Pinkertons

Rumours of my (gaming) demise have been greatly exaggerated. I am very much still going and (just about) painting a few bits and pieces, in no particular order.

I will get round to posting stuff soon; it's just that I simply have had too much on of late; a familiar cry, I hear you say, but true, nonetheless (boo, hoo).

What I have been tinkering around with, however, is Great Escape Games' excellent Dead Man's Hand range of Wild West figures for my planned western skirmish game.

The first batch was a present from my long-suffering woman; Pinkertons - which I have almost finished and have enjoyed painting.

 "And they're off!" The first batch cleaned up and mounted, I picked these four out as my initial favourites and have been impressed with the detail generally on the Great Escape stuff; bags of detail and character evident in the sculpts.

Here they are finished up in my usual style; my painting skills are limited, so I opt for the 'well-worn' grubby look - which I feel is more realistic and in keeping with the period than the 'cleaner' -but, admittedly, far more skilled - approach. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

Finally, the obligatory 'in scene' shot; I appreciate the quality of the picture is poor; it was taken last night in poor light after a couple of sherbets...whoops!

I am determined to actually achieve something after a prolonged period of inactivity and return to some semblance of gaming, with the small and hopefully achievable  skirmish approach the method of getting there.

Rules set to use? Well, as always my favourite - THW and their freebie Chain Reaction; which, in my opinion is a cracking approach to small-scale battles with bags of options to tweak and adapt to your needs - excellent solo option too.

That's it, for now.

Monty

Rogan's Bar

The little woman recently bought me 'Rogan's Bar' by 4Ground for my birthday and I've finally got round to almost completing it; I'm still not decided how to base it - on a dedicated table or on its own base for more flexibility. Apologies for the poor pictures, they were taken in haste on my phone.

Anyway, here it is, 'out of the box', with John Bridges posing on the boardwalk for scale. None of the edges or joins have been painted yet; although, it doesn't look too bad as it is, I think.

However, I did decide to 'tart it up' a bit and here is the result of painting  all the edging and joins to match, as well as dry-brushing the roof and boardwalk , etc.

This extra bit of work is well worth it I think, and  improves an already realistic-looking kit. I must admit, I really like this range and feel they really stand head and shoulders over whatever else is available out there at the moment.

The plan is to build up a town of around six buildings for small skirmish games using Two-Hour Wargames Chain Reaction rules. Although, as usual,  I'm sure my cunning plan won't be completed any time soon...

That's it, for now,

Monty

Red Dead Redemption Gameplay Video Series: Introduction

I recently borrowed this the other day and can't recommend it enough; a fantastic source of entertainment, where, today for example, 3 hours simply vanished in its open-ended 'sandbox'-style game play.

It has it all - buckets of atmosphere, every western cliché under the sun, solid (non-linear) storyline, amazing graphics and an impressive musical score, all wrapped up in a major motion picture production where you carve out your own ending, rather than watching passively...oh, and there's no time to eat popcorn either...

On a miniatures gaming note plus, it has seriously inspired me to finally finish my Dixon 28mm stuff from last year and possibly look at 15mm western skirmishing; but there again, fickleness is one of my personal attributes...

That's it for now,

Monty

Gun Fight at the OK Corral (almost...)

At the end of last year, the little woman and I had just ploughed through  all three series' of the fantastic Deadwood in record time when I announced the experience had inspired me to paint wild west figures.

This classic example of the fickle nature of my painting interests resulted in the pleasant surprise of my dearest proceeding to buy me the excellent Gun Fight at the OK Corral by Dixon Miniatures for Christmas (yes, it's taken me that long to get round to painting them!).

But never mind that, here are the 'goodies' of the Old West;  they are the first Dixon minis I have painted and I really like these figures, despite the (unwarranted IMHO) mixed reception they seem to endure among gamers.

Virgil Earp (as far as I'm concerned anyway...) ;)

Doc Holliday, I based my painting schemes on the film Tombstone, except Doc whom I based on a Colonel Sanders-esque type due to his loose resemblance!

  

Morgan Earp, thought I would make a slight chance with him and give him a grey Stetson...

Finally, Wyatt who gets two pistols (of course)... ;)

There you have it, just got to paint the Clantons and McLaurys next...don't hold your breath though...


That's it for now,


Monty