The Limerick Twins - 'See You in the Funny Papers...'

(Please excuse this cross-post from the Challenge blog.)

We played a big game of ‘Strange Aeons’ the other night and I quickly realized that, while I have quite a good collection of nasty beasties, I'm woefully short of heroes or, well, at least humans unencumbered by eyestalks, creepy robes and tentacles. True, I have a few figures set aside for my continuing ‘Carro Family’ pulp project, but my collection needs a big injection of two-fisted heroes and savy heroines to do the heavy lifting for the Good Guys in our games. So I put on my winter boots, toque and parka and tromped off to the ‘Lead Shed’ to see what I could excavate as possible candidates. 

As it turns out I have more than a few castings from Copplestone, Pulp Miniatures and Musketeer that fit the bill, and all of them are just crying out to be introduced to a paintbrush. 

As a result, I present to you the first pair of figures of what I hope will be an expanding series of guys and dolls from the interwar period: ‘The Limerick Twins’. 

The Twins are Sean and Sioban Ryan, a pair of talented ‘cleaners’ who have recently emigrated from the Emerald Isle to make their fortune in America. 

The Ryan twins are known (or perhaps notorious) for their preternatural connection with one another and as such are very difficult to surprise, always working in tandem, covering each others' back. We’ll have to see if they have the Luck of the Irish when they make their debut on the tabletop. 

These figures are from Copplestone Casting’s excellent ‘Gangsters’ range. I’ve decided to paint them in an over-saturated, quasi ‘Dick Tracy’ style – something I may try to continue with a few more figures just for the fun of it.

In watching the last season of ‘Boardwalk Empire’ one of lines that stuck with me was 'Lucky' Luciano saying, ‘See you in the funny papers.’ So as a tip of the hat to this I thought I’d add a few pages of discarded newsprint at their feel along with some still-hot spent .45 shell casings from their Thompsons. 

'Here's looking at you, kid...'