Painted Old West Figures! (stockyard assembled photo pg 2 - still needs paint)

[FifteensAway]

At long last, some new painted figures for my Old West, delivered today by John W.  Still deciding on how to texture so figures will work in desert, plains, and towns.  John is a better painter than I and, hopefully, will paint a bunch more of my individually based figure sets including some unarmed foot only civilians, men and women.

I was so inspired by his work that I've pulled out figures for riding herd on the cattle and created 18 more individually based sets of mounted, foot, dead - but based on square rather than round bases since most were already based that way, I just added some additional dead figures and the standing and dead horses.

So, here are the photos:



The first is Newbie Pauls, the reason for his mounted version wearing different colored leggings is those are chaps.  This is the basic grouping: mounted, foot, dead.  That is 'a set' and three such sets are 'a group'.



And Eldred Gregory.  Note that both of these sets are on palomino horses, the mounted version.



Picky Slim



Bren Walters.  Last two mounted on buckskin horses.



Why the horse color matters.  Each group of three sets (only two of each sets here so far for these two groups) also gets a standing saddled horse and a dead horse color matched to the mounted figures.  The buckskins.



The palominos.  John is having to do some research on horse colorings given my requests but he seems to be enjoying the process.  He even mentioned he's getting tempted into Old West figures himself, but in 28 mm rather than my preferred 15 mm.

If he gets it all painted there will be a total of 24 sets of mounted/foot/dead figures plus eight group standing and dead horses - with each group of three having a designated horse color - 8 groups.  He also has a dozen each unarmed men and women to paint, but only two casualty figures for each group of twelve.

[Tom Dulski]

 nice stuff

[Khusru2]

Are they Blue Moon figures?

[FifteensAway]

I think most of the ones in the photos are - certainly the standing and dead horses.  I have so much from so many different sources...sometimes hard to remember.  No question, the Bluemoon Old West range is the best place to start a collection in 15 mm.  Yes, Peter Pig has a nice range - and NO, the two are not compatible generally - but the Bluemoon has so much variety and very affordable with an Army Card. 

With Bluemoon, you can get around 30 each mounted and foot figures, and careful study will give you good matchups with many - not all, but can be made to work.  I will give Peter Pig the nod for dead figures, however, better variety and actually dead and I have no problem mixing them in.  Bluemoon also has a lot of cool civilians.  Neither makes a stagecoach but QRF's Yellow Ribbon is good as is the one from Minifigs (but the fiddliest).  I think there is a third out there.  Peter Pig has nice wagons - and the only chuck wagon.  Bluemoon has buckboards and buggies and generic wagons that can be found in the Napoleonic range. Correction: Blue Moon does make a stage coach with a resin body - pretty big, I have one I'll probably use to convert into my War Wagon.

Back to Peter Pig, they do have about 20 of mounted, foot, dead sets. 

[Khusru2]

Thank you for the breakdown.
I got the Tombstone Tinderbox from LWTV. Plenty of cowboys. I got the MiniFigs stagecoach from eBay. Buildings from Sarissa in the main, with a couple from etsy.
I'm looking at getting some Mexicans from BM with South of the Border buildings from Sarissa.
Everything I have is painted.
I'm using the latest Dead Man's Hand rules.
I haven't found a name I like for the town yet.

[FifteensAway]

Had to look up the Tombstone Tinderbox set, hadn't heard of it before.  Sounds like you are off to a good start.  Bluemoon also has ranges for Lakota and Sioux and the cavalry if you want to add that dimension.  I like the Peter Pig teepees the best of the variety of options - also the Miniature Building Authority has a couple teepee variations in their 3D print 15 mm options, Bluemoon has a set as well in varied sizes.

And, just for clarity, I do mix Bluemoon and Peter Pig in my collection - along with virtually every other Old West range out there.  But few are quite as "afflicted" as I am with the whole Old West/Pony Wars bug.  Who really needs a 96 animal herd of longhorn cattle - and four dead ones to boot?  But guess who has exactly that many painted and game ready?  And 120 painted buffalo - which will be enhanced by a bunch of dead (some I need to 'skin' so they look right as skinned animals, some standing singles still to go for native buffalo hunts, adds another 20 animals, 14 dead, 6 standing - need painting still).  Pronghorn antelope?  Of course I have some, yes, painted.  Of course, a lot of the collection, animals for certain, are mutliple based - so not quite as crazy as it may seem.

