Minor Progress

Heat has dissipated substantially but smoke continues to be a major issue.

Able last evening to spend about an hour in the garage and labelled all the bases for the denizens of Alkali Wells as well as the bases for the buggies, buckboards, and grain wagons - and a couple of other items to appear at some point.  Over 160 bases.  Also did the replacement of some of the individual male drivers with couples, a man and a woman, so that two buggies and four buckboards have two folks instead of one.  While only minor progress, it does mean as I prep the figures I can glue them to their bases to await priming more quickly and well organized - that last a critical element in so large and diverse a collection.

Closing in on a solid month of smoke filled skies but there is hope in the weather patterns that might help clear - or at least partly clear - our skies.  I have seen some bad fire seasons, mostly in very recent years, but nothing that compares to this.  The volume of fire related ash in our pool cost me a major chunk of a day just to clean it out to a reasonable degree - won't clean the filter until I see some blue sky!  The bag on the pool sweep has been turned black several times after being cleaned - by far the worst this has ever been, worse than ash from a distant volcano many years ago.  I 'watered' all the plants in our yard (a Lot!) to rinse the ash off.  Climate change doubters need to be required to drive down some of the flaming roads turned dark in daylight despite the illumination of the fires.  Nothing like a near scorching to change someone's mind, maybe?  Science over politics.  From where I sit, the science is crystal clear.  I am pretty sure there will be no real, concerted action until after crossing the "tipping point".  Our house sits a bit over 100' elevation and about an hours drive to sea level water in the San Francisco Bay area.  Maybe in a decade or two we will be a ten minute drive, maybe a three minute drive from salt water?  At least there will be lots of new farm land available in Greenland after all the ice melts and raises ocean levels 20 to 30 feet worldwide.  I fear that will happen much sooner than expected.  But will there be any water for that farmland?  Scary times in too many ways.  I cannot imagine the psychological burden this must place on the minds of very young adults who are paying close attention.  Okay, enough on this - see what all that time under so much smoke has done?

Switcharoos not Buckaroos

I purchased a number of extra sets of the figures that go with certain stage coach sets and I will be swapping out some of my already rearranged figures for buckboards and buggies so that instead of a single man driving I will have a couple, a man and a woman, driving/riding some of these vehicles.  I will be doing this with other wagons as well but saving some for seated folks around town, especially the train stations.  I also recently acquired some paired seated limber riders that I will be using as the occupants of my tumbleweed wagon - and use the coach driver with his shotgun toting partner as drivers, a little mismatch in size but the riders will be behind bars so I hope it won't be too noticeable.

These decisions were made while waiting for the heat to dissipate which it has done to be replaced by hazardous air filled with smoke from all of the far too many fires burning right now throughout California.  So, still not able to spend time in the garage.  Yes, it is that thick with smoke outside, even with the garage door closed - though I might do a bit while wearing a particle mask.

Next batch to prepare will be the four stage coaches and that tumble weed wagon plus the destroyed stage coach, the other resin destroyed wagon, and the two metal destroyed wagons.  Those ten vehicles will, when primed and ready, bring me to 60 items ready for paint.

While out helping the wife find some replacement needles for her sewing machine she has been using to turn out a large numbers of masks, I found two rather expensive plastic containers but will each be able to hold 18 or more wagons and carts each.

So, even though I haven't been able to do physical work I have been able to make some plans and that tiny progress of finding those storage containers.

Screeching Halt, Scorching Hot

The intense heat of the last week or so here abouts put the brakes on any hobby progress.  A garage at or near 110 degrees fahrenheit is a no go zone for me.  And now we have a cloud of smoke overhead from all the fires in the region that makes being outside genuinely hazardous to health; parking lot at work this morning almost looked like it had a light dusting of snow.  Almost.  But it was just falling ash.  At least it is relatively cooler today than it has been - no 111 degree high forecast for the next week, plenty of highs near or slightly above 100 but we are used to that.  So, maybe some progress but for the moment, not so much.

The Nez Perce

One element of gaming the Indian Wars that I've seldom (ever?) seen explored in miniature is the campaign that ended with Chief Joseph proclaiming, "I will fight no more forever."  Perhaps an apocryphal quote but still one of my favorites from all of history.

I have been contemplating recently about fusing the battles from this campaign into my Whiskey Hills collection.  As I explore the battles, I find I can probably do most, if not all, of the battles at a 1:1 scale with my 15 mm figures.

