Three stereotypical Western Characters

 Again, these are all Artizan Wild West minis.

The two right-hand figures are from the "Frontier characters" set and the left-hand one is one of the "Hired Guns". I decided to paint him as an Indian Cavalry Scout, because that is exactly what he looks like to me.

The other two are staples of many Westerns; a grizzled gold or silver miner, most likely down on his luck and just hanging around town looking for a few opportunities to make a dollar or two, and an even more grizzled hunter in a bearskin coat and with a long breech-loading rifle with a telescopic sight. Of course, you can shoot more than just bears with a weapon like that .....

I am really impressed with these Artizan figures. The sculpts have bags of character and are a joy to paint. I know that I've said it before, but it is worth repeating.

These will all work for the usual range of games, but I'll admit that I keep looking at the Cavalry figures, the OK Corral characters and the spooky Western Horror ones in the Grim Prairie Tales range too.

I know. You start a project which is a sensible size and then scope creep sets in. I spent long enough working in IT to know how it happens.

Pinkerton Agents

More Wild West figures from Artizan; 

These are Pinkerton agents, but could also represent US government secret agents.

The organisation was founded in the 1850s by Allan Pinkerton, a Scottish detective and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency. It later changed its name to the Pinkerton Agency.

It was founded to help enable businessmen control and monitor their employees and to prevent industrial action and strikes. The Agency also worked with the US government as a supplement to the government's own Secret Service. In addition to its activities in strike-breaking and spying on unions and labour organisations, Pinkerton agents were also involved in crime-fighting in the Wild West, notably against bank and train robbers.

These figures are clearly suitable for use in all manner of settings, especially in games of In Her Majesty's Name and other VSF and Steampunk, as well as western gunfighting games.

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?