The Hero of the Piece - Flash Gordon in 15mm

So then, armed with a miniature scale and a theme I hit the first stop of most people these days looking to find anything at all stop at, Google. Google has a lot to answer for, because of it we can now pretty much find anything we want in a very small amount of time through the magic of the internet. Whilst this is in itself amazing it does make you realise that no matter how original you think an idea is, someone has probably tried it before.

Fourth link down in a simple Google search for "15mm Flash Gordon miniatures" we find "Alan's Flash Gordon Army" and in seconds the first step of trying to find a figure to represent the hero of the piece has been deftly stepped on and subsequently left behind with a plethora of miniatures and ideas to kick start my new hobby.

Steve 'Flash' Gordon - Our Hero

Depending on if you follow the comics, the black and white serial, the eighties movie or the (tragic) new 2007 series, Flash's background varies. Originally a Polo player graduated from Yale he has seen incarnations where he's been a famous quarterback for the New York Jets to the (tragic) new interpretation where he's a track runner. All of this is moot really as once he's in space he dons skin tight clothing (often just a skimpy set of briefs) grabs a sword and a blaster and heads into the fray. I have decided to stick to (at least to begin with) the Alex Raymond strips as they are quite jolly and full of much derring do. The strip below is from Flash's first few hours on the planet Mongo...



As you can see he's parading around in his skimpy's with a top nicked from one of Ming's flyers armed with a sword he's picked up along the way. This set the parameters for my first mini and thanks to Alan's Flash Gordon Army the legwork has already been done.

Peter Pig's fantasy line, 'War in the Age of Magic' has several miniatures called Red Aliens that look wonderfully like exactly what I'm after...



Would you look at that, a buff young male in a pack along with a scantily clad female who could easily represent a captive Dale or even Princess Aura all for 1 shiny pound. I have spoken to Peter Pig and pre-ordered these along with some of their other miniatures to collect at Salute !

My (epic space) quest is underway.

Laters,

C.