When the wife and I traveled to Yellowstone and beyond, we actually visited some spots related to the Nez Perce including the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway (alas, not very scenic when we were there courtesy of the dense cover of smoke from all the wild fires burning throughout the west that late summer).

Will have to put more time into studying the campaign and adapting my collection to fit - I don't think it will take much effort once things are painted up.

The one thing I won't attempt at 1:1 is the pony herd of the Nez Perce reputed to have been 2,000 strong!

Strange doings upstairs

Right above and below the title bar - now with some additional text - are some tabs leading to pages that will, eventually, feature on varied elements planned for this collection.  Almost all of the needed buildings exist with some being scratch built just waiting windows and doors.  And, I suspect, all of the figures I am going to need.  Seems to be a more limited number of page tabs than there once was or I haven't figured it out properly.  Whichever way it lands, I will make it work.

Bath day in Alkali Wells

There are tales of an annual bath day in certain parts of the Old West.  Now, whether that is true or not - and, mostly, I suspect not - the first ever bath day has come for Alkali Wells.  Every man, woman, and child in and around Alkali Wells took a bath today - excepting some of the Apache who are not always friendly to European ways it seems.  Not saying they don't like to be clean, just that they did not attend today's event.

The specific meaning here being that all 252 living souls in the shape of miniatures to populate Alkali Wells and environs got washed today in preparation for getting further prepped through filing and knife work to be glued to their bases prior to being primed.  Heck, even the 'necros' got washed meaning the 42 dead figures to attend the 21 groups of 12 got into the clean up action.

And keeping the momentum going, I also washed 10 buckboards, 6 buggies, and four grain wagons - with horses and drivers - to be ready for the next steps ahead of basing for priming.  That will add 20 more wheeled vehicles and bring me to the half-way point of having 100 wheeled conveyances for the Old West, at least 100 pulled by livestock - not counting wheelbarrows of which there are a few in the collection.

Of course, all those figures will need their bases so I did preliminary prep for them to:

That's all the bases for the groups of people and the buggies, buckboards, and wagons cleaned today - and a few extra for some unrevealed items as of yet.  I figured a shot of them unprimed would be easier to see - I prime one side and then glue the figures to the other side when ready and, once the glue has dried, prime the figures and the other side of the base at the same time.  It does take some extra work and paint but I really don't like the look of bare metal bases showing on my gaming tables when someone chooses to knock over a stand to indicate it's been shot (though no real need for that because I have at least two casualty figures per group).

Oh, and I did get some work done on the kit-bashing railroad cars - did some work on the six cattle cars, the one horse car, and a tiny bit on the three tank cars which was just shortening the core for the tanks.  And all the manufactured pieces, resin and metal, also got washed today.  But progress is progress so a good day.  Until it got too hot to work out in the garage!

One thing I didn't prepare were dead horses or bases for dead horses but I will be using them as markers, along with the destroyed wagons, to mark damage to wagons and their teams.  Hmm, I don't have dead oxen.  Dead cows and dead longhorns but no dead oxen.  I think I can live with that - just use some of those dead cows.

Another good day - less likely to make progress tomorrow because the wife is desirous of a day out of the house which I could use too.  Alas, she probably means shopping but I like nature.  Maybe we can do both.

A Train or Three at Play in the Yard

The equipment below is painted but no where near finished but with the sheer volume - and the possibility of adding a few more items even - means a rather large investment of time going forward above and beyond the time already invested before it can all be called done.  Most of the equipment is from Peter Pig, some modified, with a few locomotives from Glencoe Models (see earliest posts on this blog).

 A closer shot of one of the Glencoe locomotives with a Peter Pig tender.

Two identical Glencoe tank engines.

Two of the three Peter Pig locomotives with their tenders.

An overall shot of the "Eight Track" yard.  This image shows all the currently table capable pieces - even if not 'fully dressed'.

From a different angle.

And another angle.

The core 'basic' freight train: locomotive with tender, three box cars, and a caboose.

 And the core 'basic' passenger train: locomotive with tender (this is a Glencoe), a combination baggage/passenger car, and two passenger coaches.

 A close shot of the Peter Pig locomotive and tender - after I heavily modified the 'clunky' square base.

 And one of the other Glencoe models.

 And the other Glencoe tank engine.

Another close up of the Glencoe 4-4-0 with a Peter Pig tender.

Coach on the left modified into a full baggage car, coach on the right modified into a parlor car - note the large window at the back.  Might need to use some filler on many of the modified coaches and then sanding before final painting - and then lettering of course: Tentacle and Monopoly Western Rail Road or T&MWRR.

