Captain's Blog

 More Pulp Figures from the China Station line. Dr. Koo is on the road carried by his trusty porters and accompanied by his bodyguard. Some will wonder why he does not wear the orange robes of state. Many will ponder the meaning of the blue dragon on the back of his exposed chair. Those taking part in my Daredevils Campaign will have an inkling.

I think I have make it clear that I am a fanboy of the Pulp Figures line. I have purchased most of the China Station packages. This post is of 3 packs of  PCS 15 - Tong Warriors w/ Assorted Weapons #1. 

I have painted 3 identical figures in uniform colours. 

They will provide a bodyguard for Dr Koo. (PCS - 2 The Palanquin of Dr. Koo). Dr Koo's bearers will also wear the same colours, but this group of figures is not ready. 

 This is a small rebasing project that has been sitting on the back burner for a couple of years. I picked these 16 figures up fairly inexpensively at the CanGames Marketplace pre-pandemic. They were based on what seemed to me be odd size bases (25mm x 75mm) and were obviously being used for a gaming system in which I did not indulge. Once debased they were clearly identified as a Ral Partha (c) 1977 product. The best match I could find online for them was Ral Partha 01-080  Lizard and Rider. 

 I have rebased them to the standard DBX game systems with a frontage of 60mm. Due to the depth of the figures I have mounted them on an 80mm deep base. Sixty wasn't going to be enough. The previous bases were mixes of carboard  and plastic. I have replaced all with MDF bases with a magnetic bottom. Other than being cool looking figures I am not quite sure where they fit into my gaming needs. Perhaps in a Daredevils Lost World setting, or somewhere in a Space 1889 context on Venus.  

In the past and not so distance past I ran a Daredevils Campaign. Pulp stories inspired by the serials of the 30s and 40s, played as reruns on Saturday morning, or after school TV in my youth, or the magazines and paperbacks from the Golden Age of the Pulp Fiction, that were the readily available for purchase with the money earned on my paper route.

Bob Murch's Pulp Figures is an excellent source of 28mm figures for adventure gaming of the interwar period. I'm a big fan and have been hording his figures for a while. I really need to get more of them  painted and onto a tabletop. 

PMH-6 The Alter of Evil

 I backed Bob Murch's Arcane Academics project through Kickstarter and have painted my first offering, PMH-6. The Alter of Evil provides the GM (me), a vehicle to introduce creatures from beyond our plane of existence into the game. The one shown in the photo below has been sitting so long in my pile of lead, I know not, what it is nor from whence it came. If anyone can identify the figure please let me know. Until then I am just going to refer to it as "One Damned Thing", and I guarantee in a gaming situation it will lead to another.

 I have continued with my interest with either pre-war or early WW2 actions. Over the years I built up a substantial collection of 20mm early war Japanese. These are posted under titles of  The Anatomy of a Small War. I had no interest in doing a counter force  and the project stalled. 

I felt that Bolt Action allowed me to turn may attention to the conflict in Outer Mongolia or even China. Americans think of WW2 as starting on December 7th 1941. Those of us in the Commonwealth as September 1st 1939, with the German invasion of Poland followed two days later by the British declaration of war. Although Canada waited until the 10th, to show our independence. However the argument can be made that the war began as early as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, on September 19th 1931, or at the very least, the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on July 7th 1937. 

I did purchase two Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks from warlord games to provide some firepower to the Imperial Japanese Army for this project. I was also fortunate to pick up 4 packs of WW2 metal Japanese infantry at fire sale price at auction.  There were 20 figures per pack. 

Again they can also be used in a RPG sitting and I had completed them as such for possible use in a Daredevils campaign that I was running. The campaign stalled last tax season due to limitations on my availability and was never relaunched.

According to Wikipedia the Type 95 Ha-Gō (九五式軽戦車 ハ号, kyūgo-shiki kei-sensha Ha-Gō, also known as the Ke-Go was a light tank used by the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, at Nomonhan against the Soviet Union, and in the Second World War. It proved sufficient against infantry but, like the American M3 Stuart light tank, was not designed to combat other tanks. Approximately 2,300 were produced, making it the most numerous Japanese armoured fighting vehicle of the Second World War.

 These 5 figures have been sitting in the drawer of my painting desk for almost a year. I needed to dig out my drill in order to add a hold in the chest of each figure for the flight stand. I used GF9 magnetic bases and flat headed nails to make the stands. Using a pair of pliers I clipped off the pointed end of the nails after they were hammered through the GF9 bases. I like the look of the figures which conjure up both the Rocketeer * or more importantly,  my childhood memories of the various Rocket Man** serials which were shown on Firehouse Frolics  in Halifax in the early to mid 1960s.




