OK, so you got a tin star now ..................

 ........... but does that make you the Law around here?

After the previous posts, it seems appropriate to offer up the men whose job it is to keep the bad guys in check. 

These are two Sheriffs, ready to take on the outlaws, hell-raisers and trouble-makers who ride into town. Once again, they are Artizan Designs figures.

Of course, they can expect (hope?) to rely on the other law-abiding citizens around for moral and actual support when the bullets start flying, but who knows what'll really happen when the piano player stops playing?

Once again, these will see plenty of action in all kinds of games.

The Preacher rides into town

... but will he save souls or damn them to Hell? Only time will tell.

The vengeful unhinged Preacher is a real cliché of the more Gothic end of the Western film genre, but it is one of those clichés that I think really works within a narrative gaming setting. 

The Man in the Long Black Coat comes into town to dispense the Lord's Justice or maybe to save the sinners and innocents from an unknown Dark Menace. Either way, there a few game scenarios there.

Of course, the Preacher needs his Acolytes and what better than two hard-bitten believers with rifles and shotguns?

Once again, these figures are by Artizan Designs from their Wild West range. The Preacher is one of three "Frontier Characters". The other two will feature later on in this small project.

The Preacher will be equally at home in traditional western skirmish settings, but also ideal for more fantastical settings, such as In Her Majesty's Name or even ones involving Cosmic Horrors, Zombies and other eldritch scenarios.

Well, howdy pardner! Six gunslingers ride into town.

 Yes, I am painting cowboys, outlaws and gunslingers. Here are the first six;

Above are three gunslingers in duster coats. A duster coat was made of linen, heavy cotton or even canvas to protect the wearer's clothes from the dust kicked up when riding the trails of the Old West.

Next, we have three Mexican caballeros in their classic leather chaparreras, later called chaps and adopted by American riders.

These are all from the Artizan Designs Wild West range, available from North Star. I am really impressed with these figures. They are terrific sculpts with lots of character and atmosphere about them. 

I will be using these figures for the Dead Man's Hand western gunfighting rules, published by Great Escape Games, having already played a few simple games of these rules which were a lot of fun.

I will also be able to use them for certain scenarios using the In Her Majesty's Name rules and I am sure that there will be other opportunities to get them on the table. I can even see them in some kind of Wild West Pulp and Horror settings.

I've deliberately gone for a weather-beaten and dusty look for these figures, because I don't think that cowboys ought to look like they have just got back from the dry cleaner with their best threads.

I have plenty more to paint, so I'll be filling the blog with shootouts and quick-draw outlaws over the next week or so.

Three more metal Stargrave figures

These are the final three metal Stargrave figures from the Nickstarter;

From left to right they are a Hacker, a Rogue (or maybe a Veteran) and a Medic.

Once again, they are lovely sculpts with a lot of nice details and plenty of character.

I am seeing the Hacker as someone who has escaped from some Hive City on a ruined and polluted industrial world, probably on the run from the city's security forces or the agents of some mega-corporation whose systems she has penetrated to gain its secrets.

The Rogue or Veteran is an enigmatic figure, a survivor of many battles whose homeworld was destroyed in one final cataclysmic conflict between competing warlords. Now, a lone survivor of a warship's crew in a hostile sector of the galaxy, he lives on his wits, cutting dodgy deals and taking on contracts from whoever is prepared to pay, regardless of their legality or morality.

The Medic is another survivor, this time from some obscure Medical College or Order, maybe one whose aims were controversial and methods less than legal, leading to it being attacked and destroyed by militia forces of the local population, sick and tired of seeing their children and friends disappearing behind the forbidding walls of the Order's Fortress Hospital, never to emerge again. Yes, the Medic is a man with a shady past. Perhaps he seeks to atone for the scientific and medical atrocities in which he participated in the past? Or perhaps he still carries out secret experiments and is happy to carry out no-questions-asked illegal procedures so long as the price is right?

Two more Stargrave minis

Here are my second two Stargrave metal figures that were Nickstarter stretch goals.

These two are Mystics; a type of  character who might be a kind of Warrior Monk, a member of an ancient spiritual Militant Order or an initiate of a Post-Apocalyptic Cult. 

They have unnatural powers that are different to those of Psionicists, derived from their ability to sense the underlying power of the universe around them and shape it to suit their purposes, whether for good or ill.

I see the figure on the left as a former knight of a Militant Order, still wearing their Order's armour, striving to bring some kind of law and justice to a wild and lawless galaxy. The figure on the right could be a cult initiate, someone whose world has been subjected to a near-total breakdown of society and who is searching for meaning and answers where none seem to exist, or perhaps a warrior monk, whose role is to hold back the forces of decay and destruction via a special emotional and spiritual oneness with the Cosmic All. Perhaps the overlap between cult member and monastic warrior is greater than many might thing?

My first two minis for Stargrave

 I signed up for the Stargrave Nickstarter (which is now over) a month or so ago and went in for the whole package. I've finally started painting things, starting with the stretch goal metal figures. Here are the first two I've completed.

These two are Psionicists (also called Psykers in other media). The figure on the left has a definite Bad Guy vibe about it/him/her (who knows?). I think it is the teeth, but let's not be too judgemental about their dentistry.

The female figure on the right could be a more neutral character. She doesn't give off the same sort of Dark Lord of the Sith aura.

I am really pleased with the whole green and purple scheme that I've used for both figures. Idecided to keep their bases pretty simple, but you can't ever have bases that will work in every possible environment.

Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 - Lumber Jills

Here are five more figures for my Women on the Home Front project, using minis from the Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 range. They are all Lumber Jills, members of the Women's Timber Corps.

First, two Lumber Jills with a big saw, cutting up a log;

I like this little vignette, so here it is from two other viewpoints;

I used a few pieces of pea gravel as a prop for the log to make sawing through it easier.

Now, here are the other three Lumber Jills. First a frontal shot and then one from behind. I have tried to get across the idea that they are a bit grubby from the hard work involved in tree-felling, hence a few dirty patches and streaks on their skin.

These are all lovely figures with the same high standards of sculpting and casting which we have all come to expect from Bad Squiddo.

The Women's Timber Corps (WTC) was a British civilian organisation formed in 1940 by the Forestry Commission to provide forestry and sawmill workers, replacing men who had left to join the armed forces. Women who joined the WTC were commonly known as Lumber Jills. In 1942, the administration of the WTC was transferred to the Women's Land Army, with the Lumber Jills adopting the same uniform as the Land Girls.

The WTC was disbanded in 1946.

I am hoping that I can use these terrific minis in some Home Front-themed games of Chain of Command.