Gorillas go Banana Wars (Jungle Cruise building arrived, photos with figures p8)

[FifteensAway]

Umm, some 'adjustments':

The big dudes: Gorilla gorilla gigantus, male, a.k.a. King Kong, gorilla gorilla gigantus, female, a.k.a. Queen Kong, and gorilla gorilla humungous, very jealous male, a.k.a. Rage Kong (pity the puny humans if he shows up!).  Need to add El Presidente - not yet found a figure that excites me.  Hoping for a rather portly sort, maybe, but something that strikes my fancy.

The leftists: 7 foot units and 1 mounted unit plus two machine guns and their wannabe Dictator added one unit of armed women

The rightists: 7 foot units and 1 mounted unit plus two machine guns and their wannabe Dictator added one unit of armed women

The Anglo-American Alliance: 7 foot units and 1 mounted unit plus 3 or 4 machine guns/artillery pieces and both the American and British envoys/ambassadors (not certain yet) - aligned with the rightists added one armed unit

The Germans: 1 unit of Porto-Nazis on foot plus 6 additional foot unit and 1 mounted units plus 3 machine guns and the German envoy/Ambassador - aligned with the leftists added one unit of additional foot

The ship crews: 2 armed foot crews with 1 machine gun, 7 unarmed ship crews (one of the Anglo-American envoys probably involved here) rummaged about and found figures for 2 more armed crew, added one unit of unarmed crew

The innocent bystanders, pardon, I mean civilians: 9 unarmed groups of men and women (with an Indiana Jones and dad sort of 'leadership' (?)), includes a doctor operating on a patient vignette added three units of unarmed civilians

Not listed previously are four units (3 added) of a 'secret' force.  Also not listed previously are four units of a very different 'secret' force - with a couple of other 'civilian' units associated with the latter.  And, of course, there is the guard with that band for four units to protect El Presidente.

The core theme of the 'adjustments' stemmed from realizing by adding these additional units I can divide most forces into half so that each force of eight units can be run by two players and still have relative balance excluding the mounted contingents that I don't plan to expand.  The odd out is the unarmed civilians; by having twelve units I can have three factions, those who support El Presidente and then the leftists and the rightists.

I could, if need arises, have 17 players in the game.  And probably a few more units from 'extra' figures will be added to the mix so I can probably boost that to 18 players - though might have to dip into my general extra figures.  Game long enough and you find you have that little pile you don't quite know what to do with.

Hopefully by this time next week I should have significant progress on those steroidal apes.

Hmm, doesn't someone make planet of the ape figures in 15 mm?!  Brakes, push the brakes, hard, stand on them!  Enough already.   

[FifteensAway]

Found my El Presidente in my collection - from Bluemoon's Prohibition era gangster civilian figures.  He is in the center with his right hand man on the viewer's left and his 'bag' man on the viewer's right.  But what is in the bag?  The main dude will be in white or maybe a pale yellow - but the tie will be white for sure.



The next shot shows the presidential "gun yacht", perhaps on standby for a fast get-away?  El Presidente is on board for scale.  This is from Peter Pig.



Then there is this submarine I've had for several years now waiting for this scenario to crawl out of my imagination.  I'm going to try and waterline it and hope it doesn't get destroyed in the process.  As to what its purpose might be, that is a secret only to be revealed in the middle of a game (if it survives being worked on!).  Same figure for scale.  It is an aquarium decoration and I think I've seen it here on LAF before.



And last image for now is Rage Kong as he came from the store - bought many years ago.  His arms are positionable.  I will paint his chains to be more rusty and do something with his hair to give it more color especially his 'silver' back, teeth are too white for my tastes - but love his eyes.  Note our valient El Presidente for scale.  He is HUGE!  Would even work in 54 mm I think.  He dwarfs the other two Kongs - up for assembly soon.



Awaiting an order from Rebel Minis to finish off the people for the collection.  Found - and being printed for me locally - a number of bits of animal life to add some color to my jungles.  Rummaging about looking for a few specific things, I found a number of items I've had that I decided to add to this collection. 

And for this and many other scenarios, I've got maybe two dozen trios of 'character' figures to add into the mix, probably use these as player alter-egos so that they feel a 'personal' involvement in the game.  And since Fistful of Lead are the rules of choice, can make them pretty hard to kill off without being overly powerful to avoid them disappearing too quickly once 'battle' is joined.  A lot, not all, of these trios include at least one woman, a few only women; the unarmed civilians have a lot of women and some children.  A select few of the figures are duplicates - only so many actual sculpts out there.  Different mixes of figures and different paint jobs will make them all useable - and different names even.  And I've added some additional smaller forces for specialized tasks within the scenario.