* According to Wikipedia the Rocketeer is a 1991 American period superhero adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the character of the same name created by comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens.



** Again according to Wikipedia the King of the Rocket Men is a 1949 Republic movie serial, in twelve chapters, notable for introducing the "Rocketman Character" who reappeared under a variety of names in later serials Radar Men from the Moon, Zombies of the Stratosphere and the semi-serial Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe.

A "Rocket Man" character appeared in four Republic Pictures movie serials from 1949 through 1953. The fourth serial, originally conceived of as a Republic TV series, was first released (for contractual reasons) as a theatrical serial. Two years later, it was finally syndicated on TV as twelve 25-minute episodes.

I have gone through a number of phases with my on again, off again love affair with the mid to late Victorian colonial era. I received my first two figures as a gift. A fellow gamer, Joseph Lappin, had gone on a summer pilgrimage to the old country, and when he returned he presented to his friends in the local gaming club two figures. One was a hills-man and the other, a member of Her Majesty's Forces. One of the two figures I received still survive in my collection, sans bayonet.


In the first incarnation in the early 1980s I built a small force of British and Zulus with 15mm Mike's Models. I based 4 figures per stand, and I don't even know what rules I had in mind. Nor do I know what became of the figures. About the same time I picked up two packages of either Ral Partha or RAFM colonial Egyptian Infantry for sale at a local Halifax gaming store.



I know I am going to take some heat on these figures. The colour is wrong, the facings should be on the collar and not the shoulder straps, etc, etc, etc...I admit that I am not a historical purist. Like the song goes, " Wargamers just want to have fun." I look at my figures as toy soldiers to be played with.  In that, my armies succeed.

I have been a big fan of Bob Murch, and his pulp era figures for a long time. I recently won an action on eBay that provided me with an 4 open packs of his US Rocket Corps figures from Pulp Figures. I received one pack each of PYS 20 (US Rocket Corps Flying) and PYS 21 (US Rocket Corps Landed 1) and two packs of PYS 22 (US Rocket Corps Landed 2) at a price that was too good to be true.


The figures will make a great addition to my Daredevil Adventures if I ever start to run it again. As well, it is an excellent unit for any WW2 skirmish game, and I'd suggest that they can easily replace a unit of paratroopers or commandos on the table. I divided my figures into two 7 man squads, lead by a 15th figure.


IMO the figures clearly resemble a certain hero featured in a mid 1990s Disney adventure film. I lost the 6 inch action figure, of the Rocketeer, late one night in a poker game.

The five flying figures are painted but I still have to mount them as aerials. These figures bring back memories of the late 1940s Republic serial action adventures King of the Rocket Men, as shown on television in the early 1960s on a local Halifax kids show, called Firehouse Frolics.

When I dug Ginger out last week to be photographed while on safari I looked at the other figures that I used on the tabletop in my Daredevil's Campaign. The campaign was set in Second City, named in honour of that great Canadian TV comedy series, SCTV. Like Springfield in the Simpsons, one never really knew the location of Second City as it would float around according to the dictates of the game. But most players believed it was set on the US west coast near San Francisco

The figures were mounted on pennies and since I had them out I'd spend the time to put them on Gale Force 9 (25mm square) magnetic bases. Most of these figures were from the Call of Cthulhu range by Grenadier Miniatures, or Ral Partha. Also included are a couple of Shadowrun figures. The majority were painted by John Saranic in Halifax in the late 1980s. The Sahdowrun figures were by Peter Dixon and Anne-Marie Lindley.

Thus I introduce you to the Cast of Second City:

In the early 1980s Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) released two of the finest (IMO) role playing games, both based upon Aftermath system. The first was Bushito, which was heroic role playing set in mythical feudal Japan. My good friend, Harris MacPhail ran a great campaign for a small group of Halifax Gamers. I enjoyed many an evening playing Bushito at Fort Robie.

I purchased Daredevil Adventures, which was role playing in the roaring 20s, I rapidly advanced the milieu to the mid 1930s to create a pre-war scenario atmosphere. I still have my records from the days I ran those games, including the Player Character Sheets as well as all the miniatures I used on the tabletop. Most of these figures were the Ral Partha ranges of the period. Some day I may go back to running these adventures.

Last weekend I decided that I would clear off my work table and work on completing some have completed projects. The first of these offerings was a group of Foundry's Deepest Africa Figures. It consisted of 4 native armed riflemen, 2 bearers and 4 female figures.



To this group I have added a great white hunter. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Michael "Ginger" Thockmorton-Smythe. When asked by his current (number three) wife to add a new piano conservatory to the family home, he immediately headed to Africa to obtain the ivory necessary for the piano's keys. Thus allowing himself to avoid any of the unpleasant consequences of the renovations.