"Pulp scenic ideas?" Topic

As a result of collecting figures for an historical skirmish project (circa 1920) I am likely to end up with some surplus 28mm 'gangsters'. I'm tempted to get into pulp but have been wondering about scenics.

I don't fancy carting around 28mm resin buildings and I don't really want to create a whole cityscape in foamcore or cork. I've already created a miniature Stalingrad (in 15mm) and I'm running out of storage space!

So I'm thinking of creating a low-rise and run-down industrial environment with fairly small buildings and plenty of O Gauge clutter. I think this would also be more practical for wargaming.

Does this sound like a good idea? Has anyone else attempted this? Would any US readers like to point me to any visual sources of inspiration?

first thought: pulp can go anywhere, can't it? so as not to create a burden of creation for what sounds like a side-genre, perhaps just use what you've already got from your other gaming? why let the Stalingrad set gather dust? pygmies don't always have to be blow-gun-using guys in loincloths…

basically, keep the interest/excitement alive by rolling dice. add bits and pieces as new scenarios/ideas arise --hunt through the toy bins at thrift stores…maybe cardstock/paperterrain is an option?-- that way you won't burn out trying to generate too much too soon.

Look at Larger Than Life for ideas. Scenes are played on 2x2 tables so you don't need so much terrain.

Here's some ideas

METROPOLIS
A – This is an urban area where the scene takes place in one (1-4) or more (5-6) buildings.
B – The scene takes place in an alley (1-4) or on a public street (5-6)
D – The scene takes place near a canal (1-2) or on a bridge (3-6).
F – The scene takes place in a public park.
CIVILIZATION
A – This is an urban area where the scene takes place in one (1-2) or more (3-6) buildings.
B – The scene takes place in an alley (1-3) or on a public street (4-6)
D – The scene takes place near a canal (1) or on a bridge (2-6).
F – The scene takes place in a public park.
EXOTIC LOCALE
A – This is an urban area where the scene takes place in one (1-3) or more (4-6) buildings.
B – The scene takes place in an alley (1-4) or on a public street (5-6)
F – The scene takes place in the town square.
G – This is the outskirts of the city on the fringe of the jungle.
JUNGLE
B – The scene takes place on a well-used trail (1-4) or rarely used path (5-6).
C – The scene takes place in rough mountainous terrain.
D – The scene takes place on a wood bridge (1-2) or a rope bridge (3-6).
E – This is a group (3+1/2d6) of grass or timber dwellings surrounding a well with a small fenced enclosure for animals.
F – The scene takes place in an open and flat area of grassland.
G – The scene is in a densely wooded and dark jungle or wooded area.
LOST WORLD
A – This is an urban area where the scene takes place in one (1-4) or more (5-6) buildings.
B – The scene takes place on a well-used trail (1-2) or rarely used path (3-6).
C – The scene takes place in rough mountainous terrain.
D – The scene takes place on a wood bridge (1-2) or a rope bridge (3-6).
E – This is a group (3+1/2d6) of grass or timber dwellings surrounding a well with a small corral for animals.
F – The scene takes place in an open and flat area of grassland.
G – The scene is in a dense jungle or wooded area.

>>So I'm thinking of creating a low-rise and run-down industrial environment with fairly small buildings and plenty of O Gauge clutter. I think this would also be more practical for wargaming.<<

It depends on what your idea of "pulp" is, and the scenarios that you're attempting to create. Do you want to do scenarios from the fiction and films of the "pulp era" or are you into zombies and/or Weird War II?

Trees are always useful. Why limit your pulp excursions to cities? One or two buildings in the jungle or on an island should do you. Tents in the desert at an archeological dig would work fine, too.

Heck, you could just print out the 2D floor cards, if you're wanting to save storage space. Do you really need the whole office complex, if you're just doing a fight in the PI's office?

