Lava Children

Lava Children are often scorned as one of the absurd joke monsters from the Fiend Folio, and people have laughed at the illustration for bearing a striking resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman, but something about the harness it wore had a vaguely Polynesian look that made the association with lava work for me.

On the other hand, I didn't care for the 5th ed. incarnation of the Lava Child, which looks like the unholy spawn of Carrot Top and Pennywise.

There are no miniatures of Lava Children, and I doubt that there ever will be, so I took it upon myself to make my own version based on the original Russ Nicholson illustration.

I started out by sculpting the face out of Kneadatite.

What– Me worry?

To make things simpler for myself, I decapitated one of the Deep Fire Dwarves from Sgt Major Miniatures (now sold by Battle Valor Games) to use as the basis for a body.

I'm guessing that the miniatures are supposed to be Azers from the Monster Manual II, which are probably even more obscure than Lava Children.

First the head was attached, and some lines were scribed onto the kilt.

Then I sculpted the harness to the best of my ability.

My plan for painting is to undercoat with black, and then use a foam brush to dab gray and white over it to replicate the appearance of a charcoal briquette after being used in a barbeque.

A closely related monster for which there are three miniatures is the Magman (Magmin). The first miniature is from the D&D Miniatures line (Angelfire #56), while the next two miniatures are from the Icons of the Realms line (Elemental Evil #01 and Monster Menagerie 3 #1).

The Angelfire miniature was my original candidate as a proxy for a Lava Child, albeit undersized. The Elemental Evil miniature was rather underwhelming, but I liked the Monster Menagerie miniature so much (because it is made of transparent plastic), that I bought a whole bunch of them.

Another lava related miniature is the Magma Mephit (Monster Menagerie 3 #02a), which has an alternate paint version that is the Mud Mephit (Monster Menagerie 3 #02b).

I really like the look of these miniatures, and if you don't want to use them as mephits, they could just as easily pass for imps or homunculi.

Old Blood and Guts

There he sat, big as life even at that distance. His hair was silver, his face was pink, his collar and shoulders glittered with more stars than I could count, his fingers sparkled with rings, and an incredible mass of ribbons started around desktop level and spread upward in a flood over his chest to the very top of his shoulder, as if preparing to march down his back too. His face was rugged, with an odd, strangely shapeless outline; his eyes were pale, almost colorless, with a choleric bulge. His small, compressed mouth was sharply downturned at the corners, with a lower lip which suggested a pouting child as much as the no-nonsense martinet. It was a welcome, rather human touch. Beside him, lying in a big chair, was Willie, the bull terrier. If ever a dog was suited to his master this one was. Willie had his beloved boss’s expression and lacked only the ribbons and stars. I stood in that door staring into the four meanest eyes I’d ever seen.

– Bill Mauldin

George S. Patton Jr. was a colorful and controversial military figure who was considered a central figure in the development of American armored warfare doctrine during, and between both world wars.

His peers in the North African Campaign included Montgomery and Rommel, but unlike the later two who have likenesses in plastic, metal, and probably resin, you'd be hard pressed to find a figure representing Patton at all.

I only know of one metal 20mm figure from Sgt Major Miniatures in the General Patton set (GUTS).

The figure is wearing a B-3 bomber jacket, and has a pair of Colt SSAs at his hips. The stars on his helmet are overscale, but can be easily removed if so desired.

A 15mm figure in the General George S. Patton set (Flames of War US885) from Battlefront Miniatures also exists, but the set is only useful because it comes with a figure of Willie which is more suitable for 1/72 scale than 15mm.

I increased the size of the figure a bit to bring it in line with Patton's actual height.

Patton had his flaws (some pretty spectacular ones at that), but I think he was a lot more complex than what detractors or conspiracy theorists make him out to be.

Document everything, leave nothing to chance...
because one day, some cockroach will crawl up
out of the latrine and deny all this ever happened.
God damn them!

Filipino Guerrillas

After the American forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese, hundreds of independent guerrilla units composed of both civilian and military personnel formed throughout the Philippine Islands.

Many of these groups were recognized military forces that worked under the command of MacArthur's SWPA General Headquarters.

In 1944, the recognized guerrilla units were inducted into the Philippine Commonwealth Army to take part in operations to retake the Philippines from the Japanese.

I think that figures representing Filipino guerrillas only exist in 20mm, and are produced by Sgt Major Miniatures.

The two sets (RAID4, RAID5) are part of a line of figures that represent the forces that took part in The Great Raid.

