The July 2018 session of the Mass Pikemen Gaming Club was fun time for all. We had an epic battle using the Combat Patrol™ gaming system. The battle (called “Get The Data!”) was between the attackers (an alliance of the Texican Space Rangers and the Hurraku Space Phraints) and the combined forces of the Robot Peacekeepers and the Space Dwarves. The objective for the attackers was to seize weapons design data from a computer in an abandoned and ruined factory/research facility. The defenders mission was to exact a high price in casualties from the assault force.
So why did I align the Texicans and the Hurraku? One picture in the Star Rovers game shows them having a drink at Moondog Maude’s Cantina – so I went with that.
Hey, after this drink, let’s go to battle!
I assigned points differentially for the attackers and the defenders based on the mission. The Hurraku attacked on the defenders’ left, and the Texican Space Rangers attacked from the defenders’ right. The defenders also had Robo-Sentry guns deployed run by RT22. I also gave them Roberker, a flame-throwing giant robot to help with their defense.
Will prepares to defendThe Texicans destroy a Robo-Sentry gun, then take cover. You can see the defenders in position in the building. If only the defenders had mortars!Two Texicans are dispatched by automatic weapons fire. I use casualty cards to designate fallen figures and to help score the battle at the end. Plus I think it shows the battle’s progression without having a bunch of minis tipped over. Chris Comeau (Texican commander) made a bold move and had his gray squad jet pack directly into a bunker filled with one of Will’s Robot Peacekeeper team. The bots passed a reaction test and the Rangers took massive fire and three dead before they could fire. The red beads mark morale checks for them, the blue for the bots. This sacrifice was to prove worthy, as follow on teams of Space Rangers were able to clear the stunned robots from the bunker.Another of the 5 Robo-Sentry guns is cleared by the Space Rangers.On the other flank, Jared Burns and Mike Morgan were able to use the long ranges of the Hurraku blasted to keep the defenders’ heads down. They maneuvered to flank the defenders.One of the Agribot automatic weapons did hit a team of Hurraku for one wound. Unluckily, the team promptly failed morale and became pinned behind a boulder. They were eventually able to rally.Back on the right flank, Will and Dave decided that it was time for Roberker to counterattack with his dual flame throwing arms. Roberker successfully roasted a number of the purple-sombreroed Space Ranger team. However, he put himself in the open……and he took automatic weapons fire from multiple Rangers. The plume from his smoking hulk is next to the bunker…Chris Comeau smiles…he also killed Roberker in his last game BTW!The Robot Peacekeepers in the bunker then drew an unfortunate morale result that caused them to perform a banzai charge (I have robots use the WWII Japanese in the Pacific cards for morale). Thus, they left the nice safe bunker and got mauled. Note the large number of blue morale checks to be performed after the banzai charge.By this point, Will and his dad Dave had to leave, so I took over. The defense was collapsing, so I withdrew the front line defenders as best as I could.The sacrifices of the Texican Space Rangers allowed the Hurraku to penetrate the defensive position. The first in was their Sith warrior, who used the powers of the Force to smash two robots (RT22 and a Robot Peacekeeper) with a Telekinesis attack by sending them into the factory walls. This destroyed them. As you can see, the morale checks were piling up……so why not add more to the carnage with a satchel charge thrown by a Hurraku Space Phraint into the Space Dwarves (the smoke plume here)! Meanwhile, the Hurraku Space Phraints swarmed in.The attackers swarm the compound. Game over.
The game was fun, and when the tide turned, the attackers did a good job of exploiting the openings presented. I love it when maneuver is executed well. The Texican Space Rangers aggressiveness resulted in nearly 50% casualties, but helped the Hurraku press their assault on the other flank. The defenders did get some very unlucky morale results, but so did the attackers so it was a wash there. Next time I run this scenario, I probably will include some defensive indirect fire support as well as some time constraints on the attackers.
Still, it was a fun session, and I am appreciative to the players! It was nice to meet everyone, and I’m glad that they got to learn the system so quickly. Our next session is tentatively scheduled for August 18th.