If you want the walls and things, may I suggest you either invest in Hirst molds yourself or buy some of the pre-cast stuff from one of the many distributors of that sort of stuff? You can make your own modular walls (floors may not be necessary, and would save space for you) that you can arrange however you darned well please, making it much more flexible. Or there are some places that sell that sort of thing already cast in plastic (flex-walls? Bendi-walls? Something like that, I think) that I do believe are already painted.

Dear DoctorPhalanx,

You might want to look at "Mean Streets" and "Mean Sets" for Pulp Gaming on those pages at TVAG.

All are full color card stock buildings, side walks, streets, alleys, etc, for between around 1920-1950, pretty much the heart and soul of the Pulp Era. All in in 28mm scale, and can even be decorated with the period posters and advertising also available for the specific decade of interest.

The "Mean Sets" interiors provide open walled rooms and businesses of the type commonly encountered in Gangster/Pulp Fiction (Bar/Speakeasy, Casino, Night Club,
Warehouses, Barber Shop, PI's Office and Apartment, Cheap Hotel, etc). On that same page are links to several sources for "O" Gauge/1:48 furniture, street accessories, and much more.

All are available in printed form, and as PDF's for self-printing for significantly less money.

Drop in and see many photos of every thing so you can form your own opinion!

TVAG

Hard to pull off, but very much pulp standard, and easy to model, is the long drawn out car chase, gun battle on a isolated road.

Best example, Indiana Jones stealing the truck with the Ark in Raiders of the lost ark. You don't need a long table top model either, just keep reusing road stretches while replacing terran.

And don't forget the impossible tall cliff, always have to have that. It's got to have a river at the bottom so if players go off, they can fall in the river and survive.

I second the Mean Streets and Mean Sets (especially this set)! Those are great.

And IMO, stay away from giant apes. Totally overdone…

Thanks for the responses from which I've learnt that I'm not really into 'Pulp' as most understand it. What I am into is a straightforward skirmish wargame (not unlike a Wild West shootout) but using gangster figures in a conventional period setting.

'Solid' buildings (whether resin or paper) pose obvious problems, although I note that the TVAG buildings seem to have flat roofs so figures supposed to be inside could be placed on top. 'Hollow' buildings also have their drawbacks – it's fiddly to move figures in and out and it's easy to lose track of them.

One possibility is to simply regard the buildings as off-limits, and to play between them. This isn't so silly for a sub-military game. Imagine, for example, a Sunday-morning gun battle in a deserted business district. There would be little opportunity to actually get into buildings if it was anything like the City of London. I once played a 'civil disturbance' game along these lines.

But my first thoughts were of creating something like a lumberyard. There could be a few single-storey structures, piles of timber, other clutter, and a parking lot etc, thus creating a sort of 'adventure playground' with plenty of cover for a skirmish.

Doctorphalanx

Thanks for clearing that up. In this group "pulp" means many different things to many different people, so I had to ask.

Anyway, you have "plenty* of possible scenarios, both historical and from "pulp era" fiction, to work toward that need very few structures.

If you're doing scenarios involving organized urban mobsters like Al Capone, "Dutch" Shultz, "Bugs" Moran, etc. vs. Elliot Ness and The Feds, you can build a brewery by including a warehouse, a garage, a couple of die cast trucks and cars, some loading platforms and various crates and barrels and surround it with a wire fence. That will be easy to do. The cars and various containers are readily available and they and will provide plenty of atmosphere and cover for maneuverability. Model train stores have a lot of plastic industrial type structures too. And obviously gangster minis can be gangsters or feds, so you don't even have to buy more minis. I was a player in a "prohibition era" scenario at a convention where union workers across the street from a gangster's brewery were actually "Bolsheviks" carrying hidden bombs and pistols. I was told to wreak havoc in any way that I chose, so I had a blast throwing bombs into police cars and shooting up the place while the Feds tried to raid the brewery. (-:

Another possibility is the famous "kansas City Massacre", where Frank Nash and his gang tried to free Vern Miller from police officers that were trying to escort Nash from Union Station to Leavenworth Penitentiary. This all took place right outside the station. If you want to you can add a structure that represents the station, but all the cover that would need to be represented would be a few cars as that's where all of the action took place.

