The first of the Syldavian Secret Police

In a previous post, I talked about the Syldavian Security and Intelligence Service, officially the Varnosti Policija but popularly called the Vohunska i.e. "the Spies". Here is the start of my company of Vohunska agents and their uniformed assistants in the Königliche Gendarmerie.

Represented here is a senior agent of the Vohunska, Inspektor Eugen Jaegermann flanked by two of his agents. The Inspektor is a feared figure amongst the Syldavian Underworld, both with normal criminals who remember him from his days as a detective in the Königliche Gendarmerie and also with subversives in anarchist and other political groups. He is hated by the Bordurian Informat, who have put a price on his head because of his work exposing and eliminating clandestine operatives and saboteurs in Bordurian emigré communities. Jaegermann comes from the city of Travunje, south of the capital, Klow and joined the Gendarmerie after his mandatory period of conscription in the Syldavian Army. He is known for his blunt manner and his ability to get results where others have failed.

Vohunska agents work in plainclothes and officially they are part of the Syldavian Ministry of Justice, unlike the Gendarmerie who are part of the Army. They have a wide-ranging brief, which encompasses internal security and intelligence-gathering, as well as operating as intelligence agents in other countries. They may also, under certain circumstances work with the Gendarmerie's Bureau of Investigations, the Untersuchungsbüro. 

In many operations, the Vohunska will call upon support from the uniformed Gendarmerie when extra manpower is required.

These figures are from the North Star Steampunk range and will serve as other things than just Syldavian agents. I will use them as Scotland Yard detectives and anywhere else where I need some chaps in plainclothes. I will use them for games of  In Her Majesty's Name and pulp and Cthulhu Mythos games.

n.b. Eugen Jaegermann is a sort of Germanised version of Gene Hunt from the TV series "Life On Mars"

And now, I really have run out of Bordurians ..............

.......... well, for the moment, at least. These are my final four Bordurian clandestine agents, dressed as ordinary dock or factory workers.

Nothing new to add. Like the rest, they are Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolsheviks and I'll be using them for  In Her Majesty's Name and pulp games.

I've really enjoyed doing these. They are terrific sculpts and casts, lots of crisp detail and they take paint really well.

Now, on with the Syldavians!

Almost the last of my Bordurian agents

So, I am coming to the end of my late-19th century Bordurian active service unit. As well as the assorted intelligence agents and military and security operative, any unit operating undercover in a foreign country will have agents and operatives working as agitators, agents provocateurs and saboteurs. These will often be drawn from the ranks of the Politzya Militar, as well as from the Sekuritat and will usually be living in working class areas and working in factories, ports or on the railways. Here are four typical clandestine operatives;

Living and working in the industrial areas of Syldavia, their main role is to spread revolutionary ideas amongst the workers of the Syldavian proletariat, create dissent and organise strikes. Their secondary role is to fight as required to further the political ends of the Informat. They can also be found operating secretly in the forests and mountains along the Bordurian/Syldavian borders as smugglers and saboteurs.

They will be used for Pulp games as well as for  In Her Majesty's Name.

These are also figures from the  Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolshevik range. I have four more of these guys to finish and then I shall be starting on their Syldavian opponents. 

Four members of the Bordurian Military Police

The Bordurian Army also has a security unit, one that is dedicated to rooting out counter-revolutionary activities among the troops, in both the officer corps and the rank and file. That unit is the Politzya Militar, the Military Police. Here are four members of this unit. First an officer and an NCO;

Next, two rankers (known as "specialists") from a military police company.

These figures are once again  Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolsheviks.

The uniform of the Politzya Militar is the same as that of the rest of the army and you will note that the army conscripts both male and female soldiers.

Each infantry, artillery and cavalry battalion has a company of the Politzya Militar attached to it. In addition each company, squadron or battery has a junior officer, an NCO and a section of 10 specialists imbedded.

At higher levels. i.e. Brigade or Division, there are additional units of the Politzya Militar, led by experienced senior officers. These higher level units also contain officers from both the Sekuritat and Informat.

In addition to the anti-subversion role of the Politzya Militar, they are also tasked with ensuring that correct revolutionary discipline is maintained by the regular officers and NCOs and  that infractions of military regulations are identified and punished. In combat, the PM has a political role, ensuring that orders are obeyed and that deserters are executed. 

Unlike the rest of the Army, whose ranks are filled with conscripts who serve a five year active term, followed by a further 20 years as reservists, the PM is made up of volunteers. Anyone who has served at least six months as a conscript may volunteer for the selection process, which consists of a rigorous political screening as well as physical and aptitude testing. Anyone who passes this process joins the PM for a minimum of 10 years, starting at the rank of Junior Specialist. In practice, PM officers identify possible recruits early on and after the appropriate period suggest that putting themselves forward might be a good idea. The officer cadre of the PM is around 50% seconded from the Sekuritat and Informat for a period of two years and 50% promoted from the ranks. All NCOs are promoted from within.

