A moment of inspiration...and a 'tragedy' avoided

Tinkering with set up.  A thought.  HO cars - 3D prints, might they work?

Umm, I think so.

Yeah, looks like.

And to think, I almost sold these!
 

A jumble of buildings

 

Explanatiions later.

Jungle Cruise building arrives

The building with El Presidente Jorge Tonto Castaneda and his wife Mariposa Gorda Castaneda - note I have swapped out the wife figure.

With a rule to show it is 8" long at 1:100.

A detail shot - nice touch.

And more.

One end.

And the other.

And here is a side-by-side with one of the desert buildings:

 

The Good, the Neutral, and The Bad

 Or so is how I am designating the below figures primed and ready to paint - and many just rebased today on to round bases, though many were already.  Part of the 'great reduction'.

Above is the "Jones Clan" with the Indiana #1 at front left, his mate Montana Mike to the right, and then "Fedora" or maybe Marcus Brody, and then, of course, Senior.  The three leftmost are all three Indiana Jones versions I am aware of in 15 mm (edit: there is a fourth and I may have it, somewhere, from Rebel Minis - maybe two?).  In the back row from right is Mutt, Marion Ravenwood, Sophie (who may be his daughter or maybe Mutt's squeeze), and Elsa.  In back is Mutt with his motor bike, then some other member of the party, maybe Marcus or maybe Fedora, and last - but not least - Sallah.

These are the bad and/or evil folks, opponents for the good guys.

The good guys and gals with the Jones folk at back upper right.

The neutral folk who can stay neutral or slide towards good or bad depending on the day and the game.

And an overall shot.

So, the above are the "character" figures.  Below are 'the rest' of the figures and, perhaps, more focused in some ways.

Above are the Nazis and the U-boat landing crew, the native warriors and villagers, and 'the monsters' and some other miscellaneous items.  The brown discs are the round bases waiting to remove figures from the square bases to be glued on to the round.

And this box contains the Americans, the British, and the Germans - figures that can be used in a variety of environments.  And it is important to note that my pulp figures will 'travel' beyond Central America and the Banana Wars, in fact there is really no limit as to where on the planet they might show up.

Here are the unarmed ship and boat crews, the armed boat crews, the Nemonauts, and the local civilian population.  

A photo showing the very specific Banana Wars figures - the forces of El Presidente and his two competing wannabe dictators.

A bunch of 'extra bits' for decorating pulp games - like fuel dumps and pallets and statues.

Somewhere in the mix is a group or two of European civilians looking to be evacuated.

Still some figures to prep and prime - though bases are now ready, some paraphernalia to prep and prime and base.  And then LOTS of painting.  The good thing is the painting can be done in small batches to build to a small game and, eventually, get it all painted.  

Banana Wars

 I don't have a page tab above for Banana Wars so it will reside here on the main post stream.  Think in terms of US Marines and others intervening in fictional semi-civil war in a fictional country in Central America - with considerable diversions.  Very pulp style.

Some photos of certain items for the 'period':

Most of what is in this post will relate to the airplanes, my Indiana Jones Air Force as I call it, but this first photo above shows my choice of figure for Marion Ravenwood of Indiana Jones fame.

The MBX airliner.

The Ford Tri-Motor

The River Flyer

All three seen together shows they don't scale together well at all.  And I could care less.  They are toys in a game and the fun is more important.  I will leave scale snobbery to the purists.  Sure, I'd like them to be in scale but I will live with them as is.

A few pilots to show scale.

Indy and friends - Elsa, or Ilsa, on the right.

And some mechanics.

And, again, all three but with figures.

And below, all three again to show the sides of the planes better with the adjacent figures.

And that's it.  For now.

Completed Painting Challenge

 Back on October 1, 2024, I started a one hundred day + 10 reserve days painting challenge.  The plus ten was to build in cushion for some gaming conventions and the holidays and I ended up using all ten 'reserve' days.   I count the challenge as a success because on the last day, January 18, 2025, I had completed 1,023 figures with most of them table ready and the rest just needing based textured and seal coating.   That makes four years running I've painted over 1,000 figures per year.  Maybe not prize winning paint jobs but a figure painted on the table is a pretty good prize in and of itself.  And I contend that once a game is under way, the paint job barely matters most of the time. 

Charlie's Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles game

Charlie G. ran a game of Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles at Great Escape Games this past Friday with six players - each of us having three units plus a leader.  It was a "break through" scenario and his firsts time running the rules.  I was on the side of the Zanzibaris who needed to exit down the road or near it.

I started the game with the Ace of Spades and moved one of my units down the road towards our objective.  Got shot up and ended up having to pull back - there on the left above - and took some shock.

Mike's forces followed up in support and he to got a bit beat up.

Merrick, also on our side, lined the bridge (very cool from Miniatures Building Authority - as was the hut and the black thing (a tent but not up the usual MBA standards).

Mark, one of our opponents kept our left rear busy, his unit bottom left above.

And, again, Merrick on the bridge.  My third - and last surviving - unit middle left with a white stone denoting 'out of ammo' so only firing with half of dice did some good execution.  But by the end of the game our units up near the road had been wiped out.  My leader, by the tent, pulled back to the last unit and called out that he and his men had urgent business back at the tribal council fires.  And then he turned and cast a terrible spell on our enemy, no doubt dampening their victorious celebrations!  😜