Except for waiting on those Rebel Minis figures, it is down to painting and building.  Oh, and on that building front, I pulled down a dozen craft store bird houses bought many years ago that will convert to the commercial district for the port to add to the industrial and residential area structures shown earlier in the thread.

Most everything being created for this scenario will be useable for other games that leave the Kongs out.  I even have a few other 'monsters' - all rather famous - that can be added into the fray.  And most of them are even appropriate for Central America - or readily adaptable. 

edit: out in the garage for a bit and took two quick shots of the 'bird' houses:

First shot is an overall of the twelve buildings - in different styles.



And this shot shows a Bluemoon 15 mm Victorian woman for scale - she is not slated to be part of the game, though maybe she and her friends might make it into a different game.



These are rather out of scale for 15 mm as is but I think with enough effort they can be converted.  The hardest part is how thick the roofs are but that can be minimized.  Or so I hope.

[Aethelwulf]

Your Rage Kong looks great!

[FifteensAway]

Was 'gifted' a quartet of planes and purchased an excess - both entailing a bit of benign pay-back at some point for each person.







I was gifted the above planes, two each today - not sure what they are but they will get repainted for this scenario.  Two of them are sea planes.  Will do something nice for the person who gifted them at some point.  If anyone can identify these planes, that would be great - all the documentation is in Japanese.



The Pfalz was sold for a nice discount - but I am helping the person who gifted them with a search for some figures he needs.

These make a nice addition to my game.  I also recollected that I purchased some other 1/144th planes - ten of them, all different - for my German East Africa set-up that can make guest appearances in this game.  All of those need painting.

And the below will make a very nice addition - once painted.



A nice in-tact pyramid to be found in the jungles.  It comes in two pieces as seen below.





The above is also in-tact, a throne pyramid.  Below is the same thing but in a ruined state.



Here are there back sides.







All of the pyramids are 3D prints from Dungeon Artifacts, a cool company.  Bought many other items from them for other periods/games.

Still waiting on one order to arrive for some figures. 

[FifteensAway]

Courtesy of my local 3D printing guy, I now have 15 mm snakes, toucans, frogs, and monkeys!  More critters due this Friday and more either on order or being hunted down.  Especially cool is a bunch of vultures but also tapir, jaguar (?), and capybaras, among others.  Last human figures due for arrival this week for Kong scenario, from Rebel Minis.  Well, last figures until somebody releases something I can't resist adding; I'm looking at you Khurasan Miniatures - and anyone else smart enough to really want my money. 

Oh, and, yes, those critters are small - but it still works.

Will have to start prepping figures and fitting into my busy painting schedule.

edit 6/8/23: just for reference, railroad name to be Ferrocarril Nacionales de Conyuras or FNdC in abbreviated form.

[FifteensAway]

Hmm, just saw that Old Glory 25s has a new Bluemoon range: Mexico Uprising for 1910-1920 period.  May get some of the figures to add to my mayhem.  Mexicans in colonial helmets, US Marines and sailors and the civilians, both Mexican and Americans all look useful.  Might have to trim some of those civilian sombreros, though.

[Deflatermouse]

 I never knew of these. Thank you for sharing.
I knew Peter Pig had a Viva Pancho range but missed this.

[FifteensAway]

Deflatermouse, you are welcome - the Peter Pig Mexican building range is nice.  Still debating ordering the Old Glory items, tempted but hard to justify with TOO MUCH already.

However, after a 'false start' with Way Too Large, I now - finally! - have a bunch of vultures for 15 mm.  I did ask to have them printed a bit big for easier painting but after hunting for decades, I finally have some - a few dozen even, in trees and on ground, etc.  And some more trees as a bonus (without vultures).  The oversize will either go to Stone Age collection or get painted to sell as 28 mm, maybe both(?).  I'm happy!   

Summer hobby doldrums, more or less - too hot of late, could be worse, much worse.

[FifteensAway]

Just want to take a moment to say thanks to LAF's own Anton Ryzbak (sp?).  Thanks to him I now have a built fleet for this game.  I'll have to get a photo up at some point. 

[snitcythedog]

tempted but hard to justify with TOO MUCH already.

You justify things?  I just hide them in the garage so my wife does not find them.   

[FifteensAway]

When you get to the point of needing off site storage for 'the toys' it is absolutely time to justify adding anything! 

[FifteensAway]

Here is that promised photo - posted elsewhere by Anton.

I was only expecting some rather simple structures and was pleasantly taken aback by all the extra details he added such as the various weaponry - and those boats.  Sure, still some work needed on the painting and weathering front but what a start to have in place!