[FifteensAway]

Write-up for my first hosted Old West game using FFOL planned for November club meeting:

"Incident at the Van Vittles Ranch Stock Spur"

George "The Dude" Van Vittles owns a spread about the size of Rhode Island and has his latest shipment of longhorns ready to board trains and head out to meet an army contract.  Kettle Kelly, the ranch cook - and the best in the west: as George says, "With a name like mine, I've got to feed my men the best I can and 'ole Kettle sure cooks a fine meal" - is preparing to put on quite the layout of food.  And some of the 'neighbors' are traveling to enjoy the festivities, the ranch's spare rooms are among the finest in the territory so why not and George always puts his guests up overnight given the travel times required.  Why, heck, there just might be a few surprise dignitaries showing up on the noon (well, noonish) stage that runs near the stock pens.  Or maybe they will be making a whistle stop at the station nearby that serves the ranch; it is a huge ranch. 
 
What isn't known on the ranch is some of the recently hired cowhands have acquaintances in that nest of thieves Muleskinner Canyon.  Word has made it to the worst of the worst that there will be quite the pay day for the cowhands and a plot is brewing to 'borrow' the strong box, no interest to be paid.  A few of the old timers warn that tangling with Van Vittles is asking for several wagon loads of trouble, serious trouble.  The young guns intimidate them into keeping that nonsense to themselves.  And since it's been a while since the last score, there is no shortage of 'volunteers' willing to ride out for the promise of so much loot.  Naturally, the local soiled doves - denizens of The Pig Farm - egg them on in the hopes of getting their own share of ill gotten gains.
 
The sun has risen on what promises to be a glorious day.  At least until it isn't.
 
A whole lot of horses are getting saddled up over in Muleskinner Canyon.  A whole lot of appetites are whetted near the main ranch house given the delicious smells emanating from the cook house.
 
Never know what might result if a lot of gun play goes off in the presence of a lot of cattle - even if they are all penned up.
 
What will sunset see?

-------

Stay tuned for the after action report but be patient, near a month out, just posted above to club message board as advance notice.

Have some work to do to get ready, here is a a couple photos giving some small idea:



Water tank needs painting, not shown but a small train station, a couple of outhouses and a well as well, other buildings painted.  Some additional figures I'll be painting.  Have a 'stand-in' ranch house ready but may get the 'regular' ranch house painted, may not.

A bit closer shot of some of the longhorns.  Obviously, need to build a base for the fences, heading out shortly to buy the material:

[FifteensAway]

Over on the Workbench page I've been posting about a 100 day painting challenge I've set myself, so far French Foreign Legion and a big push on my American Revolution collection.  But for the next many days I am going to switch over to working on Old West items for the game referenced above; the Old West will count as part of the challenge. 

Here are some photos of what I have to work on:



Above is a partial 'overall' shot.   The water tower, the small train station, a couple of outhouses, a well, and a windmill.  Also a variety of wagons and some specialized figures.



Another overall shot of the ranch hands and some hitching racks and water troughs.



The civilians, multiple based, with a start on painting - mostly unarmed but one set of 12 armed and a few others here and there - but only the fully armed group will count as armed, the others are just incidental for this scenario.



This shot shows figures that, hopefully, will be painted by a friend - he is currently working on more plus the individually based unarmed civilians.



Closer shot shows the small train station - Stone Mountain I believe - and the water tank from Bluemoon but with a replaced water spout.  The grain wagon at the bottom is from Bluemoon's Napoleonic generic wagons range, a lot of useful bits there.  There are two buggies and two buckboards as well, from Bluemoons Old West range, with replacement drivers made from extra stagecoach passengers I was able to special order - but the doctor is still in his buggy.



The stage coach is from QRF/Freikorps' Yellow Ribbon range.  The passengers are still in need of painting and insertion before the roof gets glued on.



On the left is a Peter Pig chuck wagon.  Just to the right of the chuck wagon is the ranch sign and the longhorn head will be attached to the sign.  The windmill is an HO item and almost certainly from Woodland Scenics - got it from an estate sale as seen here.  The bottom set are three rather famous females of the Old West: Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, and Belle Starr and, alas, without a mounted version (not designed as such, just designated as such by me)!  At the very top, just to the left of the horse is George Vittles himself in his dismounted version with his horse there next to him and his dead version.  The other two are his primary sidekicks, both rather formidable souls in their own rights: Johnny 'Forest' Blue and Clark Twilight.