Here's a link to the wiki:

link

If you want to do 1930's bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde, The Barker Gang, or the Dillinger Gang, the action would generally take place in and around a bank with few cars. So all that really needs to be modeled is the inside of a bank, street, a few cars, and possibly a couple of buildings next door.

A truck hijacking would also work with very little detail. Just a couple of cars and a couple of trucks. The truck guards on one side and the hijackers on the other side using the vehicles for cover.

In another thread we discussed a series of 1930's pulp magazine stories about secret agent "Operator #5" detailing his fight against an army of fascists that have invaded America in the 1930's. I developed a scenario where the citizens of New York City must rescue a woman who is about to be executed in Central Park in Manhattan. All you would need is several German soldiers, some trees to represent the park, some cars, and your gangster minis that would represent New Yorkers fighting against the Germans. Just do a search in this pulp group for my name "The Shadow" and you'll find it easily.

Good luck!

I once ran a couple of gangster gang scenarios based on incidents fictionalized in the great Loren Estelman novel Whiskey River and discussed in the book Intemperance, a historical study of Prohibition in the Detroit area. The terrain for my games was really simple: all white Christmas "snow" bunting, a few rocks, pine trees, and wax paper ovals with cracking lines drawn in black ink on them to represent patches of thin ice. During Prohibition, rumrunners used to drive convoys of quality hooch across the frozen Detroit River from Canada. Occasionally, rival gangs would try to hijack the shipment or prohibition agents would try to intercept them, leading to wild running gun battles across the ice: a sort of Prohibition version of the Road Warrior with lots of skidding and cars spinning in circles. Occasionally too a car would end up plunging through holes in the ice chopped by ice fishermen, the lost cars and bodies popping to the surface with the spring thaw.

Mulligan

>>During Prohibition, rumrunners used to drive convoys of quality hooch across the frozen Detroit River from Canada.<<

"The whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang…let's rock"

"Jailhouse Rock"
Elvis Presley
RCA 1957

Mully

Two novelists that I haven't gotten around to reading yet are Elmore Leonard and Loren Estelman. In both cases though it's their western novels that intrigue me. Some of the best novelists jump around from genre to genre. For instance I loved Robert B. Parker's westerns "Appaloosa" and "Resolution" even though he's much better known for his modern day "Spencer" novels. Same goes for Larry McMurtry. He was already known for "The Last Picture Show" before he wrote the now classic "Lonesome Dove" which, IMHO, is one of the best western novels ever written. I'm probably going to borrow "Gunsights" by Leonard and "Gun Man" by Estelman from the library very soon. Although "Whiskey River" has me interested now too.

I've enjoyed Parker's Westerns too, and liked the recent film adaptation of Appaloosa. Loren Estelman is a great writer. Whiskey River is about the relationship between an up-and-coming reporter and a flamboyant hoodlum during Prohibition. Jitterbug is a great police procedural tale of racial tension and homicide investigation in WWII-era Detroit. I'd also highly recommend Black Powder, White Smoke, which is a surprisingly rich and thoughtful Western. Estelman also wrote a nice Western romp about a traveling troupe of Shakespearian actors who rob banks on the side (although I'm blanking on the title at the moment).

Mulligan

(My favorite Western novel has to be The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, by Ron Hansen, although Hansen's earlier book about the Dalton gang, Desperadoes, is pretty close.)

>I've enjoyed Parker's Westerns too, and liked the recent film adaptation of Appaloosa.<

I'm sorry if I hijacked the thread, but I enjoyed the film version also. In fact, I bought it and watched it twice in a row.

The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion is the novel about the larcenous Shakespearean troupe in the Old West.