This will be a 'stand off' fleet, perhaps on a separate table, during games.  There likely will be additional and a bit larger scale craft closer in shore, mostly at docks, for games - and mostly merchant ships.  Might be a few more submarines, too.

edit: I realized I can raid my stash of n scale figures for model railroading to provide some crew figures for these ships.  Might not be perfect but better than nothing.

[FifteensAway]

Back Story for the Aircraft Carrier:

CVU 1.67 USS Rustbukkett, was named after the unluckiest admiral in the history of the US Navy, Russell "Rusty" Bukkett.   Naturally, the crew was a bit unnerved by the name - and the odd numbering.   However, being honorable men, they served as assigned.  Well, sailors being sailors, there were a few miscreants in the mix but they either got sent to shore and to other berths or disappeared at ports of call never, generally, to be heard from again.  Those heard from again made intimate acquaintance with the brig.

This was a little known experimental carrier, the CVU designated Carrier Vessel, Undersized.  Not working out quite as planned, the ship was assigned to the Caribbean Squadron for all of the 1930s.  It’s undersized aerial squadrons were entirely biplanes since the deck was too short for any other type of aircraft.  What sort of trouble could a US carrier expect in such a quiet backwater, after all?

While some say the ship was sold for scrap as part of the WWII war effort, others believe it was sold to an unnamed buyer nation with a leader more interested in his personal prestige - having his own carrier - than the practicalities of changing naval warfare and, especially, aerial combat.  There are other rumors about its demise but they are only rumors.  All that is certain is that the history of the ship is shrouded in great mystery and its official records are under deep presidential seal for 125 years from 1940 - only presidents are allowed to review its documentation until 2065.

One fascinating tidbit about the Rustbukkett is that it had a rather well used carrier pigeon component.  Less credible are the stories about the bird handlers creating a flock of carrier parrots - conures mostly.  If true, though, that would have been a very colorful addition to the ship. 

There is at least one account of a group of women, nurses, serving aboard the ship for a time which would have been very unusual and newsworthy in any other theater of operations.  This backwater rarely rated even a line or two of news buried deep in the newspapers of the time.  One unsubstantiated rumor does speak to a visit to the ship by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  Again, only a rumor.  There is a photo that some purport shows wheelchair skid marks on the flight deck that scallyways say suggests a more famous visitor.  Sailors are famous for their scuttlebutt, stories that would rival the tales of mountain men.

It is, of course, established fact that the ship was involved in the unusual incident with gorillas that occurred in Los Abajos, Conyuras.  However, that is - as they say - another story.

——
I guess I need to start creating more back stories for the other water craft - this one got started last year and tweaked a bit today.

Hope to get back to work on this project very soon.  We all know how it goes, progress, progress, progress and then stall, stall, stall - and then, hopefully, revisit until completed and playable.

edit: I've come up with the name for my variation of Juan Valdez = Juanito Pedo-Maloliente and his donkey(mule?) shall be Perico.  No, when it comes to silliness, I have no shame.   

edit, again: and now for El Presidente: Jorge Tonto Castaneda, works for me, and his wife shall be Mariposa Gorda Castaneda.  And Esteban Chulo Derechista shall be one of the dictator wannabes and the other shall be Hector Zurdo Comico.  No offense to anyone with those names.  Maybe both of the wannabes should be chasing the same woman?  Perhaps Esmerelda Pequenaputa, an infamous courtesan - mostly famous because no one understands why she is so sought after since she is, well, to be kind, rather homely.

[FifteensAway]

Ready to prime: the archaeologists and their diggers and the Nemonauts.  And, hopefully, as I go through and prepare the rest of the figures, I hope to reduce the total number of figures as much as is practical.  I currently plan to prep all of the figures but only actually paint the 'essentials'.  We'll see how that plan goes.  For this lot, there are a full 60 figures I can wait on painting for as long as I like - if they get painted at all.

By the way, I don't plan to include Nemo himself; would be wrong since the game is set in the 1930s.  But I am working on a back story that will justify what will be in the game but more on that another time.

[FifteensAway]

Gorillas in their prime?  Or just primed:



That is one of two pairs of gorillas.



This is both pairs together - there was supposed to be a photo of the other pair but I screwed up and got a video.  Oh, well.  Still there to be seen.

The two larger gorillas are from Khurasan, one of the others is a metal item found at a thrift store (right) and the other a plastic one found at a grocery store for all of one dollar US (left).  And, of course, Rage Kong made an appearance earlier in this thread.



Last is a bunch of the people underway, left rear is the archaeologists, right rear is the Nemonauts (without Captain Nemo, long dead by the 1930s).  The rest are individual figures, most of them unique except one pair of females and one pair of males and then six each of two groups of different females but all six in each group the same sculpt but each group a different sculpt, just paint them different.

Much more to prepare for painting.