nicely sculpted and cast miniatures.

I am off for a game of Zombie killing at Julians place on Friday after work, so an AAR on that may well be the next post - first one for February - yes, we are a month down already!

A Quick Painting Update

 Tonight, I have the last of the Warlord Blitzkrieg Germans (Senior Officers/HQ), the first two 1st Corps Fallschirmjaegers AND a few more of the Three Musketeers figures hot off the painting desk!

This is a really attractive set and I think they have come out nicely.

So, I have taken images from every angle!

Enjoy - only a couple more of them!

And here are three images of a couple of the German para's I painted up as a "test".

Again, as many commented in the previous post, I think they look ok with some paint on them.

Now, the rest of the Cardinals Guard, the Cardinal himself, and, of course, his most famous agent!

Two more Cardinals Guards in red, and an assassin working for The Spanish Inquisition!

Cardinal Richelieu, flanked by two versions of M'Lady de Winter (the right hand sculpt is not the most attractive female figure I have ever painted, unfortunately!)

The Cardinal briefs M'Lady and the sergeant of his guards.....

M'Lady (with her identity concealed) and the sergeant enter the designated auberge.....

A sword fight erupts as the Cardinals men attempt to arrest D'Artagnan and the Kings Musketeers come to his aid!

Nice figures all, and I enjoyed painting them (apart from the rather stumpy and unattractive M'Lady figure!). I may be forced to substitute her for a better-looking version at a later date - purely in the interests of historical accuracy, I hasten to add :)

Thank you for your visit and I will appreciate any comments you are kind enough to leave!

More New Arrivals

As previously mentioned, I had a bit of a spending spree a couple of weeks back, and this week, two more packages arrived.

The first was from Wellington, NZ and was second Flak 36/37 88mm gun to help deal with all the superior allied armour my Blitzkrieg Germans will have to take on one day!

The second parcel, which arrived on Friday, was from 1st Corps in the north of England, and contained a Fallschirmjaeger platoon.

The platoon comprises 3 x 10-man sections plus two officer figures.

There are 2 x 2-man LMG teams, so I only put one of them out for the photo session.

To be honest, I don't think these are as nice as the 1st Corps Blitzkrieg standard infantry - I would say they were sculpted by a different person - but hopefully they will look all right once they are painted. 

I have three other smallish orders on the way as well, so I am going to have enough lead, plastic and resin to keep me going for several months work, I think!

Thanks for having a look - a couple of game reports are in the offing too - see you again soon!

Les Trois Mousquetaires

 Naturally enough, with my recent new arrivals, I pushed "a shiny thing" to the front of the painting queue - so here are the FIVE (?) Musketeers by Brigade Games.

I will have to do some "research" and decide which figure is which character from the story...

I know who D'Artagnan was, but my recollections of the others are sketchy! 

One was a Ladys Man (philanderer!) and another a bit of a dandy, if memory serves.

But I will need to figure out the personalities before assigning a name to the figures!

I have also started work on the Cardinals Guard - but I need some help from my readers! Which of the two cinematic versions of the Guards uniforms do you prefer?

Version One - Black with Red Trim

Version Two - predominantly Red.

To help you out, I have handily painted up one of each in my version of the above - which do you prefer - OR - do you think I could get away with having BOTH uniforms on the table, and call one the Archbishop of Paris's Guard, or something like that?

Answers on an SAE to "Cardinals Guard Question, PO Box 1299, South Auckland Mail Centre" and a chocolate fish will go to the best reply received!

Thanks for dropping in and please, do leave your thoughts on the guard's uniform question!

First Restock of 2024

 I have to admit it - I have been on a bit of a spending spree in the last week to ten days. Most of the new toys have yet to reach me, but I do have the locally sourced order, plus a small package that arrived from Brigade Games in the US today. This was pretty impressive, as it was only dispatched on 9 Jan (or 10 Jan here in NZ) - so that's a week!

First up are a few figures I have been considering for quite some time now. 

M'Lady de Winter and Cardinal Richelieu

I have the rules all ready for these figures - in pdf format, anyway!

M'Lady and her household servants.

Les Mousquetaires

Les Gardes du Cardinal

Moving right along, the second tranche of Brigade figures are to add to my Pulp collection - why do I need more Pulp stuff - cos they are fun!

Gun Molls sets one and two - can be used as heroines or femmes fatales!

Civilian bystanders above - again, can be used for anything really.

Four helpless captives that I should be able to work into some kind of scenario at some point!

And finally from Brigade, a couple of ACTUAL Pulp packs - American adventurers above and an oriental bad (or good) guy with a couple of martial artists below.

Then we move on to three purchases I made using a gift card I was given by my work as a Christmas present - very nice of them it was, too!

Blitzkrieg German senior officers/headquarters group

Perry Napoleonic Light Dragoons

And a slightly more effective AT gun than the little 37mm PAK 36! A second FLAK 36/37 88mm gun is en route via a purchase on a local online auction site, too!

And just to round things off for tonight, I maliciously copied the forecasted weather for this week on Sunday - just for you chaps in the US or Europe where it is just a tad cooler at the moment :)

As it turned out, we got the rain on Monday - and it was pretty heavy for most of the day too - but as I type this at 2150 on Thursday evening, the temp is a balmy (and it is balmy!) 21 deg c.

I can almost hear the gnashing of teeth and cursing from here! If it's any compensation, it's quite hard to sleep when the overnight low is 20c......