The (White) Russians Are Coming!

 Inspired by Balkan Dave's recent post about a Russian Civil War book, I finally took the plunge on a box of WW1 Russians from Wargames Atlantic.

Ever since I got a Count Casimir variant sculpt from Pulp Figures, I've been thinking I should make a White Russian emigre faction for him to lead. As mentioned in the blog post above, the anti-Communist side of the Russian Civil War was politically and temperamentally very much in the same ballpark as the silver shirted and white robed factions I've already assembled. Historically, after losing to the Bolsheviks these jerks mostly relocated to the future Axis powers, and would participate in WW2 in both the German and Japanese armies. But some did end up in the US, including Boris Brasol who became buddies with Henry (*spits in disdain*) Ford, so this is a plausible faction for my interwar US setting even if it's not strictly a historical one. "Cossacks" also make an appearance as henchmen in an early Batman comic, so there's some "authenticity" from the fiction side as well.

Thusly untethered from the iron grip of historicity, I decided to have fun with the uniforms. I've got the RCW White Armies book by Osprey, so I basically painted a sampler of those uniforms. I guess the idea is that when Brasol or Bermont-Avalov or Vonsyatsky calls up them to join the big reactionary alliance, each one just gets his old uniform and Mosin-Nagant out of storage and reports for duty.

 

In both Pulp Alley and my homebrew system, antagonists can be single miniatures or groups of five. So in addition to "fire teams" of four rifleman and one sword-wielding officer each, I have also assembled a few "specialists": a sniper and spotter, a mad bomber, a submachine gunner and a melee expert, to provide some tactical variety and pulpy feel. The Pulp Figures guy is here too, in the white jacket.

 

 

The minis are mostly the aforementioned WW1 Russians, but I mixed in some partisan bits from the same manufacturer, some Gripping Beast hairy heads, and a handful of Warlord Games WW2 bits (eg the katana arms, and both binoculars). Finally, there are a couple German and a couple US bodies, reflecting how the Whites were often supplied by foreign powers.

 

A pretty intimidating bunch, all told! I'm still trying to decide what to call them in my game. The Russian All-Military Union (RAMU) and the Russian Imperial Union-Order (RIUO) are both appropriately sinister-sounding real orgs, and there were also a couple of explicitly Fascist Russian emigre groups if I want to be especially on-the-nose with it. But I can always make something up instead.

Minions and Molds

 A couple of months ago, I bought a silicone and plastic mold-making kit, so I could sculpt and cast my own miniatures. Since I'm not that great of a sculptor at this point, and also new to casting, I started with some casualty figures for my 1600s wargaming. That way I could do a simple one-piece pour mold, and also avoid sculpting a face. Those were successful, so I wanted to do a standing figure for the next step. But ideally, a simple figure, and maybe not one with a face if possible.

So it occurred to me, I have some Pulp Figures evil minions, but they could use some back-up. So I sculpted a generic minion, without a right hand because I have tons extra from various sprues.

I definitely learned lessons to apply to future molds and casts, but I'm really pretty pleased with how these assholes turned out.

Because, as you can probably tell from the paint jobs, I have in mind for these to represent a very specific sort of evil minion. I'm not gonna name them because I don't want to even risk that kind of traffic, but Superman famously fought them in his radio show, and they work well with my 1930s setting, and my theme that superheroes don't need to go overseas to punch right-wing extremists. This had the added project bonus where I wasn't too emotionally invested in the figures turning out well, or even in the original surviving the process at all.

 

I think they mix well with the Pulp Figures, and also the kitbashed ones I made from medieval Arabs and whatever else. It helps that my goon-level painting isn't very precise!

Interwar test figures

One thing that always helps me buy into a superhero scene is the presence of capable, competent non-superhumans backing up the superhero in their fight against evil. From the Avengers battling aliens alongside NYC cops and National Guard, to Wonder Woman spearheading an assault across no-man's-land, the involvement of soldiers and/or law enforcement (or even civilians, though that's a good bit rarer in our militaristic culture) helps add some weight and scope to superheroic do-goodery.

So with that in mind, I've grabbed some WWII plastic kits, with an eye towards building some late 1930s troops. With head swaps and a bit of conscientiousness about their weapons, I've made and painted my first marine and first army infantryman (with an unconverted Pulp Figures gangster for comparison).

Both soldiers are made from the appropriate Warlord Games kit. The marine has a head from the AWI Continental Infantry kit, with the crown of the hat cut down a bit to look more like a campaign hat. The army man has a brodie-helmeted head that I bought from Anvil Industries. I don't know if the rest of their kit is strictly accurate for 1938, but I think the heads do a good job of signifying "not 1942 yet!"

I rather like how these two turned out, so I will be painting the rest of their squads soon.

To Kill a Superhero

When Superman debuted in June 1938, we were informed that "nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin". While his powers of resistance grew substantially over the next few years, even his initial description put him at the pinnacle of superheroic toughness in that point in time.

So lets say you're a dastardly villain, looking to protect your "legitimate business" or "diplomatic investigations" from some meddling do-gooder. Maybe it's not even Superman, maybe it's the Blue Beetle with his bullet-resistant mesh costume. Maybe it's Wonder Woman or Namor or Captain America with his annoying shield. What are your options?

Well, outside of mad-science death rays or superpowers of your own, they're surprisingly limited. American military research seems to have stagnated pretty hard in the 1930s. A bunch of America's iconic World War 2 weapons were only developed when we entered the war, or maybe a year earlier. Bazookas, Sherman tanks, flamethrowers, dedicated antitank guns... none of those existed in the United States in 1938. So let's see what was around.