Five more gunslingers.

 Here are the next five figures for my Wild West project. Again, these are all Artizan Wild West minis.

I really like this guy on the left. He's got the look of a saloon bar piano player about him, but possibly one with a bit of a hot temper, always ready to settle an argument with a pair of six shooters. He's definitely got a bit of an attitude in this pose. A really nice sculpt.

This figure is my only female gunslinger, at least so far. She isn't going to take any nonsense from anyone. A tough and uncompromising woman in a tough male world.

Next, here are three useful generic gunfighters who will find work in whatever posse or gang needs new recruits. They could also represent a rancher and two of his ranch hands, protecting the herd from rustlers.

These are the end of my Artizan figures, but I have two gangs of minis by Great Escape Games in my Dead Man's Hand starter box set, one of lawmen and the other of outlaws. I will get them done at some point, but now I fancy a break from the Old West.

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.

OK, so what exactly have I been doing since my last post back in December?

Well, we did have the Christmas festivities, so I will own up to eating and drinking too much 😋 and watching a lot of stuff on Netflix, Prime and the actual telly channels.

I got some wargaming-related presents too; the second edition of the Frostgrave rules, some Artizan 28mm Wild West gunslingers, some Copplestone Back of Beyond Chinese bandits, a couple of Copplestone Future Wars figures in power armour (which I intend to use as combat droids for my ROTOR sci fi skirmish rules) and a couple of the Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia that I didn't already have. I now have most of the range, which is one of my favourite sci fi ones around.

I also bought some 15mm figures for my first project of 2021. I expect that you are asking yourselves what did I buy?

Well, the figures are to go with a set of rules which I found on eBay together with the accompanying source and reference books, as I referred to in my previous post, which were originally published back in 1993 by a rather well-known gaming company.

I have now undercoated and started painting the figures, making reasonable progress with them. I am hoping to have at least a few of them finished by the end of the week, at which point I will reveal all regarding the project.

The rest of the Syldavian Königliche Gendarmerie

Here are the remaining five members of my Königliche Gendarmerie. They are in two pictures, so you'll need to scroll down.

Above are a Feldwebel (sergeant), a senior NCO, in his distinctive red uniform trousers with a Gendarm, that is the basic rank in the Gendarmerie, equivalent to a Soldat (private) in Infantry regiments. Below are three more members of the Gendarmerie, two Gendarms and a junior NCO, a Gefreiter (corporal) on the right. In the Gendarmerie, junior NCOs are only distinguished from rankers by a brass button on each of their shoulder tabs (not visible in the photo).

So, these are the last of my figures for my Syldavian and Bordurian companies for  In Her Majesty's Name . 

I need a new project now.

Some Syldavian troops of the Königliche Gendarmerie

I mentioned in an earlier post that the plainclothes Syldavian secret police, the Vohunska, often call upon support from the Königliche Gendarmerie. Here is an officer and two gendarmes from that fine service.

The Syldavian Königliche Gendarmerie was created in 1855 as part of the reorganisation of the existing regional militia battalions, to serve as both a Police force and a military reserve. In 1871, a separate National Reserve was created, leaving the Gendarmerie as a specialist national Police Force and Border Service. The Gendarmerie is part of the Syldavian army, and uses army ranks, except that the lowest rank is Gendarm instead of Soldat. Senior NCOs hold the rank of Wachtmeister.

The Gendarmerie wears the blue/grey army uniform, first introduced in 1822 (to replace the previous light grey uniforms worn since the end of the 17th century) as modified in 1849 when the kepi replaced the shako. Senior NCOs and officers wear red trousers and officers wear the 1867 pattern officers's kepi with a black leather peak. Other ranks wear grey gaiters with the trousers. Leather is brown for all ranks. The top part of the kepi is in the Gendarmerie's pale blue arm of service colour, as is the crown of the officer's kepi. 

Uniforms are cut in a French pattern and there is a white French-pattern "salacot" helmet, which is often worn on parade or by gendarmes guarding official buildings. In these situations, white gaiters are also worn. Where using a rifle is inappropriate, all ranks wear sidearms and will also be equipped with batons (swords for officers).

These figures are from North Star and are actually Artizan Designs French Foreign Legion ones. Obviously I will be using these figures in games of  In Her Majesty's Name and also in other pulp and Cthulhu Mythos games. 

I think that these will be worthy opponents of the Bordurians I have already painted. I will post the rest of them in future posts.

A French column for Congo

I was lucky enough to get the Northstar boxed "French Foreign Legion Expedition" set for Christmas. The figures are by Artizan Designs and are really nice castings. The set consists of;

Your Characters

The Explorer
The Scientist

Your Auxiliaries

Two Bearers

Your Groups

Soldiers
Trained Askaris
Askaris
Ruga-ruga

So, after spending so time on other things, I finally got round to doing these, apart from the two bearers. I made a mistake over the leather belts and pouches on the legionnaires, because they really should be black, but I am happy with the finished articles.

First, the four Soldiers (legionnaires in tropical khaki uniforms), the Explorer (with the pistol) and the Scientist (in the white kepi).

Next, the five Askaris, who are Moroccan fighters with muskets;

Five Ruga Ruga with muskets, although one has a shotgun and another what look vaguely like a smoothbore cavalry carbine. It all makes for a nicely varied bunch of mercenaries, though;

And finally four Trained Askaris with rifles, who I have painted up as Tirailleurs Algeriens;

Overall, I think these look pretty good. I tried to keep to a fairly limited palette for the two sets of Askaris, based upon the pictures on the website, which I think helps make the column have a unifying scheme, and tried to make red a reasonably predominant colour on the Ruga Ruga, again like on the website. The brown leather on the legionnaires still annoys me a bit, though, but I am not going to go back and repaint them with black. In any case, some pictures do show brown leather equipment, so maybe both options are OK.