Spiky Sunday

In order to really play up those stereotypes and tropes I knew I'd need a range of cacti for our Wild/Weird West set games.  Today I'll show you how those 3D printed ones I shared a while ago look all painted!  I've given them the same basing style as the fences I've shared previously (and that I'll use on miniatures for this setting) to ground them in the same world.  I've got a few of each of the sculpts which means I can patch multiple together to create hazardous patches of terrain as well as just use them singularly as decorative thematic elements.

Let's start with the iconic Saguaro Cactus:

Kind of a must for Wild West games, right?

Next a variety of Columnar-style Cacti, and a Prickly Pear type:

I opted for pink flowers on any of the sculpts that had them to give a little pop of colour.

Finally, a Barrell Cactus and a couple of sizes of succulents:

Overall I'm pretty happy with my little collection of model cacti! I think they'll add a nice amount of detail to what could otherwise be pretty dusty looking table set ups!

Water water

I've got a couple more completed scatter pieces from Frontline Wargaming.  First up the Water Tower - this was the worst kit I've ever assembled.  At least it is painted, and with some Water Effect, so I don't have to think about it much more:

I also have a trio of Water Troughs - similar kind of paint job to the Tower, and used some Vallejo Water Effect too:

These should all work well for the various Wild/Weird West games in the collection.

Wild West Waste Disposal

Some finished resin scatter terrain for various games set in Wild/Weird West style worlds.  First up, a pair of Frontline Outhouses:

I opted for different shades of wood - and made the metal rooves a bit rusty.  I added a couple of tufts to the base parts to help tie them into my 'Western' basing scheme.

From Terrain Freaks I've painted these resin coffins:

These were victims of a very gloss drying wash - I've salvaged them with a coat of Matt Varnish and they are at that stage where they'll do.  When arranged by the side of the Undertakers building I'm sure I'll be happier with them!

Makeshift Barricades Painted

I've painted the resin scenery pieces from Warlord's Anglo-Zulu range - first the makeshift barricade of boxes/sacks (or supplies to put alongside a general store):

This should help provide gunslingers with some much needed cover when the lead starts flying!

I've also got the wagon barricade done - it's a big old piece of resin!

It was actually more straight forward to paint than I first feared thought. I don't expect to use this piece all that often, mostly special scenarios I think, but it was too cool not to have in the collection!

The wash ended up a bit glossy on these two - not even the matt varnish trick got rid of it completely, which is a bit of a shame but I think they'll do for the tabletop.

Red Vectors Fences - painted

I got the Red Vectors Fences set for use in Dracula's America/Dead Man's Hand/Malifaux and now they are all painted up I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out:

I've added some Tajima1 tufts to the bases - a couple of different size/style golden ones and the desert shrub style too.  I'll use that same basing style on the miniatures for the three games where these'll see use.

Fences and Water Tower

I knew I wanted some fencing suitable for the various games that will use our Bethany, Nevada scenery collection - I picked up the Renedra Palisade Fencing pack.

As you can see the pack includes 8 fence lengths but only 5 posts.  I've tried to put them together in a way that will be somewhat flexible.  What would have been good is if the posts (or at least some of them) had been designed to allow for right angled corners - a missed opportunity I feel.

Also, I finally assembled the Water Tower from Frontline - this was really tricky to assemble, mostly because the Frontline resin seems to take forever to bond with superglue (unlike most resin which I've found tends to glue really quickly).

It's not perfect, but it'll do - I don't intend to buy another one, let's put it that way!!

Frontline Wargaming - Resin Scatter for Bethany, Nevada

When I picked up the DMH stuff I took the opportunity to pick up some resin scatter terrain at the same time - this'll be useful for DMH, Dracula's America and Malifaux so it's a good investment I think!

This scatter terrain is from Frontline Wargaming - but thankfully it was available through Great Escape Games as the Frontline Wargaming website is, quite frankly, a relic of a bygone age.

Anyway, on to the pieces - I knew I had to have some outhouses (blame it on Bill and Ted):

At least there'll be someplace in Bethany for the yellow bellied to go hide during a shoot out!

The outhouses are single piece castings and definitely give some flavour to a Wild West type scenery collection.

I also picked up the three pack of water troughs - one has a pump which is a nice detail:

A bit of water effect to the tops after painting and they'll look the part I think!

Finally I opted for the Water Tower - one of those iconic structures for a Western Town I think! 

All the pieces have nice texture and details and didn't require too much clean up, however one of the outhouses, one of the troughs and part of the water tower were all damaged during transit.  I've bought plenty of resin pieces over the years and these were the first to suffer such breakages on their way to me which was a bit disappointing.  I managed to fix them, but it wasn't easy and for some reason the Frontline resin seems to not bond as quickly with glue as other resin I'm used to working with.

That said, I'm still really happy to have these pieces in the collection; they go a long way to making our little town feel more real!

