Gripping Beast Civilians 02

Following on from my last post, here are the rest of the Gripping Beast 28mm scale civilians that I bought recently. These are not quite contemporary figures, although they could be used as such in a pinch. They are more suited for the early to mid 20th Century. They consist of two sets of four figures and here they are.

First up we have the Squire and his family. An obvious influence for this set is of course the popular (although why it is popular escapes me!) TV series, Downton Abbey. So in an unashamed rip-off, I present the cast of Upton Manor. At the far left is Lord Geoffrey Upton, a glutton, a snob and a life-long Conservative Party member. This portly gent is standing haughtily with his thumbs in his waistcoat pockets. looking every inch the lord of the manor.
His wife is Lady Prunella Upton, a stern and formidable woman who doesn't suffer fools gladly. She is shown preparing to go out to have afternoon tea with her high society friends at the poshest hotel in town. Prunella and Geoffrey are a well matched pair, sharing similar interests and ideals.

Next in line is their daughter, Millicent, who speaks with a lisp and who thus pronounces her name as Millithent. As a special treat she was allowed to buy a red balloon with her pocket money. She is a precocious child and wishes she could ride her pet pony every day instead of just once a week as per her mother's instructions.
Finally, from this set, is the head maid, Gloria Rosewell, who has served the Upton family since she was a mere teenager many years ago. She is loyal to a fault and both a hard worker and a hard taskmaster. She remains unmarried.

This second set is called the School Masters Set and at the far left is one of the school masters, Howard Worthington. He works at an elite boys' school, the very antithesis of the notorious St. Trinian's School, situated only a couple of miles away. Mr. Worthington teaches Latin and History and is well-liked by his pupils and fellow teachers.
Algernon Upton, son of Lord and Lady Upton (see above) is the school's head prefect and is destined for high places. He is an academically gifted student and a keen sportsman, excelling at rugby and cricket. Sadly, he is as arrogant as he is pompous. Someone ought to take him down a peg or two. Someone, say, from a nearby girl's school, perhaps?

Moving on, we come to Rupert Bryce-Smythe from the fourth form. He revels in bullying anyone he thinks is weaker then him. He is a fair brawler but he lacks discipline and a skilled fighter would make mincemeat out of him. The trouble is, given his reputation, few at his school are prepared to stand up to him. I'm not at all sure what the figure is holding in his hands. I just painted it black and assumed it was a little box.
Lastly up is the school nurse, Amelia Flanagan. She is of Irish descent and is a devout Catholic. She is good at her job and has a very caring nature and a comforting bedside manner. However, she lacks ambition and feels she has reached the pinnacle of her career. She does not realise she could do so much more if only she had the drive to push herself forward.
My friend, Hugh/Colgar6, mentioned the School Masters Set to me in a comment he made about my St. Trinian's Schoolgirls. Up till then, I had never heard of Gripping Beast. As soon as I saw this set, I knew that I had to have it. I may end up using the nurse as the matron of St. Trinian's School. She is a good figure but not quite what I'm after. What is in no doubt is that these poor saps will end up as rivals/victims of St. Trinian's. They won't know what's hit them!
These two sets can be found on the Gripping Beast web store under the Products heading of Woodbine Designs TWDC Specials range and they are listed as TWDCSP07 Squire and Family and TWDCSP08 School Masters Set. Both sets cost just £5.50 each

Gripping Beast Civilians 01

A couple of months ago I placed an order with Gripping Beast for three packs of civilian figures. Two packs contained early to mid 20th Century civilians (review coming up next time) and the other contained four sci-fi civilians, as shown below.

This pack contains a family of four - father, mother, daughter and son.  At the far left is the father figure. He is holding a pair of binoculars in his right hand. On his right hip is a holstered pistol. I guess he is expecting trouble. Perhaps he lives in a hostile environment, like the Cursed Earth or even one of the Mega Cities from Judge Dredd, or even somewhere like the human colony on LV426 (the setting of the film Aliens).
His wife is similarly dressed and she too, is armed with a pistol in a holster on her right hip. I like the way her ponytail comes out of the hole in the back of her baseball cap.

The daughter is the most animated figure of the group. Is she playfully running along or is she running from some insidious menace? One of the straps of her dungarees has come undone, which is a nice touch.
The son is pointing at something. What has he seen? He is very nicely sculpted and posed.
The two children have less of a sci-fi vibe about them making them very usable in any genre from contemporary times onward. The two adults could work in a contemporary setting, especially if you removed their pistols. Even so, they could be security guards working for some big corporation research department. Or maybe they live and work in a war zone, of which there are plenty to chose from today. But for a contemporary setting, they scream out as survivors of a zombie apocalypse, which is why I have reviewed them here.
I like this set a lot. I was mainly interested in the other two sets of civilians that I bought, but when I browsed through the Gripping Beast webstore and saw these, I knew I had to have them. If I ever get back to playing Judge Dredd again, these figures will certainly feature. Will they appear in my ATZ-FFO campaign? Possibly.
As mentioned, these are sold by Gripping Beast and you can find them in their Products listing under Woodbine Designs Sci-Fi range. They are listed as SciFi06 Civilians (4) and they cost £5.50 for all four figures.