1920s Peg Detective - Part 1

Another in my 'Assault on Innsmouth' series, this character is a Federal agent. It's been a while since I read 'Shadow Over Innsmouth' but as far as I remember Lovecraft relates that Innsmouth was eventually assaulted by Federal forces to clear out the degenerate elements which was mis-reported by the press as a 'prohibition liquor raid'. While this is - as far as I remember - fairly unspecific later narratives in the 'Call of Cthulhu' RPG mythology intimate US Marines, US Navy and government agencies like the FBI being involved.

Now the 'Federal' agencies may have been one of any number, like The Bureau of Internal Revenue, The Federal Bureau of Investigation or even - as pictured above - The US Postal Inspection Service, all of which - despite the mundane titles of some of these services - had a hand at dealing with the gangsters and miscreants of the time.

So, as I cannot be exact as to which department might have had a hand in the raid, my agent is a generic government agent (though I had in mind the 1987 movie 'Untouchables' when I made him).

“Arm your agents, and not just with revolvers. If these gangsters want to use machine guns, then give your special agents machine guns, shot guns, tear gas, everything else! This is war!” Bruce J. Gregory (Addison Richards), 'G'Man', 1935. 

The Makings of a 'G' Man...
As is usual with my peg figures I start by planning the hat - a hat is one  of the most identifiable characteristics of my cartoon figures. The hat most associated  with a detective from the 1920s and 30s was the fedora so that's where I started...

Obviously, to match the look of my cartoon figures I simplified the design of the hat by using basic geometric shapes to create something which looked roughly like the real thing (very roughly)! 😄

I also extended the 'body' of my peg figure to give it the look of having a long coat, another characteristic of the hardboiled detective - where would the gumshoe be without his trench coat?

And finally, as an active member of a armed raid I decided to give my man a pump shotgun - again very much influenced by the movie 'Untouchables'...

Above: My completed 3D 'kit' for my peg detective.

Quite a lot of the final detail will be affected during the painting process - such as the shirt, tie and the coat lapels. But, in the meantime, here's the assembled 'kit'...

As usual I did have a bit of a quandary over how to create a acceptable pose with a weapon. My way of making the peg figures does have certain limitations when it comes to modelling 'realistic' poses, particularly when it comes to the arms. So, I have to take a bit of 'artistic licence'... 😉

In this case, as you can see, I have my G Man holding his pump shotgun one handed, it's a bit iffy BUT is in keeping with some Hollywood movies!

NEXT: What colour is a dirty Macintosh? 😂