Jack Scruby catalog 1962

I just refound my 1962 Jack Scruby catalog. I was about 14 or 15 when I received it.  All of the colored pictures and price changes were done by yours truly.

At that age, I worked in the only cafeteria in town on Sunday afternoon for the amazing amount of $4.00 total, so the miniatures were out of my reach. A box of Airfix figures were $0.49 at that time.  And I had discovered Ace double science fiction paperbacks! (Still a little too early for dates!) A trip down memory lane.  

Note that the last photo is a table set by Bruce Sigfried of Dayton, Ohio.  Who might that be?

42 pages.  There are no missing pages.  Some were printed on only one side.  As always, click a pic for a larger view.

I also have the pages PDF'ed and a single PDF document of all the pages, but, as I have no website, I have no way to upload them.

Ponze de Cabeza, a Conquistador of Little Note.

I used Warrior Heroes: New Dawn, currently under development at THW. It's intended for fantasy, and what is more fantastic than Native American Amazons!  Ponze had the Healer trait, which allowed him to heal both his wounded troopers with one spell.  He could do nothing for the dead crossbowman. Dead is dead.

I also attempted to simulate heavy fog by only doing terrain when the conquistadors entered a new section. That was not particularly successful.  I ended up using night rules of 6" visibility.

A Plethora of Conans!

Recently, I received a number of barbarian castings from Reaper. I've got most of them painted up, so I thought I'd share them! Here we have Conan #1! Quite a nice figure, actually.  I added a shield I had laying around, perhaps a Grenadier.

And this is Conan #2! I rather like this pose. Very Schwarzeneger!

Conan #3, in the silly, let me stick my hand out for you to cut off pose.

Now we come to some of the other barbarians before getting to Conan #4. This one is my least favorite, simply because of his ridiculous Games Workshop Space Marine greaves. Power armor on a fantasy barbarian!

An archer clad only in chain!  Normally this would be at the top of my list except for the Ral Partha standard pose!

Now we come to the wild woman barbarian.  Her background, for me, at least, is that she joins in the after-battle orgy, but never remembers with whom.  Therefore, she coats her belly and thighs with woad, to help her identify her playmate the next morning!

And now, we come to Conan #4, saved til now for obvious reasons! Perhaps the woad helps his memory as well.

I didn't realize that this figure came in a 3 pack as well as a single pack, so I have 2.  To give them an obvious difference, she has an Indian skin tone, different fur, metal, and shield color.

And here is here is her sister under the skin! I had already given her black hair, or she might have brown to differentiate the 2 better.

This is one dynamic, busy figure.  She has 3 pouches dangling from her belt, and a scabbard for her dagger, but not her sword.  She cried out for a flaming mane.  I suppose she could be Red Sonja, though not as drawn in the comics.

This is a beautiful, calm figure.  I know that Reaper conceived of her as a redhead, but once you buy it, it's yours.  Besides, I believe that Cimmerians a dark-haired.

Another reaper from a 2-pack.  I know she seems African, but I thought of the wild mass of hair, Edwinna Booth, as Ms. Trent - the White Goddess, in Trader Horn possessed.  It inspired me to go in this direction.

Not a Reaper miniature.  I had this figure lying around, and decided to paint her, just because.

These figures are by Black Tree Design, from their fantasy range, and come from a 3 pack of Elven witches.  I don't normally do bloody things, because I never feel that it comes out right, but I had no choice.

And finally, I have Cigaret, L'Amie de la France, from the book Under Two Flags.  This is how the little cantiniere is described.  It's not how Mme. Colbert is dressed in the Ronald Coleman movie, but much more showy.  She loved to dance to entertain the soldats in Africa. I haven't been able to get a photo I'm satisfied with. She is an old Willie figure from the 60's or 70's.

Brits in shorts and Stuarts.

I've been building up my forces in anticipation of a NUTS: Big Battles game at Hubcon.  So far I have added a company of 8th Army Brits, to act as Argyll & Southerlands in the fall of Singapor, and a pack of Stuarts.

I'm no longer sure if these are Battlefront or Forged in Battle figures.  They were begun too long ago. In NUTS: Big Battles, a platoon is 3 bases (squads, sections) + a support weapon.  A company is 3 platoons + a company support weapon and a company command squad. In this formation, all are considered to be in control of  the company commander and can activate on his rep.  The picture's not the greatest.

The Stuarts are from Plastic Soldier.  They are a bit fiddly to assemble, but contain lots of options.  I named them on the left side so that I can use them for both US and UK.  An odd thing about the photo is the 2 different shades of OD.  They came from the same can of Testors spray, and are exactly the same color.  It shows the hazard many modelers fall into when basing their finely painted models on a single photograph.

Lagertha and the Shield Maidens

I'm always on the look-out for somewhat different figures to plop into my Viking hordes.  Gorgon Studios, https://gorgon-studios.myshopify.com/ has provide Lagertha and some of her shield maidens.  They fit in perfectly with my Wargames Factory and Gripping Beast plastics. They will fit in fine in my units for Two Hour Wargames' "Great Hall Burning" and "Captains and Kings."

Left to right, we have a woman in chain with a sword over her shoulder. The next warrior is wearing a chain tunic under a cape, and also carrying a sword. The third is wearing leather armor and carrying an axe. And finally, our spearwoman, also in leather armor.

There are fine seams along the bottom of the cloth garments, which the figure painter on the site has painted as whip-stitched. It seemed like a fine idea to me! I should point out that I have substituted Wargame Factory's shield so that the figures will blend in more.

And now we have Lagertha herself! She's also wearing leather armor and sporting a sword.

The hair of all the figures is obviously influenced by television's "The Vikings".  This is better than giving them all 44DDD busts as a way to identify them as women. The figures with sword will all be added to the ranks of the huscarls.  The two without swords will be added to the bondi.  And here are some Gripping Beast bondi!

I've pretty well said everything about these figures that I have to say, except to repeat that they are easy to assemble and fun to paint.

Here's a comparison photo.