Two New Urban Gangs: Eastmoor Kings & the Hilltop Highlanders

Two leaders of the Eastmoor Kings, an African-American gang in my fictional world for 28mm Urban Gang warfare

With these last two gangs completed it means I have seven 28mm urban gangs completed. Since our normal attendance on a Sunday evening gaming is seven, I think I am at a stopping point in painting up figures for player factions. I may still want to paint up miscellaneous figs, like civilians, police, etc. And of course, I'll be working on terrain pretty much continuously for this project.

I decided to do this gang in matching shirts - black with a light green crown for Kings and "E" for Eastmoor

Appropriately enough, these are probably two of my favorite groups. I purchased figures from The Assault Group from their Ultra Modern line (their "rioters" packs) and they are perfect for this period. I tossed in a couple figures I had already to supplement what I purchased, but most of these figures are straight out of the pack, unmodified.

I was tempted to cut out the molotov cocktails from the hands of The Assault Group figures, but decided not to in the end

Let's start with the Eastmoor Kings. When I was going to high school in Columbus, Eastmoor was always a "scary" school. It was largely an African-American school (two-time Heisman trophy winner Archie Griffin went there!). So, it seemed a natural to name an African-American gang like the Kings after that school. Why the Kings? I did a Google search on gang logos and symbols, and The Kings kept coming up. It seemed like an appropriate gang name. Plus, I felt I could handle painting a crown with an "E" inside of it on their gang apparel.

As you can see, there is some repetition on the poses from The Assault Group, except for subtle difference like face scarfs

I gave most of the gang members jeans or gym shorts. I really like how the leader with the pistol came out, though, with the purple sweat pants. I am basing my games on the world of the Hollywood movie, The Warriors (except set in Columbus instead of New York City). Like in the movie, the gangs will prefer melee weapons rather than firearms. However, the figures was too good to not use, so he will make it onto the tabletop.

The Assault Group figures I used for this gang are probably some of my favorite ones I've painted for this project

The Hilltop is a neighborhood on the West side, so it was only natural that I locate one of my gangs there. Unlike Eastmoor, the Hilltop was mostly working class white when I was going to high school. I thought I would play off of the Hilltop name and call the gang the Hilltop Highlanders. For their gang apparel, I thought why not paint their pants as trews (or golf pants, if you prefer)?

Yes, that is my attempt at a Cincinnati Reds Johnny Bench jersey! Note the Hilltop Highlanders logo on the leather jacket

This was my last gang, and fun to paint. The Assault Group figures have a lot of character, and these probably have the most. I did not like how any of my other figures I own mixed with them, so this gang has only eight figures, fewer than the 10-12 of the others. For the trews, I decided to go a couple steps further than I have in the past for painting tartan patterns. I began with a deep red, drybrushed a brighter red. Next, I did a "window pane" of horizontal and vertical lines in dark brown. This is where I usually stop on tartan patterns, but I decided to add more. Next, came a thin, vertical yellow line in between the two brown ones. Finally, I added a dot of kelly green at the intersection of each vertical and horizontal brown line. I really like the effect it gave.

I like the sunglasses on the guy in the striped shirt, plus the variety of hair styles on these figures

Since the pants were the gang identifier, it allowed me to be a bit more creative and use more variety in their shirts or tops. As you saw above, I painted one as a Cincinnati Reds Johnny Bench jersey. Another had one of those blue down jackets that were so popular back when I was growing up. Others had leather jackets, and there was even one with a tie -- he must have a job that makes him dress up! The one with the scarf wrapped around his head gave me a pause. In this working class white gang, an Arab head scarf would hardly be welcome. So, I decided to give him a flag-looking one for a suitably patriotic look!

The gang member with the numchuks is a modified Foundry Ancient German, the rest are from The Assault Group

I guess now that I have the figures for this project mostly done, it is time to finish writing the rules! Weirdly, I woke up the other morning with ideas for a command and control system for a skirmish game running through my head. So, I may decide to go back and rewrite a portion of what I have done to include these (dream-inspired?) ideas. I also have another MDF building on my painting table, so things are finally moving again on this project!