As an aside, all Bordurian army officer cadets, since the end of the revolutionary wars have been selected from the most able conscripts within their first year and sent off for assessment. Therefore, it is generally considered to be more prestigious to be identified for the PM than it is to be chosen as an officer cadet.

Trusted PM officers, NCOs and specialists are often seconded to serve alongside Informat and Sekuritat agents in active service units. This is considered a great honour for those involved and is often a stepping stone to joining the ranks of the Second and Third Directorates. Veterans of the PM who have completed their  mandatory minimum 10 years service may opt to leave the PM and apply to become Political Commissars of the Watch, the local militia-based police whose patrol units are found all over the country.

As with the rest of my figures, these are intended for In Her Majesty's Name and Pulp games.

The Bordurian menace grows ...........

Here are some more figures for my late-19th century Bordurians.

Once again, these are Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolsheviks, this time representing two rank and file members of the Second Directorate's Security Police, the Sekuritat.

Members of the Sekuritat such as these can often be seen on the streets of Bordurian cities, particularly guarding important state buildings but also patrolling the main streets. They have far greater authority than those local militiamen and women who comprise the Watch patrols in towns and cities across the country, and they operate the Customs posts and entry points around the borders of the country. They have a large barracks and prison complex, housed in the former Orthodox monastery on the island of Zodastrum in Lake Poliszchov, where political prisoners are held, many never emerging again once incarcerated behind the grim walls of the prison.

These two will join my Bordurian active service unit for In Her Majesty's Name but will also be useful as Bolsheviks for Pulp games.

Bad Squiddo Amazon standard bearer

I've had the Bad Squiddo Amazons since last September when the Kickstarter shipped, but until now I hadn't got round to painting any of them. This standard bearer is the first one;

I think she is a lovely figure and her Squid standard is great. I decided that it needed to be painted with a bronze body, turquoise eyes and purple or turquoise tentacles, because they are very Bad Squiddo colours. I decided to carry those colours over onto the standard bearer herself, with her purple belt and turquoise helmet plume and tunic edging. Her armour is a mixture of bronze plate and brassier scales. I couldn't decide whether her blade should be iron or bronze, but I decided on the former for colour variation.

Here she is from the rear, the view her troops would see advancing into battle;

Here from the front, the view her enemies would see coming towards them.

The tufts are Gamer's Grass, also available from Bad Squiddo.

More late-19th century Bordurian Secret Police

Following on from my last post, here are the next two recruits for my Bordurian Active Service cell for In Her Majesty's Name.

These figures are also Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolsheviks and the tufts are, once again Gamer's Grass from Bad Squiddo.

These are two officers of the Second Directorate, also known as the Sekuritat, responsible for domestic State Security, although Security Police are known to work closely with the agents of the Informat, the infamous Intelligence Services of the Third Directorate.

The figure on the left is Leitenant Eirena Karras, whose fame comes from her loud singing voice, which she frequently uses to urge the troops on to great feats of revolutionary fervour. Her power as a revolutionary orator is another of her assets, although she is also a good shot and a dedicated and thorough investigator.

Accompanying her is Inspektor Pyotr Mavros, nicknamed "The Priest", because it is said that everyone always confesses to him in the end. His family were exiles under the Autocracy, living in the slums of the Syldavian city of Bellicosow, constantly under the surveillance of the Syldavian Königliche Gendarmerie. The young Pyotr was recruited by the local undercover cell of the Proletarian Alliance and returned to Borduria when the last Autokrat, Constantine IV was overthrown.

Incidentally, my chosen map of Syldavia and environs is a wonderful thing that I found on the http://syldavianchronicle.blogspot.com/ blog, which unhappily no longer seems to be active. It is a terrific piece of work and I hope that I am not infringing anyone's copyright by using it.

The Bordurian Secret Police in the 19th century

In an earlier post I brought the history of Borduria up to the end of the 19th century. In that post, I wrote about the Bordurian Security agencies.

In that earlier post, I introduced two Bordurian Secret Police agencies, the Second Directorate (also called the Sekuritat), which controls the press and oversees state security and the Third Directorate or Informat which is the secret intelligence arm of the Bordurian state.

I should also have mentioned a further arm of the Secret State, the Military Police, but I will leave them to a later post.

These two characters are officers of the Third Directorate in uniform, although agents are commonly found in plainclothes for many operations.

These figures are both from the excellent Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolsheviks range. The tufts on the bases are Gamer's Grass from Bad Squiddo.

So, who are they?

Well, the female officer is Kapitan Anastasia Dimitrovna, a cold and calculating figure in the Service, whose speciality is running female agents in the decadent bourgeois societies of the West, but who is also feared as an assassin and expert interrogator. Although her background lies in the minor rural boyar families of the 18th and early 19th century, Anastasia is the daughter of a prominent revolutionary general Michaelis Demetrios (who slavicised his name to Mikhail Dimitrov) and committed supporter of the present regime.