The figures are a bit on the chunky side, but are among some of the better sculpts produced by Sgt Major for their 20mm line. Two of the figures are duplicated between the sets.

Two other sets that I purchased from the line are Raiders (RAID1, RAID2) representing members of the 6th Ranger Battalion.

I think these are the only American WWII figures in 20mm (or 1/72 for that matter) that I've seen wearing Daisy Mae hats and field caps, which is why I bought them in the first place. Unfortunately, the figures are tiny and almost like 15mm figures.

I think the two crouching poses of the second set could almost pass for 1/72 scale, but I'll probably just decapitate the other figures and reuse the heads with more suitably sized bodies.

I have returned

Sergio Osmeña, Courtney Whitney, Carlos P. Romulo, 
Douglas MacArthur, Richard K. Sutherland, 
William J. Dunn, Francisco Salveron

Whatever you may think of Douglas MacArthur, his return to the Philippine Islands in 1944 was a major event in the history of WWII. Sgt Major Miniatures makes a set of 20mm figures (MAC1) that commemorates this moment.

The figures from left to right, represent Major General Courtney Whitney, General Douglas MacArthur, Lieutenant General Richard Sutherland, a photographer with a Speed Graphic camera, and a war correspondent. I don't think that any of these figures are represented elsewhere in the 1/72 world.

I'm not sure if the photographer is supposed to be Gaetano Faillace who took the iconic photo of the landing, or just a generic photographer, but the sculpt bears a slight resemblance to Carl Mydans who took a similar photo at a later date.

The identity of the reporter also remains mysterious. It doesn't seem to be William Dunn, but only the sculptor knows for sure.

The sculpts are a bit on the rough side, but I was pretty much able to determine who was who, so they get a pass from me. The photographer did not have any straps sculpted on his backpack, so I just carved some lines in with a hobby knife.

To make the figures 1/72 compatible, I performed my patented height extension surgery on them. I'd say their proportions look better in 1/72 than they do at 20mm.

The generals and reporter will be painted in khaki, but I'm not sure about the photographer. The way he's outfitted really makes me think that he should be in olive drab.

Army Signal Corps Photographer

CFPU photographer with Speed Graphic camera 

Pilots & Pin-ups

Recently I've been trying to find pilots for some airplane models that I plan on building in wheels up configuration. The older Airfix and Monogram kits almost always used to come with pilots, but the problem with model planes nowadays is that they never come with pilots. I tried looking around for some pilot figures, but the pickings were pretty slim.


The first pilot is a WWII American Pilot (200MSC01) from Eureka. It is 20mm and seems to scale out close to 1/76. Next in line is a Hobby Master WWII US Pilot (HP0001). It comes in a set of five identical pre-painted figures in soft vinyl. The upper torso seems to match well with the Eureka pilot, but the legs are really short. The next three figures come from the Hobby Master WWII Pilots Set (HP0003), which contains two RAF pilots, two Luftwaffe pilots, and one VVS pilot in soft vinyl. The RAF pilot comes in a particularly wooden pose, but is not to bad as far as scale is concerned. The German and Soviet pilots however, are noticeably smaller than the other pilots, and are probably no more than 1/87 scale. The German pilot has a large head relative to his body, so would probably not look too out of place once he is placed in a cockpit, but the Soviet pilot is particularly poor, with a hollowed out back and a tiny 1/87 head to go with his puny 1/87 body.

Typical of model pilot figures, all of the figures are sculpted in the typical staring-straight-ahead-hands-in-the-lap pose. But really... someone needs to make a decent seated pilot figure. Maybe with his head turned to scan the sky, or giving hand signals to a wingman.

I'm not going to complain too much about the short legs, since this allows figures to fit more easily into a wider variety of cockpits, but using 1/87 figures for 1/72 planes just looks wrong. The only other pilots that I know about are from the Revell Pilots and Ground Crew: German Airforce WWII set, and those come with tiny 1/87 scale pilots as well.

And now, I shift gears and present Pin-Up Gals (PIN1) from Sgt Major Miniatures.


The pin-ups come languorously posed in typical pin-up fashion, but are much larger than the typical 20mm miniature. I would say that at least a couple of them are larger than 1/72, though their size is not so obvious because they are not standing up. The figures are decently sculpted, though I believe that the size of the head is out of proportion to the body. The first gal has the most promise. She looks about the right size, and could be used seated on the wing of a plane, or maybe on the deck of a boat.