28mm Black Panthers

[Warren Abox]

I have to ask, what are you planning?  Rules, setting, anything?  Your request alone suggests some very interesting possibilities...

[6milPhil]

I have to ask, what are you planning?  Rules, setting, anything?  Your request alone suggests some very interesting possibilities...

At the moment little more than getting some figures, they'd deffo make a team for my zombie games but I have also been thinking about making some brownstone buildings, but I don't really want to do superheros nor pulp gangsters. Unusual for me to play or do anything USA, but maybe it's time for a delve.

What were you thinking of?

[Warren Abox]

Just curious.  Was wondering if you were contemplating doing a Black Uprising game.  With the current political climate (i.e. Black Lives Matter and the Baltimore cops) wargaming the Black Panthers against Alabama State Troopers in public would take a braver man then me, Gunga Din.  But it could work as an homage to Blaxploitation films or even a warband in a Kung-Fu fighting game.  Those are two gamable genres that you don't see on the table all that often.  I can even see an alt-earth Black Panthers as plucky rebels fighting against the American Reich, perhaps by way of The Man in the High Castle.

[carlos marighela]

I can even see an alt-earth Black Panthers as plucky rebels fighting against the American Reich

Doesn't even need to be an alternative earth.  If Richard Nixon and John Mitchell don't fulfil your vision of what an American Reich might look like, then god knows what will.

Huey Newton is that rarity of rarities, a black man who was shot by a white cop, shot him and another in return and didn't die. Man bites dog.

Issues arise with gaming the Panthers largely if you view them as the baddies.  I'm not sure you could characterise the Oakland PD as any more racist than their counterparts elsewhere at that time ( or even this time) but they wouldn't be my idea of guys on white horses.

[6milPhil]

Just curious.  Was wondering if you were contemplating doing a Black Uprising game.  With the current political climate (i.e. Black Lives Matter and the Baltimore cops) wargaming the Black Panthers against Alabama State Troopers in public would take a braver man then me, Gunga Din.

I consider the "New Black Panther Party" to be little more than a hate group, lacking any of the righteous values of the original. Both Huey Newton and Bobby Searle have condemned them, which says it all for me. It hadn't occurred to me to connect the two, nor to do anything regarding the NBBP.

 

But it could work as an homage to Blaxploitation films or even a warband in a Kung-Fu fighting game.  Those are two gamable genres that you don't see on the table all that often.  I can even see an alt-earth Black Panthers as plucky rebels fighting against the American Reich, perhaps by way of The Man in the High Castle.

I might consider blaxploitation or similar, not sure as I don't really game U.S. based games so don't have the props.

Doesn't even need to be an alternative earth.  If Richard Nixon and John Mitchell don't fulfil your vision of what an American Reich might look like, then god knows what will.

Spot on. 

Issues arise with gaming the Panthers largely if you view them as the baddies.  I'm not sure you could characterise the Oakland PD as any more racist than their counterparts elsewhere at that time ( or even this time) but they wouldn't be my idea of guys on white horses.

It wouldn't occur to me to consider the BPP as baddies, but then when it comes down to games I don't really make any true or meaningful connection between the miniatures on the table and reality. I'm playing with symbols and signifiers, rather than the actuality, it's more a stylistic choice I think.

It's made an interesting turn in the discussion though, soul food for thought. 


I have been wondering if there aren't any bush wars or similar mii's which might work, and also if Mason wasn't right all along about hacking figures - I'll get a handful of the ones already suggested and take it from there.

[commissarmoody]

If your going that rout, don't forget the symbianize liberation army, and the Weather underground. 1970s US was a fun time for the New Left. 

[6milPhil]

The SLA are just nutters though, but that East 54th Street siege lead to the development of SWAT. Apparently firing 9,000 rounds in a neighbourhood of mainly wooden buildings is a poor tactic... 

Weathermen? Nah. 

Got this for crimbo, had to give the sister an Afro...

[Bravo Six]

The SLA weren't THAT crazy. They wanted to bomb an Osmond concert, and that would have been ok in my books. 

[carlos marighela]

The SLA are just nutters though, but that East 54th Street siege lead to the development of SWAT. Apparently firing 9,000 rounds in a neighbourhood of mainly wooden buildings is a poor tactic...  

Weathermen? Nah.  

Got this for crimbo, had to give the sister an Afro...

Apropos of nothing in particular, in Brazil, the 'Afro' hairstyle is popularly known to this day as a 'Black Power' (the English expression is used rather than a translation).  I've always loved the nod to history/ popular culture, embedded in that.*

Now if you pick up some of Clearco's fine female figures you could have a decent stab at the Weathergirls, if not the Weathermen. Martha Wash, one of the finest female vocalists to grace a microphone.

Anyone who wanted to off the Osmonds or their fans can't have been all bad you know. They can even make you reappraise the social worth of the Hells Angels, at least their German chapter.

*Vale, the late, great Cynthia Robinson. Original member of the Family Stone, superb horn player and early exponent of the Afro.

[monkeylite]

fwiw here's my Black Katz 7TV cast which seems to work well enough with 70s British style gaming, despite the obvious American influence. I think all the minis here have been mentioned except for the bloke with the bag, who is a Killer B 'clever geezer with bag,' ( http://killerbgames.com/product_info.php?products_id=33 ) and the king fu brother ( http://killerbgames.com/product_info.php?products_id=108 ).

The key thing that makes it British, istm, is the Capri, though.



http://tewblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/underworld.html

[carlos marighela]

Also.....

http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RAF&Product_Code=RAF02829&Category_Code=USXMin

[6milPhil]

Thanks. It's good to see the Killer B with the Copplestone - they fit well. That Capri is the same colour as the one my family had at the time. 

I'll start with this five, and if the bug bites do another five, a couple of reaper and three Killer B.

Based them up, just waiting for the milliput to set before tidying. Sadly the weather won't permit undercoating today.