(I'd like to apologize for the higher-than-normal number of typos in my previous posts, specifically the most egregious one of all:
it should be "Estleman," not "Estelman"!)

Mulligan

The Shadow

A brewery? Now you're talking. That's something we can relate to in Britain, though maybe it should be a distillery?

Doctorphalanx

>A brewery? Now you're talking. That's something we can relate to in Britain, though maybe it should be a distillery?<

Assuming that you aren't just kidding around, you could call it a distillery, but you didn't suffer an era of "prohibition" in GB…or did you?

Prohibition is the period from 1920 to 1933, also known as "the roaring twenties", during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The "Volstead Act," was passed in Congress in 1919 and established the legal definition of intoxicating liquor as well as providing for enforcement of Prohibition. "Prohibition" lasted until it was repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933. During that period gangsters like Al Capone and "Bugs" Moran made millions of dollars running illegal breweries to make beer to sell to illegal saloons AKA "speakeasies". Federal Agents were obliged to "raid" those breweries and arrest the gangsters and brewers that worked there.

Gangsters ran distilleries too, but here in "the states" the most famous images are of Federal Agents breaking open kegs of illegal beer with axes, and of Elliot Ness and his "Untouchables" bashing through the gates of a brewery with an armored truck and blasting away with shotguns and "Tommy guns". (-:

I'm glad that you like the idea of the illegal distillery/brewery though, as that will make for some nifty scenery on a table, and as I said before, it won't be that hard to create.

Thanks for the detail which is genuinely appreciated. Of course, we are aware of Prohibition and the opportunity for organised crime it ironically provided. It would never have happened in Britain.

Oddly, the image I have (from films?) of American drinking habits is more whisky than beer orientated. But beer is good news. A beer barrel is going to provide much better cover than a bottle of spirits!

I came across an O Gauge brewery building at link which, if nothing else, is a good source of inspiration.

Doc

"Oddly, the image I have (from films?) of American drinking habits is more whisky than beer orientated. But beer is good news. A beer barrel is going to provide much better cover than a bottle of spirits!"

Well, I can't say that I've made study of it, but a raid on a beer brewery is as much a part of American lore as Jesse James robbing a train. There was certainly plenty of "bathtub gin" and "rum running", but it always seemed like some movie gangster was coercing a "speakeasy" owner to buy his gang's beer, as in "Public Enemy" and "The Saint Valentines Day Massacre". "The Untouchables" TV show further enforced the brewery raid image. Anyway, as you say, a brewery means plenty of barrels to hide behind. (-:

"I came across an O Gauge brewery building at link which, if nothing else, is a good source of inspiration".

That's a nice looking building. So is the warehouse on the same page. A wire fence, a couple of die cast trucks, some crates and barrels and you're good to go. (-:

Shadow

And these models are even more superb and atmospheric, but expensive: link

They also do some bits and pieces at more affordable prices like these barrels: link

That's the first time that I've seen a tenement front done with a fire escape. If it had a "stoop" and interior rooms with a staircase. Like a doll house. It would have been great for "pulp" gaming. I can see "The Shadow" or "The Spider" battling villains from room to room, then out the window and down the fire escape. As it is it's pretty "pricey".

Btw, you probably don't call it a "stoop" in GB, but what I'm referring to are the concrete steps that lead up to the front doors of the building and onto the first floor. Most "brownstone" tenements in Manhattan, where I lived, were built that way.

I think that the "O" gauge kits for the warehouse and brewery that you linked to yesterday would be fine if you left the roofs unglued and detachable. At worst you might want to "weather" them a bit.

I understand that MTH buildings are produced in constantly changing batches and aren't readily available in the UK. I'll probably just use them for inspiration and scratchbuild.

I did, however, find a UK source for barrels and crates link

"Always nice to see new pictures of WWII.
Agree with the others on the armor shots.
Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Huh?