Starting Dead Man's Hand

As an aside to the Weird West shenanigans of Dracula's America I, after being encouraged by the Twitter crew, decided to extend the Western stuff sideward and picked up the Dead Man's Hand starter box from Great Escape Games.

The starter contains the rules, counters, dice, cards, a blacksmith tent and two gangs - Lawmen and Outlaws.  The Blacksmith looks good, but I'm not sure how confident I feel wrapping some of it in paper to get the tent look so that will go on the back burner indefinitely I think!

Anyway, the miniatures!

First, the Lawmen:

I particularly like the Sheriff guy in the centre with his cigar, but the whole posse has lots of character and variety.

Of course, it wouldn't be too Wild of a West if there weren't any Outlaws:

I particularly like the chap in the centre with the bowler (I should call it a derby I suppose in this setting!) in this posse. 

I also picked up the campaign source book - the Legend of Dead Man's Hand.  There's a deal saving a few pounds if you get a gang at the same time, so I chose the Daughters of the West, an all-female posse:

These are actually my favourites of all three gangs - which is saying a lot as the Lawmen and Outlaws are both really nice sets of minis!

I do like getting double-duty out of minis and scenery, and for the cost of a set of rules and a small number of minis Dead Man's Hand provides our little town of Bethany, Nevada with even more reasons to get to the table!

Bethany, Nevada keeps growing

I've added to our little town of Bethany, Nevada - first up the Church from Warbases' Cactus Creek range. This kit was simple to make - the porch area was the trickiest to assemble.

I'm really pleased with this kit - I'm certainly considering other pieces from the range, but not sure if I'll have the space...

From TTCombat's Wild West range I chose a couple of two-storey buildings to add further variety to the townscape.  First up, the 'Burlesque House':

As you can see, the building features a balcony, with a staircase on the right hand side.  I sand textured the floor behind the boardwalk and will paint/tuft it the same as I plan for the Dracula's America and Dead Man's Hand collections.

The other two storey building is the Undertakers.  The staircase on this one faces the other way to the Burlesque House, providing further variety:

Again, I sand textured the area around the stairs beyond the boardwalk.

I also picked out the Stable block - I added sand texture to this too, in the yard area in front of the stalls:

Finally I had a bit less luck with a couple of TTCombat kits - first the Windmills kit.  The kit contains two windmills, but one of the blades on one of them snapped off.  Luckily I only really wanted one Windmill, so I'm glad the other remained intact!

I also bought the Shacks kit.  This includes three shacks and an outhouse.  I didn't need the Outhouse as I've got an alternative (will share on the blog soon!), but out of the three shacks I was only able to complete one - the 'pegs' on the MDF of the others just wouldn't co-operate and eventually became impossible to do without significant carving.  Still, I made one shack which gives another dwelling to the collection:

Dwellings suitable for this setting remain something I'd like to see more of - most ranges focus on saloons, stores and the like which I'm all set for pretty much.

That said, I think that'll suffice for now for Bethany - now my mind is turning to a suitable wargaming mat.  I've not found a Wild West (or suitable) mat that I like - lots seems to include too many details like rail tracks and the like which I don't want (I'd add them in 3D if I wanted Bethany to be on the railroad!).  Please get in touch if you happen to have any ideas of sources for a good mat! 

Makeshift Barricades

I picked up a couple of Warlord resin pieces of scenery from one of my go-to guys - these are from Warlord's Anglo-Zulu War range.  I got these with an eye to using them in games set in America - so Dracula's America, Dead Man's Hand and Rebels and Patriots.

First up, a versatile barricade/supply pile made up of boxes and bags:

That will work either as a makeshift barricade, or even just as some scatter next to a general store or the like.

Secondly a rather impressive piece - the wagon barricade.  Obviously, this is a bit more for special scenarios rather than every day shootouts in our little town of Bethany, Nevada but I couldn't resist buying one as it's just too cool!

A cool feature is that it is designed to hold some miniatures - from testing it seems designed more for smaller base sizes, I could only fit one 25mm based chap on it but it's still a nice option.

There was a lot of paper-thin flashing on the wagon barricade piece, but easy to clean up.  The boxes and bags barricade required only minimal work.

They are nice pieces that will add some much needed cover for our outlaws and lawmen!

Terrain Freaks - Coffins

I've acquired a few more buildings for Bethany, Nevada - that will double-duty for both Dracula's America and Dead Man's Hand, as well as see use in Malifaux (more on that in due course here on the blog).  One of these is an Undertakers - well, I knew I wanted some decent coffins to go with it as some thematic scatter.  I looked around and came across Terrain Freaks - which has a small range of resin terrain and bases - and ordered a pack of Wooden Coffins.  The pack contains 6 coffins of various designs, including one with a separate lid:

I'm really happy with how these look - if, like me, you have a need for some small coffins, then I can definitely recommend Terrain Freaks!  The wooden coffins in particular have some nice texture to the wood, which should reward even basic painting techniques.