Space Cowboys! More properly Archive Miniatures Texican Space Rangers (circa 1978), are the subject of this blog, plus some Steve Miller Band stuff from the 1970’s. Most people are familiar with the Steve Miller Band song The Joker:
Some people call me the space cowboy yeah Some call me the gangster of love Some people call me Maurice ‘Cause I speak of the pompitous of love…
Lyrics from The Joker, Steve Miller Band, 1973
Some also know that the opening line of The Joker refers to the band’s 1969 hit Space Cowboy – a rousing song with psychedelic undertones.
I told you ’bout living in the U.S. of A. Don’t you know that I’m a gangster of love Let me tell you people that I found a new way And I’m tired of all this talk about love And the same old story with a new set of words About the good and the bad and the poor And the times keep on changin’ So I’m keepin’ on top Of every fat cat who walks through my door
I’m a space cowboy Bet you weren’t ready for that I’m a space cowboy I’m sure you know where it’s at Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…
Lyrics from Space Cowboy, Steve Miller Band, 1969
If you have not heard it before, and/or if you want a theme song for this blog post, here it is:
I’m sure that in some way, shape, or form, these songs influenced the sculpting of these figures.
Back to the miniatures!
In the early stages of my chasing down Archive Star Rovers a couple of years ago, I discovered two figures that were called Texican Space Rangers. One figure was Travis B. Crockett who was armed with a couple of laser pistols. The other was Armando Garcia, who had an assault rifle, a laser pistol, and a very imposing sombrero. Both had very cool jet packs as well. I did think that they would make an awesome unit for Combat Patrol™ games. Archive packaged them in two ways. One was as a set (along with a dog I have not found) as #2045 Texican Space Ranger Group. The other was individually as #2225 (Travis) and #2226 (Armando).
From the Archive Miniatures CatalogFrom the excellent Lost Minis Wiki website. The photo above includes the elusive dog, and was posted by David Wood whose excellent blog http://deartonyblair.blogspot.co.uk/ is worth a look if you like old school minis!
There are a few images in the Star Rovers game that showcase the Texican Space Rangers. I think the artwork is very cool and worth sharing as well.
Here the Texican Space Rangers are being attacked by Eyegars and Flygars. Note the dog disappearing here as well on the lower left (maybe why I cannot find it?).Travis hanging out with a Hurraku Space Phraint at a bar! I made a platoon of these Arduin types earlier this year which you can read about here.Quite the bar fight mash-up here. I see Armando on the left, some Space Centaurs, Felynxi, Clint Eastwood (?) and a Chewbacca look alike under the table? Also a Nevile Stocken logo behind the bar near Armando.
I searched, and the only source that I initially found for the figures was on eBay which made the prospect of building a platoon-sized unit very expensive. Because of this, back in June 2016 I made a mold of Armando Garcia and cast several for personal use and for some friends which I wrote about here. I had a plan to cast Travis B. Crockett, but did not get around to it, which was lucky for me as I found a better option.
Michael Thomas is a hobbyist who bought a spin caster and has been collecting OOP miniature molds and making them available for a very reasonable price. I discovered that Michael has both Texican Space Rangers (among many other lost and OOP miniatures) available at http://classicminiatures.net/. The product codes are RKV-0122 for Travis and RKV-0021 for Armando, with their prices being $3.50 and $3.75 respectively, which is very reasonable. I had a sufficient number of Armando’s, so I ordered enough Travis figures to round out a small platoon sized unit of 32.
My concept for the Texican Space Rangers was to have them as a small constabulary-type unit (like the Texas Rangers). I made a command group (1 of each type), and 5 infantry teams. Each team would have one Travis and five Armando’s. Filing and cleaning the originals ones I got from eBay and from Michael was a breeze, while my castings needed much more work to make them presentable. They are moderate in terms of crispness, but not like today’s figures. But hey, this is what it was like in the 1970’s! Once that was done, I used my airbrush to prime them, and moved on to painting them.
I also had a pretty important secondary goal on this project, which was to use as many of my old Polly S, Polly Scale, Deka Lack, and Armory acrylic paints as possible. My Polly S paints were ones I bought in the early-to-mid 1980’s (really). My Deka Lack paints are ones that I purchased in West Germany (remember that?) around 1987. The Polly Scale paints were made after Testors bought them out, and my guess is that they date from the 1990’s (they were gifts Buck Surdu got for me slightly used from a gaming convention flea market). My Armory paints were all bought by me in 1996. All of these paints are viable, but they have lumps and clumps and do not always thin easily. I thought as a challenge, I would use as many as possible as theme colors, and add washes, inks, and glazes to enhance the models. Besides, they won’t be useful indefinitely. If you are interested in the history of Polly S , I did find this blog post that was interesting.