 The basic combination car - modified - and the two unmodified coaches.

 A trio of flat cars.

 A shot of one of the caboose.

 And a shot of one of the box cars.

And this last shot of the yard empty before I put it away.  Doing this layout caused two realizations: I actually need more straight tracks for future plans and I also need a much larger background piece for doing these photographs.

The seven stock cars await completion still, as do three tank cars and three gondolas - none of which are pictured, all modifications on top of flat cars.  It is possible, but by no means certain, I might order some more cars and maybe another locomotive or two (at least one of which to be a crashed locomotive).

Now, we'll see if having these photos up will encourage me to work on those unfinished cars.  Maybe I will require myself to at least get them built and painted as items here before determining whether to buy more or not.

Wagon Park

In rather boring brown but exciting in another way, at least to me.

No idea why the above image cuts off the way it does at the bottom left.  But I have a precise idea that there are thirty wheeled vehicles in that photograph.  The right hand column of wagons are my horse drawn wagon train with settlers to go with it essentially as with the ox drawn wagon train on the left - see earlier post. I also put bases under all of the army supply wagons and the chuck wagons.

A casual observer might not agree that there are thirty vehicles but a closer look - with just such a shot below - reveals 14 prairie schooners, 8 army supply wagons, 2 chuck wagons, 2 'crashed' wagons, and at the rear of the long center line 2 each limbers and gatling guns mounted on wheeled carriages.

This is just a shot from above.  The items near the damaged wagons are a skeletal man and horse.  Many more skeletons now in my possession so I can actually have a full team of horses in skeletal form - as well as the crew.

And here is that shot where it is easier to see the limbers and wheeled carriages for the gatling guns.

So, that means 30 out of 100 of my wheeled vehicles for my Pony West collection are primed and ready for painting - a pleasant surprise to be almost one third of the way there.  Of course, with stage coach number five on the way I can retire a cart or keep it and call it 101 vehicles.  Again, one of the soon to be five stage coaches will be a 'destroyed' stage coach.

Perhaps next up I will prep the buggies and buckboards.  That will get pretty close to the half way point.

I find myself being drawn back to working on the kit-bashed rolling stock for my railroad - stock cars, tank cars, gondolas.  I should at least get some photos of the partly painted items to include here to help inspire me forward.  Too late to do tonight but soon.

Wagons West, um, woah

Well, not too bad, only washed the second train of an additional seven wagons for the horse train.  Small step forward.  Too hot for too many days and just ran out of energy.

Wagons West, Yo!

The ox drawn wagon train is ready for painting - except the two Frontier ladies already painted, probably late eighties.  There are seven wagons pulled by a total of 28 oxen.  Each wagon has a 'driver' at the back of the wagon - these things travelled at a man's easy walking speed.  There are also six stands of pioneers, four of women and children and two of men. (some of the women are cast as woman and child or babe in arms but there are three people per stand)  That adds up to 25 people - one more than the original planned 24, the result of adding a seventh wagon to avoid the hexagon shape when 'circling the wagons'.  Since all of the Peter Pig settler's wagons come with four horses, somewhere I have an additional 28 harnessed horses to put to good use.

Just some closer shots, stand on the right has one lady with a babe in arms.

 And the stand on the right here includes a woman and child as a single casting.

The man stand on the right includes the Wagon Master on foot.

A different angle of the full wagon train.  Of course, in reality, these wagons would be spaced much farther apart from front to back and, terrain permitting, perhaps traveling abreast rather than one behind the other.

When the wagons do get circled (a Hollywood cliche perhaps but fun to include) I add four stands of armed men to represent the drivers (still glued behind the wagons, of course) for added fire power in defense.  Looks like some of the pilgrims didn't get inside the circle fast enough!

Not sure what to do with the harnessed oxen when circling the wagons, maybe keep half in place to increase the size of the circle and perhaps have room for the other half inside?  

After typing that bit above I just had to go out and set it up and see if it would work.  Here it is.  Might work better - though I am going to have to go back and check up on how it was really done, been a long time since I read up on that.

Here are those four added stands - only used in defensive mode (though available for other scenarios if desired.

This is my 'bonus' herd of oxen because of how Peter Pig packs their oxen, I wanted all of my wagon pullers in full harness, so I bought several extra sets.  There are four additional oxen models here, the smaller ones from a different source.  Probably have this travel along with the train as 'extra' oxen or as meat supply if necessary.

