Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Old West => Topic started by: FifteensAway on February 13, 2020, 06:17:28 AM
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So, I have 216 figures for my "main guys" for the Old West, each with a mounted, foot, and dead version and a standing horse for every 3 of them (72). The original intent was to base everything in threes - and that may still be the plan. But as I spent some time this evening doing a little sorting, I started wondering - again - whether or not I should have three out of every 12 based individually? Now, most of you, on the surface are likely to say, of course, base them individually. Seems simple. But then there are so many more bases to move around than before -- and there are already a LOT of bases, 72 mounted bases, 72 foot bases, 72 dead bases, and 72 standing horse bases (each standing horse represents where 3 mounted figures dismounted). By doing the singles, that's an additional 36 mounted, 36 foot, and 36 dead bases - though no increase in the standing horses bases (maybe).
Now add in that I have a massive number of civilians for my Old West and it really matters how many stands there are. With the number of, mostly, unarmed civilians, there are another 296 bases to join the mix (513 men, 287 women, and 88 children). That's to populate three towns and farms, ranches, stage stations, mining camps and more. And that doesn't count a variety of other armed units for scenario variety - or the 18 mounted, foot, dead cowboys to tend the cattle herds.
All that leaves aside the cavalry and the natives which are also vast in quantity.
So, just curious how others see the quandary. Leave them 3 to a base for all 12 for each of the 18 'units' or do 3 x 3 bases plus 3 x 1 bases per group? A puzzling quandary, it is.
I could always just go with one figure per stand of three as the 'main guy' for that stand with two side kicks.
Pleased to hear constructive thoughts from others.
And thank you.
And just for fun: those 216 are for Range Wars primarily though can be used for all manner of other scenarios, 18 units of 12 figures each. They break down thus:
The whiter hats - Town Marshal, County Sheriff, Territorial Rangers, Pinkertons, White Scouts (as in, "Who are those guys?"), Reservation Police, Munificent Dozen, Gun Hands, and Cowpokes.
The blacker hats - Outlaws, Robbers, Rustlers, Range Boss, Hard luck Cowboys, Regulators, Desperadoes, Comancheros, and Mexicans.
Rules likely to be used are Pony Wars, perhaps with a dose of Hey, You In The Jail. The best part of this is I headed out to sort stuff to get figures ready to paint!
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I would lean towards individual bases with movement trays (perhaps large enough to have 1 main and 2 sidekicks). If (God forbid) you ever decide to part with some of them it would be easier to have them individually based as well.
Good luck with the painting!
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Haven't progressed on the human figures - though set aside the cowboys for herding cattle to be worked on soon. But did some work on my longhorns and now have 96 primed ready to paint plus six dead, two of which are converted longhorns and the other four just cows. Even have a half dozen of the old Frontier 15 mm longhorns! Also, four of my cowboys, painted already, have been switched into the cowboy groupings - and, yes, they are all holding lariats. Minor progress but still progress.
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What scale are they? 15mm?
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wmyers, yes, 15 mm scale - my scale of choice. Also my scale to protect the rafters from caving in! :o
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I’d do a mix of single and multi-based, and as suggested above have some movement trays too. You have so many that multi-basing is sensible. But I think for Cowboy games you will always want some single based figures, particularly the main characters.
For civilians and animals then I would go for far more multi-basing - it generally is more useful game wise to have them as groups that then block LoS and routes.
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Here is an image of my longhorn herd:
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-POAVwguEUNI/XlNjvRtGRMI/AAAAAAAAEUM/e9CVUoacIhwZ7mOZW05xiFn-zbdVLYsqACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_1940.JPG)
More photos here:
https://whiskeyhills.blogspot.com (https://whiskeyhills.blogspot.com)
Chuck wagons and cowboys and destroyed wagons - though mostly just primed so far.
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That is certainly a herd!
They do look rather like a lot of my animals bought for adding interest to games, sprayed a base colour, then it becomes rather a lot of work. Would painting the horns and doing the bases, make these look good enough for gaming?
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My goal is to paint them to look like longhorns and that means more than the horns and texturing the bases - but if I wanted a herd of brown cows that might work. lol