Additionally, I follow a couple of blogs that were inspirational for this project. One was imperial rebel ork’s post about his Western/sci-fi mashup. He has three chapters there. Also, our good inspirational friend Azazel from down under made a painting challenge for units for June, so this works and this is my entry (or at least one of them)! On to the theme colors…
The platoon leader’s main color was Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”, while the platoon sergeant’s was Deka Lack “Blaü” (blue). for the teams’ main colors, the A team got Polly S “Desert Pink”, the B team got Polly Scale “German Armor Light Tan”; the C team got Polly S “Interior Green”, the D team got Polly Scale “WWII British Aircraft Gull Gray Light”; and the E team got Polly Scale “German Mauve”. The Travis figures also have US red, white, and blue on their collars, and the Armando’s have the colors of the Mexican flag (red white, and green). I list all of the paints, glazes, inks, washes etc. that I used for this project at the end of this post (only 55 this time!).
The Travis B. Crockett’s I got from Michael Thomas, unpainted.The Texican Space Rangers, primed for painting. I ended up with some reductions so I actually painted 32 for this unit.Here I started working on the heads and the theme colors. Some (not all) of the old paints I used are in front for fun.In the middle of the project. I did heads first, then legs, with torsos last.The platoon sergeant before washes and inks. This is an original, not a recast.The platoon leader early on – I cleaned him up substantially as the project continued.The command group, and Team’s A and B painted and awaiting varnish.The whole platoon finally painted and awaiting varnish.All varnished and ready to leave their specimen bottles!In the storage boxCommand Group frontal viewCommand Group, rear viewTeam ATeam BTeam CTeam DTeam EAll of the leaders (being the Travis figures). You can see the differentiating colors on the hats and uniforms, which I hope will aid on the tabletop for play.Examples of the different Armando figures
This was a fun project, though the older paints are much harder to use than modern ones. Still, I am glad that those oldies got a chance to be useful.
Thanks for reading, and I always appreciate comments and feedback in the comments section!
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, WASHES, AND FLOCKING USED:
Vallejo “Surface Primer – White”
Vallejo “Dark Flesh”
Vallejo “Medium Flesh Tone”
Citadel “Reikland Fleshshade”
Vallejo “White”
Vallejo Game Air “Black”
Vallejo “Brown Rose”
Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”
Vallejo “Dark Blue”
Polly S “Desert Pink”
Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”
Polly Scale “WWII German Armor Light Tan”
Polly S “Interior Green”
Polly Scale “WWII British Aircraft Gull Gray Light”
Polly Scale “German Mauve”
Vallejo Game Air “Moon Yellow”
Deka Lack “Blaü”
Polly S “Slime Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Signal Red”
Vallejo “Red”
Citadel “Auric Armour Gold”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Vallejo “Dark Blue”
Vallejo “Glossy White”
Polly Scale “WWII German Armor Dark Brown”
Armory “Leather Brown”
Armory “Prussian Blue”
Vallejo Model Air “Aluminum”
Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
Vallejo Game Air “Beastly Brown”
Secret Weapons Washes “Just Red” (ink)
Citadel “Gulliman Blue” (glaze)
Citadel “Waywatcher Green” (glaze)
Secret Weapons Washes “Blue” (ink)
Secret Weapons Washes “Armor Wash” (wash)
Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” (wash)
Secret Weapons Washes “Parchment” (wash)
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss” (wash)
Citadel “Soulstone Blue”
Citadel “Waystone Green”
Citadel “‘Ardcoat”
Citadel “Agrellan Earth”
Citadel “Agrellan Badlands”
P3 “Bootstrap Leather”
Secret Weapons Washes “Sunshine” (wash)
Vallejo “Glaze Medium”
Vallejo Game Air “Wolf Grey”
Secret Weapons Washes “Stone” (wash)
Secret Weapons Washes “Purple” (ink)
Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Purple”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “”Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo “Matt Varnish”
Thanks again and feel free to let me know your thoughts!
Mark A. Morin 
