Miniatures for the world of M R James

[Ace From Outer Space]

Hi Guys,

My favourite horror author is M R James. For a long time now, I've been thinking of collecting some miniatures that could be used in games set in the early 20th century world of his books. I'm looking for academics in gowns, but holding makeshift weapons like cricket bats or candelabra, etc.

I'm also looking for miniatures dressed in early twentieth century clothing, tweeds and plus fours, again, hopefully in some sort of action poses but holding makeshift weapons.

A few priests and monks would also be good.

As far as scale goes, I'm looking for 28mm or above.

Does anyone know of any manufacturers that may be a good fit? I'm based in the UK.

Cheers,

Ace

[Andrew May]

Foundry, Woodbine.
Copplestone?
Westwind?
Ummm....

[joroas]

EM4
Pulp Miniatures

[Ace From Outer Space]

Blimey, that was fast!

Thank you both, I'm off to trawl the websites!

[Harwood Hobbies]

I love M R James!   

[Kitsune]

Hands up for another MR James fan.

[Blackwolf]

And I ,him and Machen are as about as good as it gets

[white knight]

Some of the RAFM CoC figures might work, I'm thinking of things like the professor.

[Red Orc]

Someone was asking about Cthulhu figures yesterday and I directed them to the VBCW mini guide here - http://www.btinternet.com/~jprice9/minis.html - it has pretty much every manufacturer making early C20th models.

I'd make a special plea for Artizan by the way.

[Andrew May]

Great link Red Orc!
Oh and I just remembered, Owrry minis gave some civillian "rioters" (armed with bricks/bottles etc) in their ACW(?) range, I should think with the right PJ you could use them well enough.

[Ace From Outer Space]

I have bookmarked that link RedOrc, thank you, it is excellent. I was thinking of maybe getting twenty or thirty miniatures for this little project, but after seeing the link, I may have to get a few hundred more... 

As for M R James, I purchased "The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories Of M R James" from a charity shop in London in 1995, the 3rd October to be exact (I have it in front of me). The book has become one of my most prized possessions.

Now that autumn is coming, I can look forward to sitting in my Victorian house in front of the fire reading the ghost stories as the night closes in. My house has high ceilings, many open (albeit gas) fireplaces and an excess of atmosphere. I never considered until I started writing this reply that it could actually be the best place for me to read my favourite ghost stories.

Once again, thank you all for the links and the suggestions!

Ace   

[Harwood Hobbies]

Sounds like you have the perfect reading place ACE!   

Have you read any other Victorian ghost story authors or just James?

[twrchtrwyth]

Oh, whistle, and they'll come to you, my lad. 

[Ace From Outer Space]

Hi Harwood, yes I have, although I haven't read many. I inherited a cheap compendium of Victorian ghost stories from an ex after we split up and went our seperate ways. The book is called 'The Supernatural Omnibus' published by a company called Victor Gollancz Ltd in. London in 1931, and introduced by a Montague Summers (what a great name!).

The Compendium contains works by well known authors such as Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Jasper John and Wilkie Collins. It also contain a brace of stories by people I've not really heard of such as J Sheridan Le Fanu, E and H Heron, Evelyn Nesbit, Amyas Northcote, Miss Braddon...

Some of the stories are fantastic, but none come close to the atmosphere that James creates. He really is the master!

Cheers,

Ace

[Funghy-Fipps]

There's a few suitable miniatures pictured on my 'horror gaming' blog (see link in my signature below), if you care to look.  I re-read my James collection probably twice a year, but am a fan of the vintage 'Ghost Story' genre as a whole and have over the years amassed a rather large library of spine-tingling tales.  Some others collections that I would thoroughly recommend to  admirers of M.R. James are Malden's Nine Ghosts (seminal!), Rolt's Sleep No More, and The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson.  The former two have only just come back into mainstream print after a long time in the wilderness, which is nice as the originals were fetching a pretty penny on a certain well-known auction site.

Miniature-wise it's a question of cherry-picking from different manufacturers to get what you want (or near what you want!).  Artizan, Foundry and Westwind are all great and - more importantly perhaps - compatible.  Some of Foundry's Victoriana range are very, very nice.  Reaper Miniatures is your best bet for ghosts (see my blog for some examples).  Not widely available in Blighty, find US stockists on ebay willing to ship to the UK for cheap (I've actually been charged less postage for a couple of blisters from the US than from UK sellers!  Honestly!).

Also, have you thought about rules yet?  Are we going for faux-rpg or miniature skirmish game?