Game is likely going to be early to mid-December now so I'm going to have to crack on to get this all done in time - and still need to build the stock yard.  It just takes adequate motivation.

Edit: should note that it is not required that everything get done for the game!

[FifteensAway]

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=146634.30

Above link will take you to my Painting Challenge thread at the Workbench, page three has a bunch of photos of terrain for the Old West scenario described above.  And corral base is ready to get worked on - soon.  Not sure I will have time to paint figures needed and do additional work on the trains but I'm hoping so. 

[CapnJim]

Looks like we're in for quite the battle report.  Waiting patiently (well, as patiently as is possible for me...) for it to arrive.

[Khusru2]

I'm looking forward to the game and it's layout

[FifteensAway]

Well, I hope it doesn't cause any conniptions but the game won't be until mid-December now to accommodate certain players.

And the train station is probably a Musket Miniatures rather than Stone Mountain product. 

If all goes well, I will be done with AWI today for now and, from tomorrow, be clear to focus on Old West figures and the stock yard - and maybe the trains. 

[FifteensAway]

Some photos of recently completed items for the Old West Van Vittles game.



The stage coach - went with a basic Russet color scheme - with yellow wheel spokes, a fairly common distinction with wagons in the Old West.



The six horse team.



The chuck wagon.



Two buckboards - lady in the colorful dress was achieved using a thinned magenta ink.



The doctor in his buggy, a bit hard to see but the spokes are a green color similar to his cushioned seat.



Another buggy with Cordovan leather seats and spokes to match, a more well-to-do rancher perhaps.



A wagon with a load of grain to be delivered.



Four grain wagons in total.



All ten wagons/coaches together.



"Unarmed" men - with a few weapons scattered in plus a banjo player.



"Armed" men, at least two figures per stand with a weapon.



The copper miners (if you've seen Geronimo with a very young Matt Damon you will understand).  Combination of artillery figures (Stone Mountain?) and out of ammo figures from Peter Pig I think.



Women and girls, note the lady carrying a baby near the upper left.



More women and girls. 

I tried something a bit different to get these people all done.  I pulled out onto the table about 40-50 bottles of paint, mostly browns, beiges, tans and similar colors to keep a fairly muted pallet and just went through one paint color at a time, sometimes one color on just one figure and then, when I got to the 'end of the line' (a shoe box), I started over with the first color.  Done in less than two passes and then some touch up, skin mostly.  Process went so much faster this way.  I have a new 'technique' added to my speed painting repertoire.



A group of all the men and women not in the wagons/coach.



All the people and all the wagons in a group shot - all painted in a ten day period.  Really only eight days because I finished the figures early and switched over to rush through through some new scatter terrain and the last two days of ten spent on texturing bases and seal coating where needed - though some still to do because of rain the last couple of days.



Wood piles, with axes from Stone Mountain, not sure of the others but match very well.



Wheel barrows and a couple of sack stacks.



Stacks of boxes, maybe for gun running scenarios.



A few open topped barrels - might do just a bit more on the two barrel tops on the ground to define the lines, a very thinned ink wash.  These were found as part of a massive estate sale nearby this year.



Hmmm!  Do you smell that?   . Freshly left-behind equine calling cards or, as we call them around here: road apples.  And for those without a poetic bent, good old fashioned horse shit! 



Not part of the most recent painted lot but part of the texturing bases, note the different basing - many of the other items are based generically but this is the basing I'm using for dedicated Old West items, wagons, figures, buildings when needed, and scatter terrain.  Simple formula: paint the base chocolate brown and add clean playground sand using the paint as the adhesive with the sand absorbing the color.  When dry, add an avocado green dry brush and then a yellow ochre dry brush and then finish with a clear matte seal coat (still needed here because of rainy days, today likely).



All of these items got that basing process.

Two last shots - and useful for many periods and just got textured, painted a while back, of some barrels and sacks:





Moving on to individually based figures next.

[bluewillow]

Great stuff, it’s the little touches that make a town come to life

Cheers
Matt

[fred]

Loads of scatter stuff! And a major wagon park too.

I think ‘road apples’ is the strangest euphemism - really can’t work out where the apples bit is coming from.