Our upcoming Pulp 1936 game is going to be heavy on the gangsters and all American heroes. But role playing wouldn’t be role playing without the odd unusual character. Whether it’s the thief with a fear of small spaces or the Mighty Paladin who just happens to be a female Gnome with a serious chip on her shoulder these characters often generate incredibly memorable role playing moments.
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| Malifaux's Kang (Not painted by me) |
It’s therefore with some anticipation that I’m looking forward to this game. I’ll be playing a masked crime fighter similar to The Shadow and his (fairly) trusty sidekick will be a nearly seven foot tall black mechanic from the deep south with a body of an African Apollo called Jericho.
You can imagine the challenge in finding an appropriate miniature!
My first step was of course Google Images. I searched for 28mm Black Engineers, miniature mechanics and half a dozen other search terms and got a few results. The first was Kang from the Malifaux Rail Crew box set, he would have been suitable as he’s quite tall and the hammer could have been changed to a crowbar (Jericho’s signature weapon), but it would have been too expensive to buy the box set for a single miniature when I couldn't use the others in the set.
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| Superfigs John Henry (Not painted by me) |
Next I found the John Henry miniature from Superfigs. Not only is he black he was wearing overalls and again the hammer could be swapped for a crowbar quite easily. But unfortunately he’s out of production and only available at quite a high cost from the U.S. He also looks a bit short.
So by chance I stumbled on the Drax figure by Heroclix. Now I normally stay well away from these pre-painted figures as they aren't the right scale and the sculpting is often not particularly good.
But as the Drax figure was available in the UK (on Ebay) for just £2 I thought I’d give it a try. And I was most pleased with the results.
Under the ham-fisted paint job the miniature has been sculpted really well, the musculature was nicely defined without being bulky and the face, despite my first concerns, did have enough detail to work as a character model.
The last worry I had was would he be too big? Heroclix models are roughly 1/48th scale and the ones I use are closer to 1/56 scale.
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| Heroclix Drax & Pulp Miniatures Carson Smith |
I cut away the Heroclix base (which is very deep), pinned his feet and fitted him to one of the lower profile scenic bases I got from Tiny Worlds, standing him next to another of the 1936 character models he looks like a giant but appropriately does look about 7 feet tall.
I cut away his silvery blaster and knife, smoothed over the marks and fitted a crowbar I made from a paperclip. As this was mostly a test and he already had a coat of paint I didn't bother to prime him and painted straight over the green and red skin with a mixture of dark brown and khaki.
After I’d applied several light washes of Agrax Earthshade and lots of highlights with progressively lighter skin tones I was happy with the result.
I repainted the boots as they were really shiny but the jeans looked fine as did the belt so I left them.
The final touch, which should have been the first in hindsight, was the eyes. I wasn't confident that this figure would actually be usable so jumped straight in with the skin rather than doing the eyes first and had to backtrack a bit when it became apparent that it was going to work out well.
Heroclix miniatures might not work well in all situations but for this character I think he’s just right.
What do you think? Have you had any luck with re-painting Heroclix miniatures before?
He caused me some serious problems. Well its not fair to put the blame on him, as it wasn't really his fault. First the primer (Games Workshop) didn't work very well and the coverage wasn't too even and second the paint didn't attach to the primer base coat at all well and rubbed off on a couple of occasions and had to be repainted. 
These beauties come from Copplestone Castings and although the range isn't as outlandish as Bob Murch's Pulp Miniatures they do benefit from being much more realistic. One of the added benefits is that they come with slotta bases so are easier to pin to resin bases. Which is a good thing as the bases that came with them are really small. 
But as the Drax figure was available in the UK (on Ebay) for just £2 I thought I’d give it a try. And I was most pleased with the results.
After I’d applied several light washes of Agrax Earthshade and lots of highlights with progressively lighter skin tones I was happy with the result.
My son has been sitting on a big pile of cash since his birthday in November, he considered buying some Lego but in the end after a trip to our local games store he decided that he wanted the Terraclips Dungeon Essentials pack from World Works Games. I think these sets are particularly well suited for Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and most fantasy Savage Worlds settings. 
Now the base was good and bad. I really like how it looks and it works well with the model but a tiny air bubble opened up by his right foot in the final stages of painting, ideally I would fill it and repaint the area but as its so tiny and its on a curb stone I don't think its a particular necessity. I'll let Mubaris decide if he's bothered by it.
To pin a miniature to a scenic base you'll need a few tools, pliers, clippers, a file, a craft knife and a very small drill. The one at the top of the photo is called a Pin Vise or Archimedes Drill which you can pick up from ebay for a couple of pounds. 
Ideally a Dremel Rotary Tool should be used to cut the miniature away from the base or slotta bar. You then need to drill a hole up through the leg and glue a 4-6mm piece of wire into the hole. 
Its a good idea to check the pin fits both holes before you glue anything, a mistake here can be a real pain to fix!
I pinned and prepared five of the Pulp Miniature models ready for painting and managed to complete one today, the rest will be done during the rest of this week. I still have another fourteen of these figures to do so i'll be pretty busy with them for the foreseeable future! 
The one I chose to complete was the African Explorer and I pinned the Bulldog to his base. I painted both in quite similar colours and I think the dog does look a bit like its owner.
And we're back to artistic atrocities! This was another Necromunda miniature, will you just look at the freaky eyes on that poor thing. I think I knew what I wanted him to look like but didn't have a clue how to make it all work together. I suppose the leather trousers and boots looked ok but the rest is pretty terrible.
And as for the Vindicare Assasin, all I can say is i'm deeply sorry to the original sculptor for doing this to his work. This is obviously where I thought a clever idea was a good alternative to actually painting properly.
