SPIES AND INTELLIGENCE MEN (1) - CITADEL "GUMSHOES" and MORE

"Vienna 1930, Madrid 1940, East Berlin 1950, Little Hereford at any time during the VBCW - these places are all known to have been hotbeds of espionage and counter-intelligence." (Autumn 2023 Big Game Briefing HERE)

Every player in the Autumn 2023 Big Game ("Big Trouble in Little Hereford") will have a section of six Intelligence Agents for use in addition to their normal "WTDW" Platoon. Players have been invited to bring along their own "Intelligence Section" if they wish, although the Umpires will provide if such is not possible. So what 28mm figures would be useful to represent a 1930s "Intelligence Agent"? James Bond didn't make an appearance until 1953, remember (on the first publication of "Casino Royale", with the first film, "Dr. No" appearing in 1962), so perhaps we're looking more for a Bogart or a Cagney.....

Citadel LE3 "Gumshoes", modelled on Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Cagney.
Sculpted by Bob Naismith, painted by Jim Bowen. Source HERE
These were advertised in the Citadel July 1986 Flyer - difficult to think of these nice
clean sculpts as being nearly 40 years old !

 

A different colour scheme for the same figures, with a touch of Cthulhu added to the bases.
Painter "Curis", sources HERE and HERE

The trenchcoat can truly be considered Very British, with the trilby not far behind, and the  "Bogart" combination seems to represent a type of tired and worldly wise "Intelligence Agent" who might have been found "playing the great game" in Little Hereford during the VBCW. 

An Intelligence Agent emerges from the shadows in Little Hereford.
A contemporary VBCW illustration.

This being Citadel, of course, and this being the 1980s, the company produced "new figures" by doing a bit of clever converting (see HERE for such treatment to the Citadel "Vicar" figure), so there are variants of the LE 3 "Bogart" figure:

CC1 Gothic Horror "Detective" Source HERE. Change of head
position, remodelled right arm.

The same figure appeared as the character "Marlow Hammett" in the 
GW Boxed Game, "Curse of the Mummy's Tomb"

Off with his head ! A third variant of the original LE3 figure, retaining the remodelled
right arm but going for a complete head swap - the Citadel CC1 "Private Eye".

All of these figures pop up on Ebay from time to time, and are well worth getting hold of for the VBCW (if you can find one not listed at a silly price.....)