"People come here to trade, make a little profit, do a little business. If you have nothing to trade, you've got no business in Bartertown"
- The Collector...
The Swagmen are the merchants and traders of sector 44, ramshackle, motorised caravans plying their wares between the remaining clusters of civilisation.
The Swagmen also send salvage parties out into the badzones to scavenge for tradable items and are not adverse to increasing their inventory through outright banditry on the open road.
The organisation have a near monopoly on trade in sector 44, the only other ways to exchange goods between communities are by hiring the Couriers or trusting in the Lord and the sturdiness of the Plough on your rig and doing it yourself, this unhealthy competition has led to much bad blood spilt between the two.
Although tolerated by the Main Road Patrol as a necessary evil, their cutthroat antics and accusation of dealings with raider groups has led to several skirmishes and a trade embargo only ended by the Brownsprings Militia 's deployment of a museum piece tank against their besiegers.
The Swagmen 's constant forays into the outskirts of Sun city have also brought them into conflict with the degenerate rabble of Psymon Sez who regard it's boundaries as sovereign territory, and as far Simius and the other gang leaders go... what self respecting raider would be able to resist taking a crack at a juicy caravan piled with shine' and shells?
That's the basic background, on with the miniatures... this gang will eventually represent the kind of small force used as a caravan escort, security detail for a salvage party or punitive 'baliff' posse to enact brutal pogroms on serial debtors.
'Sales agent' the Limey leads the gang, driving his modified morris minor, these two, along with the Bandicoot half track can be seen in previous posts.
Next up is Kato, the limey 's erstwhile and long suffering manservant cum bodyguard. A formidable fighter at range or in a melee thanks to his shotgun and sword.
He is another scavenger by Mark copplestone from EM4, I've said it before but these minis are so much fun to paint!
The 'Bowser' buggy was built from a disney 'Planes' Chug. I figure small tank trucks might be in use on the bush airfields scattered across the outback and this particular vehicle has been modified to utilise it's precious cargo as a deadly weapon by turning it's filler arm into a vicious flamethrower. In addition this bowser features heavy duty rear tyres plus front armour plating and bull bars have been added to aid in running the gauntlet of their enemies roadblocks.
That's the gang so far, all the vehicles are done with four more crew needed for the Bowser and Bandicoot buggies.
Thanks for stopping by, any comments and suggestions much appriciated....
More nuclear renaissance soon, next up... the MRP's Pursuit Special!
