The Chinese

Despite my lethargy reaching an alltimehigh, I still managed to dig out some brushes and slap a few washes and some block colours on my Chinese westerners/ this last week. I also managed another simple 'conversion'.

[The two women, coming along, nicely from my pov]

The 'conversion; consited of cutting a rifle barrel off one figure and adding two filed and shaped cocktail sticks tp make a shotogun, so nothing drastic.

[The rear view of the women]

[Two chinese with shoulder arms, shotgun on the right]

[Two chaps with shovels, little done n these]

[Four chaps armed with improvised melee weapons]

[The whole group, showing many rear views]

This whole exercise has been an experiment to see what works and doesn't work with these figures. I did think that these would be fairly easy to paint, but that has;t been th case and I'm still learning.

In real-life, I've once more had a a routine hospital visit with another routine clinic visit (tba) on the horizon. I've also had visit to an optician to review my current faiing eyesight and needs. 

SWMBO is continuing to improve  - thanks for al the well wishes, but continues to need continual support.

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

... and I will get around to visting al the blogs I normally do, time permitting.

Happy New Year

 A happy New Year to all reading this, we've celebrated the Winter Soltice and the coming of the two faced god Janus, to look back on the despicable 2020 and look forward (hopefully) to a new 2021 !

I 've had a very leisurely holiday period, plodding along doing very little hobby-wise, mostly eating sleeping and playing nurse, housemaid, cook, cleaner, and servant to my wife who had a fairly serious accident just before Xmas - she's now on the mend and getting better daily.

I have been doing bits though with my newly acquired Xmas present to mysel - my westerners..

With the use of hot and cold water dips, a file and a craftknife and the addition of twine I've produced a few simple conversions 

[The nine 'conversions' en masse]

 Photographing these was a pain, ther beingbright white plastic, but I hope some idea can be had from my limited photoshopping skills.

The following photographs, show two 'conversions' with the orginal figure in the centre.

[The ladies, the one on the left will be holding a fan]

[L to R, a swordsman, the original with a 2x4 lumb of wood and another with a rounded stick !]

[L to R: meat cleaver wielder, origianl with machete and sombrero on his back, lastly man with knife]

[Men with shovels,  original in the centre)

[Only one 'conversion, chap on left is now bald ! (other chap is the original0]

Final photograph is a rear view  of just the men and hopefully it willbe obvious now what the 'conversions' are intended to be used for. 

[Rear view of all those now with queues - my first western Chinese-to-be]

That's it then for this week, I'm desperately trying to catch up on all the blogs I normally comment upon, but in the meantime, thanks for taking the itme to visit and hopefully you;ve found something of interest.

Of course, as always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.

2020 - In Review

Despite most of the year being in lockdown  and my enthusiasm draining as the year went on I did a quick calculation that I'd managed to paint up over 250 figures!

It turns out I was on quite a roll until about the middle of August  - the last time I  slapped paint on anything.

The year was taken up with a couple of games of "Jimland" early on and a couple of 'test western games in the latter part of the year,

I concentrated on two of my projects, "Jimland" adventures and fauna, with a few explorers thrown in for good measure. The other project the Sudan, had a lot more added to it, Zoauves,  civilians and market stalls for example, along wioth Egyptian infantry and cavalry.

 Here's the photos:

[The Molyneux Expedition (iirc)]

[Sudan Officers]

[Jimland Adventurers]

[Civilians for the Sudan that wouldn't look out of place in Jimland}

[More civilians for the Sudan]

[Gnus or if your prefer, Wildebeest - os of other new fauna too for Jimland]

[One of many stalls I produced, and one of the few I finished!]

[Lots of Egyptian Infantry]

[And a few Cavalry]

[A few Zoauves toom thrown in for variety ]

[Plastic Afghans - that will double up as Slavers in Jimland...]

[...and with Fezzes, they make decent enoough Askari too !]

The Aphgans/Askari were the last figures that I painted up and I then went on to that all fall-back position of showing models from my Westerngames, that I scratch-built or bought) from yesteryear, when I was a lad ! )I may not be profductive again this coming year, but at least I have several more armies to show inthe :Forgotten armies' series I;ve used in the past.

The good news however is that I have been converting some of the plastic figures that I bought recently for western games in the future - more on this anther time.

Overall I'm happy with what I;ve produced this year, for me, it's been very productive !

I doubt I'd get anything don without this blog and the encouragemebt I get from felllow bloggers and with that I'll say I hope you akll have a very prodcurive year next year!

Have a joyous and pious New Year  !

That's it from me until next year, thanks for taking the time and effort to visit; as always, your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

 

Merry Mithrasmas,

Yes, it's that time of year when we celecrate the winter solstice on a pagan holiday and like many others. I'll be doing the same without most of my family (sadly), but happy in the knowledge that they're all safe and well and I'm still awaiting the opportunity to hold my new grandson of four months, but I'm a patient chap!.

[All my new, soon to be, citizens of my old west set-up]

The photograph above happened by a chance visit to a "Pound Shop" (Not Poundland), where I took the opportunity for a quick visit, whilst SWIMBO was doing someboring shopping elsewhere (food, presents etc.). I came across a whole section of these figures and quickly bought a couple of packs to scale them against my 54mms.

