Entry #12 to the AHPC - Madame Ting-Ting, her Bodyguards and her Garford-Pulitov Armoured Car

After the Russian Civil War, many White Russians tried to escape Bolshevik persecution by fleeing abroad. They went to all corners of the world, and many White soldiers, needing work or seeking adventure, traveled to China and fought amongst the ranks of the various warlords vying for power. The city of Shanghai became a particularly popular emigre destination, and a vibrant Russian ghetto soon established itself, traces of which can still be seen today.

So from this background we see here my new pulp adventuress, 'Madame Ting-Ting', along with her trio of Russian ex-pat bodyguards, and their rather care-worn Garford-Putilov armoured car. 

The Madame was born Leia Natasha Petrovostalavitch (an extrapolation of a friend's 'Top Secret' RPG character name), the headstrong daughter of a Russian diplomat and Chinese courtesan. She is now simply known as 'Madame Ting-Ting' - that being the sound of her enemies' bullets bouncing off her armoured car. (My thanks to Sylvain's new puppy for inspiring me with the nickname!)

These models started life during the first week of the Painting Challenge, but have languished for the past month so I thought I better get them cleared off the table before I ran out of time.

M. Ting-Ting and her bodyguards are all 28mm Copplestone figures. I had a lot of fun painting Ting-Ting, especially her red gloves and elegant cigarette holder. I chose the riflemen as I liked their ragged uniforms, thinking them fitting after their long retreat to central China. 

The Garford-Putilov is from Copplestone as well. It's a wonderful model, though rather small in relative scale (1:55). In reality, these vehicles were quite huge, this one weighing in at around 11 tons. Like many early armoured cars they were extremely underpowered - this one boasting a whopping 20 HP engine with a top speed of 18kph!

I love the turret, with its barrel-encased 76mm gun and the wing MG sponsons. Completely mental.

For Ting-Ting's banner I wanted something 'Pulpy' and a bit silly, so I went with a motif that features a skull with crossed cigarette holders. Of course, since there are not many commercially produced flags featuring this design, I had to make one myself. :)

It was a bit daunting at first, but I soon began to channel my long-dormant highschool drafting skillz and managed to muddle through.

There you go, 'Madame Ting-Ting' and her 11 ton Tin Lizzie!

Thanks for dropping by folks and have a great weekend!

From DaveD: The Wu Family from Serenity (40 points)

Dave adds to the local colour of 'Serenity' with the Wu Family.

From Dave: 

The brushes are flying!

"Serenity" already has Mr Wu (Blue Moon Tombstone set) and his pig pens - you have not watched Deadwood you need to! . I wanted to add to him and make a a little area of chinatown - the laundry will be along shortly-  so here we have the addition of the "Wu" family ,8 figures.

These are 28mm Obelisk Miniatures from the various merchant sets - there may well be some slightly less innocent ones along later. 

Really nice figures to paint,and generic enough that I should be able to slip them into some Pulp games that may be along next year. I have myself a pre Xmas target to meet and I am pleased with progress so far - it's been great to be back painting.

As I mentioned to Dave, Mr. Wu, in the 'Deadwood' series, only had a few words of english, but they were very memorable words, if not particularly polite.

Beautiful work Dave! An innocent business, eh? Hmm. I wonder if Serenity's hogs are as well-fed as Deadwood's...

The Wu family will provide Dave with 40 points. Great work Mr. Docherty.

From Seb: 15mm Chinese Heavy Chariots (82 points)

From Seb:

I suppose it was time for a break in my TYW army. Though I'm painting the last minis to finish this army, I felt I had to paint something else. Back in November, Chris, to whom I had sold my lucky Chinese army, had asked me if I could paint a couple of things more to complete his new army: a general and a battlegroup of heavy chariots. Fortunately, I had everything at hand, and I started priming them... Until I stared helplessly at them, not knowing how to paint them. So I put them back in the painting plan, still primed but otherwise untouched. I knew I had time, especially because I couldn't go to the club, my wife coming home very late, and I consequently had to take care of our little daughter. But then, she managed to complete her missions earlier than expected, and now I'm able to go back to my favourite place ;), meaning I have to paint faster to give them to Chris. So, even though I haven't finished the general (though now started), I've just finished the heavy chariots. 

I've named them the bright phoenixes. For those who follow my blog, I already had painted a unit of chariots called the phoenixes. But the latter ones were the "male" poenixes, whereas this new unit are the "female". Just have a look at the characters and you'll see the difference. The Chinese had then three ways of writing "phoenix": male, female, or a combination of the two. I chose to paint them as "female" for a simple reason: Chinese harmony. And, if I recall, when things are harmonious, they are lucky.

So, what you have here are four 4-horses chariots from Museum, with three crewmen in each. I added the the flagpoles and handpainted the flags.

Wow, those are brilliant Seb! I really like the dynamic poses of the horse teams and you've done a marvellous job on the banners. Your friend will be delighted with these additions to the 'Lucky Chinese'.

These four chariots will give Seb 82 points. Great stuff!