Chalawan

Chalawan (ชาละวัน) is a crocodile spirit from the Thai folktale Kraithong (ไกรทอง). The story was adapted into a lakhon nok play credited to King Rama II, and has received a number of film adaptations over the years.

The story is so popular, that there is even a Thai craft beer named after Chalawan.

Anyone think their logo looks familiar?

In the story, Chalawan lives in a cave containing a magical crystal that gives all the crocodiles within human form. Outside of the cave however, he appears as an enormous crocodile. On occasion, Chalawan is also depicted as being half-man, half-crocodile.

A Cambodian take on the story can be seen in the film Kropeu Charavan (ក្រពើឆារ៉ាវ៉ាន់) aka The Crocodile Men. In this film, Chalawan (Charavan) is fully human, but knows a spell to transform into a crocodile.

The spell is very reminiscent of legends about the Indonesian power of tiang maleh rupa that allows people to change into crocodiles, or crocodiles to change into humans. And in fact, these legends are often credited as being the source for werecrocodiles in RPGs. In the Indonesian horror movies based on these legends, these creatures always seem to be albino crocodiles (buaya putih).

For more inspiration on magical crocodiles, I turned to the first issue of the zine A Thousand Thousand Islands, by Zedeck Siew, with art by Mun Kao.

MR-KR-GR describes a land of crocodiles and their human subjects. The zine introduces us to the Place of Crocodiles, but does not delve deeply into detail so I'm not sure I can characterize it as a gazetteer. The setting is painted with broad strokes, yet is evocative and tantalizes the reader with bits and pieces of the wondrous and grotesque.

Zedeck doesn't have any plans to make a comprehensive guide for his setting since he prefers the open-ended feel of the different locales introduced in his zines, but I personally would want to do a lot of research into the culture and mythology of Southeast Asia to do justice to the setting. Nevertheless, there are many people who can take off running with it just fine, so it is certainly not a hindrance to not have any sort of detailed background.

I'm not sure if there is currently any stock of the latest printings of the zine, but you can always contact Zedeck to check on availability.

Anyway, on to miniatures. There are several companies that make crocodile-men, including Privateer Press (Gatormen) and Crocodile Games (Sebeki), but the only series of miniatures that are close in size to 1/72 scale figures are the old C19 and RR11 Lizardmen from Citadel.

Grenadier also made the Caroc (Monster Manuscript Vol.II 1502, MM10) which I think matches well with the Citadel miniatures.

For regular crocodiles there are a lot of different plastic toys that can be used, but most of them are probably too large for use with 1/72 scale figures.

I only have the Airfix crocodile from the Tarzan figure set (01733), while all my other figures are actually alligators. The adult and baby alligators are from the Airfix Zoo Animals No. 1 set (01724). Next is a Galoob alligator from the National Geographic Collection Swamp Adventure set, and at the end is the Marx alligator from the Noah's Ark playset.

Last but not least is the D&D Icons of the Realms Crocodile (Waterdeep Dragon Heist #30), which can be used as a large saltwater crocodile.

Vehicle Industrial Government

The VIG1 was a tractor manufactured by David Brown Engineering Limited for use by the RAF as an aircraft/supply tug during WWII and well into the 50's.

1/72 versions of the tractor can be found in the Airfix Short Stirling kit from 1966, and the WWII RAF Bomber Re-Supply Set (A05330) from last year. A 1/76 diecast version is also produced by Oxford.

I am currently assembling both old and new Airfix tugs, having picked up an old Craft Master (MPC) Short Stirling at a good price.

The instructions from the old Airfix kit are rather interesting, with detailed assembly instructions written out.

Curiously enough, even though the parts are numbered in the assembly diagram, the sprues do not have any corresponding numbers on them. I'm not sure if the currently produced Airfix Stirling still lacks numbers, but there was one part (223) I had a real difficult time finding.

A comparison of some of the parts are shown below. The tug from the Stirling kit is in white plastic, while the one from the Bomber Re-Supply kit is in gray.

Overall, the two kits are almost identical in size.  Dimensionally, the two major differences are the fenders and the front wheels. The fenders on the old Airfix kit are almost 1mm wider than the fenders on the new kit (making the tug appear almost 2mm wider). The front wheels on the old kit are also almost 1mm larger in diameter.

Finally, a comparison with the Oxford diecast model of a tug in RN Fleet Air Arm colors.

The Oxford model is almost identical in size with the new Airfix model. It might even be a hair longer. Obviously there is something off with either the Airfix models, or the Oxford model. The tugs are about the size of a jeep, and I can tell the difference between a 1/76 and 1/72 scale jeep very readily. Not so with these models. They are either all 1/76, or all 1/72, but since they are consistent in size I wont complain too much.

In my opinion, the new Airfix kit is the most accurate looking, with superior detail. The old Airfix kit is the most simplified, with some oddities, like a mesh front grille. The Oxford model falls somewhere in between.

Gasmask Couture

The chemical suit and gas mask are an indispensable part of the post-apocalyptic wardrobe, designed to provide protection against contamination by radioactive, biological or chemical substances which would otherwise cause sickness, death, or turning into a zombie.

There are not a large number of gas mask wearing figures in 1/72, but I've assembled a small group of compatible figures for this blog entry.

First up are the Elhiem Soviet NBC troops. The first figure carrying the RPG is wearing the OZK chemical suit, but the others are dressed in what appears to be the L1 chemical protection suit. I painted some of the troops in mint green as shown on the Elhiem website, but after doing a little research, I could only find images of the OZK suit in that color. All the images of L1 suits showed that they are gray. Though there was mention of green L1 suits, what type of green was unclear since I could find no definitive pictures. The figures are very nice, but being 20mm miniatures they are a bit on the short side. However, it's not something that will really be noticed on the tabletop.


Next is a general comparison of gas masked figures. The first figure is Rose from Hasslefree Miniatures (HFA039J). She is intended as a 28mm grade school kid, but passes easily for a 1/72 middle school kid. She wears a school blazer and skirt with her gas mask, though it's unclear why she has the gas mask in the first place. The next pair are two figures from the NATO Pilots and Ground Crew set (ESCI 243), followed by two figures from the NATO Ground Crew set (Airfix 01758). One of the Elhiem figures is next, and last is a 1/76 figure from the much maligned (and rightfully so) German Infantry with Gasmasks set (Fujimi 76028). The plastic figure sets have all been reviewed at PSR.


Some interesting pictures of people in gas masks during the cold war and in general, can be found at Dark Roasted Blend.