(Painting) Don't Ask About the Luger

 When I left for Historicon this year, I didn't have a look list of "must-haves," but with my final acquisition of the weekend, I made sure to pick up Veteran with Pick and Pistol from Brigade Games.  It had been the first picture on a recent email blast and it was just a cool pose.  

Of course, once I got home and looked him over, I realized, "What nationality is this dude?"

He was advertised as above, and alongside fairly generic armed civilians.

He is wielding a Luger, so that might make him obviously German, but the Wolfman Jack look seemed out of place. 

If he was a veteran of the Great War, filling in the lines from the deep reserves, I could buy that.  

But during my research, a Soviet soldier seemed to fit better.  With a little more research, a Soviet political officer fit the look.  Combine that with Ray Stevenson's character in the first episode of Ahsoka, and I think I have my dude, Alexander Mikoyan. 

And after yesterday's Tabletop Inquirer post, I darkened the eyes, no detail.

Definitely not your normal WW2 figure, rather I'm seeing him as a leader of a deranged Pulp faction of Soviet oddballs and secrets man was not meant to know.  He's been around since the discovery of Lovecraftian Ghouls during the Russian Civil War, he jumped sides and joined SV-8 during the Purge, and he's either so deep into occult research that he's eluded Stalin's purges or Stalin's minions are too afraid to try anymore.  

By the time of this picture, it's the pinnacle of the vicious fighting in Stalingrad.  No man of his pedigree should have been with 300 kilometers of the battle, but reports of agents of the Karotechia moving to the city caused him grave concern.  His fears were realized, as they were able to release some sort of ritual to turn the piles of corpses into re-animated killing machines that no human was able to control.  

One of Alexander's allies is a Deep One he calls Adrik the Rusalki.  A hybrid almost nearing his complete transformation, Adrik was picked up from a remote fishing village on the Pacific coast.  

Part of the three figure "Deep Ones Mutant Fishman" pack from RAFM

Alexander knows that Adrik will either go fully feral and attempt to slaughter him, or simply skulk off into the waters one day, but for now, whatever sliver of its humanity is still willing to help him, especially reading all those infernal books.

I have little use for either figure at this time, so I'll add them to the list of potential inspirations for the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January.

(Edit: I got some responses back, to help connect the dots on the pick guy.   Not only might my observation on German firearms be off, but these and the figures he was announced might be part of a little movie called Sisu.  (Note: Red Band Trailer, NSFW)  It's John Wick killing Nazis, if John Wick was a Finnish gold miner in 1944.  Heck, there's even a dog.)

I'm sticking with an Soviet SV-8 agent for now, and building up his league for Pulp Alley.)

In the Painting Queue - The bench has been a dumping ground for anything and everything over the summer, but five things  catch my eye:

1. Pulp Season 4 - One of two major roadblocks are actually getting completed. Watch out!
2. Mouslings of Yore - The Heritage Dungeon Dweller Mouslings from Reaper in the 90's are staring at me right now, with their big sad eyes.  
3. Gnomish Space Marines - The latest Macrocosm Kickstarter was the last thing I was working on before the bench became overwhelmed.  Gotta dig them out 
4. Zombie Car - No, not animated cars, rather, vehicles that need to be weathered for a zombie/apocalypse game.
5. Inflatable Yard Pirates of Doom - I think I figured out our Halloween game for the year...

Project: 350 -  After surviving #RPGaDay2023 and a month's worth of posts to write, we emerged in decent shape with 461 posts in the queue (308 drafts/153 scheduled) from 464 (312/152) back in July.  Actual plays are very caught up, so it's a bunch of games and painting for the near future.  The horror!