[The two 'sample' packs]

After testing for suitability, my daughter volunteered to set out and buy what she could as they scaled up well and here's the proof:

[The three gentlemen, flanked by two timpo figures]

[They'll require a bit of work, but they have a great deal of charm imho]

[The ladies, there'll be a lot of cutting to do and the fifth figure is a rear view of the preceding one]

As a bonus I also had my daughter nab a few lamposts! :-

[At least double the size of a figure and the wreath is just snapped on and easily removed]

The children will require a lot more work, they have a lot of extra bits (snowbaords ffs!), but it's the adults that will get seen o first.

 A very welcome find and a something that has amanged to cheer me up in these dismal times.

No matter how or if you  celebrate this holiday, I hope you all keep safe amd have a good a time as possible.

Thanks for taking the itme to visit and of course your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

 

Happy Xmas, Hannuka, Mithrasmas or whatever, I'm off to slaughter a bull and drink its blood before the exchange of presents for Saturnalia.

More Westerners and Others

If you're a follower of this blog, you will be aware of my dearth of females in my collection, this however has been somewhat rectified with an ordr of figures placed with Steve Weston's  Toy Soldier online store. 

I found a few more females to add to my meagre numbers, plus a few of their more 'intersting' civilians.

[Here's good ol' Abe, two ladies and a trapper type] 

The figures are all 1/32nd scale and fit welll with my mainly Timpo collection.

 

 [Saloon girls and bar staff]

[Obligatory rear view, for those that like this sort of thing - you know who you are!]

[Timpo with the figures shown for scale]

[Drinkers, as the listing says - drunkards maroe-like imho]

From a medieval set, (Robin Hood and co.) I got these two excellentcharacters, a Barkeep and a Tavern 'wench'. These willconvert tothe 19th century with little effort.

['Wench' and Barkeep]

[Rear view -(bit obvious- Ed.)]

sorry aboout thefollowingpitures, theplastic figures are a very  bright whte, and despite my limited photograph manipulatiing skills I was unable to get any reasonable photos  of them, They are Mexican peasant, eight figures in the set and I have six sets of them- all for £10 in a deal of some sort !.(That's about 21p a figure!)

[Two wounded figures (or drunks?) and the all important female!]

[Obvious rear view]

[More,well, animated imho, peasants]

[Rear view, showing well the  'camera killing' white of the plastic]

[Another size comparison photo]

I do have plans for the peasants, who will mostly beconverted to something, imo tht will bealittle more useful ! 

In addition to these I got some horns for my few Britains cows ( their bells don't work) to convert to longhorns, they'll require a little surgery in the rudder region.

[Horns (padding photo - Ed.)]

The final photos show what is an excepitonal chunk of resin, sutitable for any period after the Napoleonic Wrs to the presentday and should be an immediate purchase for anyone using 54mm figures.

Yes, it's an upright pian and it's in resin, but (and it's a big but) it came ready painted as above andall for a measily £3.50 !!!!. I can't recollect seeing anythiingclose to this value for money in any resin kits I've seen.

[Here's a omparison photo of my own scracth-built plasticacrd piano and the resin one]

So that's it for this week, some more recent, chance purchases, will be the subject of next week's blog, but that's it then for this week.

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

Gunfight II - conclusion

 It took me two sessions, each about an hour long to conclude this small gunfight. The reasons varied  from constant interuptions, a bad cold and camera battery failure, but I managed to finish it.

Ike, one of the two remaining Lawmen, hiding behind the wagon, for cover, was the only one able to shoot, he targeted the only Bandit he could see, Carlito, hinding behond the water trough. This was a long range shot, but with the aid of an Action card, and his actiavtion he aimed and shot the Mexican, causing a knock down and a serious wound ! (just)

 [The loss of Carlito would be a major blow for the bandits !]

Elwhere

[Across from Carlito,Antonio shoots at the padre, causing him to flee from a graze]

George hadn't moved, the last Mexican hadn;t turned up and the turn ended abruply and only a four cards - even with a double deck these things still happen !

Ike walked out of his cover to get to get a shot at the two remaining bandits and George repositioned so he could see around the corner . Likewise Antonio repositions to get a shot at the lawme, but Carlito , surprising, struggles to get up and find cover behind the torugh, depsite his wound! 

Ike is looking very lonely, now, in the middle of the street, up against three opponents.

[Carlito, even with a serious wound, is the equal of the best lawman (Ike)]

 

[Ike wondering why he ever left the satey of the wagon;s cover]

[Benito licking his lips at the prospect of gunning down the lawman]

The next turn saw a fusilade of shot from all and sundry, but the mexicns escaped unscathed wilst poor Ike was turned into a calander. He took two flessh wound the a serious chest wound, laying hi spawled in the dirt, This left poor George as the only remaining lawman against three opponents and a potential fourth. Sensiby he decided to look for reinforcements and thus the game ended ! (george had actually failed his nerve test !)

 [Ike's fate]

The game had ended, imho with a satisfactory conclusion; it had flowed well with few rule hitches or the eed to delve into the rulebook (I only really needed the page on shooting and the reulsts table.).

So where to go from here ?

I'll be looking at adapating my movement rules to include horses, wagons etc. it seems strange that one oculd have a system where a train, for example unable to move in a turn, despite currently moving at full speed.

Weapons and reloading need a re-think to incorporate early revolvers using 'cap and ball' and a long hard look at shotguns. The latter seem to be the 'wonder weapon' of guns in a lot of rules - multiple hits, bigger chances of hitting etc. So why didn't everyone carry them ? (Answers not required)

That's it then for another week, as always I hope you've found something of interest  and of course your connets are welconed and appreciated.