Banditos finished (and more)

 I knuckled down and maintained my 'at least an hour a day' painting regime, with a couple of extra hours over the weekend - filing!
The photo on the right shows all the dismounted bandits, each with a duplicate figure behind them, with a few small variations.

Here's the photographs:

Figure on left has had pig removed, other has had a pistol added.

Leader figure on the left has had his left holster and pistol removed.

Two standard figures

Hat removed (L) and added (R), also bottle removed from left hand.

The above eight figures are all the poses available, though some have had bits added or removed to make for a slightly different variant.

Mounted and dismounted figure (horses not done yet)

Another mounted and dismounted figure

Leader, mounted and dismounted versions

Final pairing (bored yet?)

I couldn't be bothered to keep mounting the figures so here's a few pics, without their horses!

No modifications here

Hats either removed or added

More with no modifications...

...and their mounted versions

Unmodified dismounted figures...

...and their mounted versions.

Another view of the whole lot, dismounted (obviously)

I missed showing the roofs undersides from a previous post, so here 's how they're affixed

'Blue' building roof, with scrap foamboard to 'key' the building - note also the support frame.

Underside of 'shack' roof (obligatory blurry photo)

Any and all store cards, phone cards etc.

Finally here's the results of cutting and filing my latest intake of  unused/out of date 'credit' cards, that I regularly use for bases. These are all for the bandits' mounts and although I am still a few short I have been promised twenty or so more from another two friends.

The miscelllaneous bit of card in the top left corner of the pic, is the template I used to cut the corners off. Cutting and filing took about two hours - all done whilst waiting for the figures' varnish to dry.

I'm happy enough with finishing the first batch of 16 Bandits and their 16 mounted versions. I'm now in negotiations with #1 son to see if he can make some more variants using scalpels, pinning amd green stuff; neither of the latter two skills I'm competent enough to tackle, but at least I'm fairly accomplished at using a scalpel (and I have the scars to prove it!).

That's it then for another week, hoping you found something of interest and of course your comment are always welcomed and appreciated.

Leeds Armoury

In a week where I've been more than a little remiss in my painting efforts (at about half an hour a day on average) and completely redundant on any building efforts I've recruited a 'stand-by' post of my recent road-trip to Leeds Armoury (sorry).

I was invited by a friend to accompnay him, his wife and my #1 son, in late May for the visit.

Leedes Armoury is free to visit, but you do need to book in advance (Covid etc.). 

#1 son and I had been before, just after it had moved from London, but it was a far better experience than the first time -so much had changed in the intervening years.

The photograph above show the main stairwell (all four floors of it - or mayve five ?), showing hundred of weapons, halberds, partizans, spontoons and a host of other weapons, with various armours too, at the bottom are pikemens' armour (with tassets) and at least one set of cavalry armour - all 17thc from what I could tell.

Here's the rest of the printable photos (in no particular order):

Huge diorama of Waterloo on the first floor (obligatory bluury photo_

Henry VIII's armour

The Oriental room

Mounted Samurai

More Samurai armour

Western weaponary (the Wild bunch in the background)...

...and yet more - with the archeatypical 'peacemaker'

More typical western pistols - note the holster, (probably homemade).

Easily recognised carnies, Hery (top) and Winchester

Showing that there weren't just Colt 45s around !

Winchesters weren't the only long arms either...

Various types of firing: pinfire,  rimfire and centrefire (the automatic on the right is circa 1894!

Obviously I took more photographs of all my current interests, but there was something for everyone.

Here's the best of the rest:

Jimland anyone ?

Big game hunter (with added reflection)...

...and his large (very large) target

Faithful gun-bearer ready to throw himself in front of his 'master'

What every adventurer in Jimland needs

Beautifully decorated weapons of all eras and genres on display througout

Shotguns of bores up-to 2-bore !

And if the rhino was a bit too big...

...with a wide choice of your preferred boar-spear

If the boar is a bit  too tame for your tastes...

Superb renaissance diorama (only from the balcony could I get a good pic)

Disappointing pic of Mahdist jibbah (I collect pics ot these)

Over the five floors and interveening mezzanine floors there was a lot to see. I took us four hours or so to see everything, but would have taken twice as long if I'd read even half of the information available - but I did get a museum guide too !  

It was an exhausting day, but well worth the effort with quite a few very surprising exhibits and even more exhibits that surprised me!

Seeing the western weaponary was eye-opening as to just how small most of the pistols were (even the Colts). Winchesters looked like toys compared to rifles that I've held (and in some cased used) which made some food for thought.

The venue is definetly a full day out, but I'd concentrate on my own current areas of interest if I get to go again, this time reading more ! Maybe I'd also get to shoot a crossbow (that particular activity was unvailablee- covid 'yawn'.)

There's also a very good cafe on the ground floor with a  exhibit hall adjacent to the entrance that holds various events throughout the year.

I hope you've found something of interest, and I didn't even mention the maching guns, the cannons outside the venue, the mortars inside or many, many other interesting exhibits.

That's it then for another week, I better had get a move on finishing my first batch of Mexican bandits for next week, but on the plus side I now have enough credit card types to start basing up my forty-something horses. 

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are bith welcomed and truly appreciated.

Windows, Doors and more

 As well as doing the odd bit of painting on my Mexican Bandits, I've also managed to keep up my hour-a-day regime by fitting in more work on the shack, jail and blue buildings. The results are shown in the photograph on the right.

  Here's the photographs:

The three buildings in 'real-life', conveniently obscured by a tree !

The back of the shack !

Actual view

Doorway area

'Jail' with that peculiar circular window.

'Jail' door with barred window

The bars on the window above are only loosely in place, to aid painting the window frame.

For the wood above the door in the 'shack' was made from a iece of balsa - a mareial I haven't used for many years (mostly becasue I'm rubbish at using balsa).

Window frames for all windows made from yet more matchsticks

I used clear acrylic for the 'glass', which refused to be glues using pva so I reverted to my old favourite glue - UHU.

The 'blue' building's side wall had a bit of work done too...

...to try and make it look like this (notice the alcove too)

The arched building...

...and my version; this had a lot more filler applied...

...using my non-patented filler applicators...

...to try and get this effect.

The roof of all the building have been completed with pieces added underneath them to stop them slipping and sliging everyhwere, The 'blue' builings veranda has had a frame added and the roof ridge has been 'tiled' too (using a plastic straw cut to size).

It may not look like I've done much this week, but I'm happy enough, knowing I've really have been usy on the building front, even if I've been a bit lax on the painting side of things,

So that's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully you found something of interest.

As always, your comments, critiques, criticisms etc. are always welcomed and truly appreciated.