The West Wind Cairo Civilians I ordered from Old Glory arrived this weekend. I received three blisters: The Servants of Set, Cairo Civilians and Cairo Civilians with cart. For some reason these blisters no longer appear on the official West Wind site, but fortunately Old Glory still sell them. I was directed there by a fellow Pulp gamer on the excellent Back of Beyond Pulp forum.
The civilian figures represent a nice mix of pedestrians and beggars you’d expect to find in a cliché pulp 1930’s Cairo city street. I’ve hastily arranged them in a busy alley for the above photo. Most of the figures were well cast, with just a little flash here and there. Unfortunately the register was clearly off on two of the figures and they have serious mold lines which will require a lot of filing and some re-sculpting. Possibly the molds have been retired which is they no longer appear on the West Wind site.
The figures themselves are passable, with a nice mix of sitting and standing men and a single, appropriately attired lady. I prefer the figures from the second ‘Civilians with Cart’ blister as the sculpts are a little cleaner and their faces are a touch more realistic than those in the first blister. I can take or leave the cart though as I could easily scratch build and cast something very similar myself. The scale of all the figures is good too and they mix well with my painted CoppleStone Castings and Artizan Designs figures.
These figures will receive some quick paint jobs just to get them on the table. As most of them are wearing simple turbans and robes they shouldn’t be too hard to paint. They’ll be used as innocent bystanders in a Cairo suburb that the heroes and villains are battling through. In fact my players are so cavalier with firearms I can imagine an amusing ‘Escape from the Angry Mob’ Pulp .45 Adventure Scenario being played out after somebody accidentally plugs Rashid the beggar.
In summary, they’re adequate but not great figures, which is really what I was expecting given the subject manner. After all it’s pretty hard to sculpt a particularly evocative Middle Eastern pedestrian or beggar.