Where There Is Smoke ...

There is fire and police.

After completing preparations for my Bayou Wars game earlier this month, I took a short break in painting, partly because I have had both viral and then bacteriological sinus infections.  But as I am finally recovering from them, I completed some fire and smoke markers and a few British early 20th Century police.

The fire and smoke markers are made by Litko Game Accessories and I have had them for a number of years.  I finally decided to glue them together and then to steel washers to make them easier to store and use.

The sets come with small flame markers in two colors and tall and short smoke columns.  I mixed the flames and smoke pieces together to get ten small and ten tall markers.  I then glued them to steel washers (3/4" or 20mm) and painted the washers a charcoal color.  I'll primarily use these with my 1:2400 pre-dreadnought ships and my plastic Renaissance galleys.

Here are a couple of Japanese battleships, the lead ship showing that a single fire has been started and the trail ship showing that a massive, critical fire has gained on the damage control teams.


I also painted some heavier armed police for my British police flying squad.  I'll use these in pulp fiction games and as my contribution to our WW2 home army games using I Ain't Been Shot, Mum rules.

The detective inspector (in mufti) is an old out-of-production Ral Partha police detective while the three rifle armed constables are from the Artisan Design Thrilling Tales line.  The detective inspector was originally painted as a gangster in a very bright blue suit (a la Dick Tracy style).  But I repainted him in a more neutral charcoal suit although he still wears a red carnation boutonniere.  They will join four other bobbies that I painted back in December.

The British police flying squad can quickly respond to any crisis and swiftly put the Hun infiltrators in their place!