The male officer is Commissar Evgeny Petrov, born Eugenios Petros in the industrial city of Peshod. As with many members of the new regime, he has also slavicised his name. Petrov fought as a young soldier in the battles following the coup that overthrew the original Republican Provisional Government. His revolutionary fervour in denouncing secret opponents in the ranks of the Army of the Proletarian Alliance government brought him to the attention of the Second Directorate, where he quickly rose through the ranks. He subsequently transferred to the Third Directorate to oversee the section whose responsibility is the infiltration of anti-revolutionary emigré groups elsewhere in Europe.

I am really pleased to finally find a use for these terrific figures. They will be part of a Bordurian company for In Her Majesty's Name, but they will also be really useful for Pulp games using the Crooked Dice Pulp rules.

Some Boys in Blue to combat those Steampunk villains

Both sets of four are from Ironclad Miniatures. First, constables with capes and pistols;

They are clearly the front line, the Bobbies on the beat.

Secondly, some backup with rifles, a Victorian Armed Response Unit;

These look like a pretty simple paint job, but British police uniforms have always been a lot darker shade of blue than you see on many miniatures. I undercoated them in Halford's matt black spray and started off with a base coat of Dark Prussian Blue, which on its own is too light. I then did the folds in a mix of the same blue with black, then a bit of highlighting with the Dark Prussian Blue mixed with Luftwaffe Uniform. This seemed closer to what I wanted and once given a wash of Peat Brown ink I was satisfied with the results.

And now...........the Mad Inventor.

I have alluded to the Mad Inventor previously. His biography is below.

Here he is with his fiendish Mechanical Progeny, each powered by a portable steam-powered Arc Generator. These Automata are his ultimate warriors, controlled via electro-mechanical waves transmitted by his ingenious control device. Clever though this device is, he must stay within transmitting range of  his creations, otherwise they will simply halt until he is close enough to regain control of them. Although these mechanical warriors are slow-moving and without the power of independent thoughts or actions, they are heavily-armoured and resistant to damage from many conventional weapons. Their only independent action is their ability to fire at anything that comes within range of their "eyes", which are actually complex lenses that serve as a targeting mechanism for their weapons. Of course, the Mad Inventor has the ability to direct their fire when they are under his control.

These figures are all, once again from Ironclad Miniatures.

The Mad Inventor's name is Professor Erasmus Van Hulst, and he was born in Amsterdam. Always physically small and weak, he was inquisitive and interested in mechanical devices as a child. He was often bullied by his schoolmates, which led him to find ingenious ways of inflicting his revenge upon them. As he grew up, Erasmus nursed many grievances against the men who, as boys had made his life a misery. He studied at a number of universities and institutes across Europe, eventually ending up as a professor at the University of Strelsau in the Kingdom of Ruritania. There, he was able to test certain hypotheses about the creation of Automata and soon began to construct models in his laboratories in his home in a secluded manor outside the city.

He supplied a number of Automata to a local impresario and they quickly became a huge attraction in the main theatre of Strelsau. After the mysterious death of the impresario, Van Hulst quit the university and founded a touring show featuring his ingenious creations. Styling himself as Count Cagliostro, Master of Mysteries, Professor Van Hulst began to develop his control system and embarked on the construction of more and more complex Automata. As his experiments progressed, he began to plot and then wreak his revenge on his childhood tormentors. 

Finally, he perfected his most powerful Automaton, the Steam Jäger. With this step forward, Van Hulst turned his attentions to thoughts of crime, chaos and domination. His psychopathic tendencies, always there under the surface began to take him over, causing him to withdraw from society, using the vast fortune he had accumulated as Count Cagliostro to turn his Ruritanian Manor into a fortified headquarters where he could build an army of Steam Jäger Automata. 

Professor Van Hulst frequently visits the capital cities of Europe, keeping homes in Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna. He uses his mechanical skills in many ways, not least in experiments in the area of electro-mechanical prosthetics and the creation of bio-mechanical human beings. 

An Inventive Genius and his equally Inventive Sister

Obviously, in a steampunk world, the science is always going to be weird, and even the good guys embrace the weird. See below for details;

Here we have the Inventive Genius and his equally Inventive Sister, staunch opponents of those who seek to pervert science for their own ends and regular allies of the Mysterious Government Agency (MGA).

On the left is Professor Henry Hardy, physicist, chemist and engineer and his sister Amelia, a mathematical prodigy and student of the Occult.

As you can see, they are both equipped with Hardy Portable Arc Generators and Hardy Arc guns, considered by those in the know to be the finest weapons of their type available.

Professor Hardy works closely with the MGA and Scotland Yard, and has designed weapons for both organisations. Miss Amelia Hardy is less well-known but has links to certain secretive bodies who investigate inexplicable phenomena, arcane lore and other unusual areas of interest to the authorities. As a team, they are invaluable to the British government, and are close associates of a certain Consulting Detective, who finds their services crucial to some of his more puzzling investigations.

These figures are both from Ironclad Miniatures, although the female one isn't on their website, as far as I can see. I bought her at the 2020 Crusade show in Penarth back in January, when the world was normal.