And that same bonus adds an additional full team of harnessed oxen, probably pull a freight wagon, and a pair of unharnessed oxen waiting to get harnessed.

And, last photo, an overall shot of recent progress on my Pony West collection, the wagon train in the back left tray, the Town Marshall and Outlaws along with the mostly painted Apache in right rear tray.  The front tray is the mounted Hunkpapa Lakota along with the foot groups and the village groups both also for the Hunkpapa Lakota.

Perhaps next up I will prepare the horse drawn wagon train, essentially the same as above but without the extra oxen.  And then several more Lakota/Cheyenne 'commands'.  Followed by preparing a half dozen each of the unarmed civilian groups for Lodgepole Creek and Alkali Wells.  It will take a while before I run out of figures to prep for painting for this period.  There is a lot more to go.  When I get back to the cavalry, probably the Buffalo solider battalion first and then the figures dedicated to the fort.  And somewhere in that mix, keep prepping more of the vast numbers of wagons - though I am up to 21 wheeled conveyances so far.

I did include a stagecoach in my most recent order to make number five - now I have to pick which one will be the "ruined" coach.

It feels great to be making so much progress on this collection!

A grand moment of musing - or is it some sort of plan?

I have been wondering about my White Hat/Black Hat groupings for a while and how to allocate them in my planned Extravaganza Game.  Well, I believe I have sorted it out and to do so I just placed an order from Bluemoon for some additional figures to add three more groupings (marked **) besides the three I already recently added and sorted (marked *).  I have also decided that some of the groups will be Brown Hat/Gray Hat groups - not quite all good and not quite all bad.  I have tried, as best I can, to form the groups into logical associations of 'factions' but I am first to admit that a few of them test the limits just a bit but it is all for fun so I will just live with it.

So, here are the factions and groups, three per faction, as now constituted and the towns they will be associated with:

Anachronism:

White Hats - Town Marshal, County Sheriff, Posse**

Brown Hats - Pinkertons, Territorial Rangers, “White” Scouts

Black Hats - Outlaws, Robbers, Comancheros

Gray Hats - Desperadoes, Regulators, Rustlers

Lodgepole Creek:

White Hats - Professional Gunmen**, Cowpokes, Mountain Men*

Black Hats - Range Boss, Gun Hands for Hire, Hard Luck Cowboys

Alkali Wells:

Brown Hats - Magnanimous Dozen, Reservation Police, Mexican Federales*

Gray Hats - Mexican Banditos**, Mexican Armed Peons, Apache Renegades*

As a reminder, each one of the groups is made up of 12 mounted men, 12 men on foot (the mounted men dismounted), 12 dead, and 4 standing horses to represent where a stand dismounted.  And, of course, 3 figures to a stand.  Thus, counting men and horses, there are 52 miniatures per group and, with 24 groups, a total of 1,248 figures to paint, representing 288 men in various states of play.  Yup, that is a few.  Or, how to redefine what an Old West game is.  

Some will object to the three figures per stand but with that many figures, it really is a necessity.

Previously, I just had 18 groups and hadn’t planned where they would be used.  And I had the three towns.  And that never quite divided up right for me.  The above groupings divide up nicely among the three towns.  Of course, the groups can also be active within the region of the town, not just in the town itself.  And they can be realigned at will for a given game - especially range wars, I expect to run that type of game rather often.

There is another ‘benefit’ for me.  Each faction of 3 groups can be run by a single player which means 8 players.  Since my army figures can easily accommodate 8 players (6 battalions of 4 companies each, plus the infantry and high command, plus the fort with its dedicated figures), and the Northern Plains tribes is also designed to accommodate 8 players (4 mounted bands, 3 foot bands (not dismounts!), and three villager groupings, plus leader), that gives a nice balanced 24 possible player positions for the Extravaganza Game.  Plus more players for some of the other groups I have that are not in the mounted/foot/dead groupings, though they might be subgroups run by the core 24 players - a for instance would be the "Denver" Free Militia from Hallelujah Trail but maybe I'll call it the Anachronism Free Militia.  The great challenge is getting that many players in a game.  Twenty years ago, no problem.  These days, quite a stretch.  I guess I’m operating on the assumption, if I build it, they will come.

And if they don’t come, the 24 players, I can still do the grand spectacle set-up and just run smaller games with fewer players (perhaps each running more figures or each running the same as planned) in multiple scenarios that are run on different parts of the overall setup.  

When not running the extravaganza, I can always run small scenario club games or host such games at home.  Another option is to use the figures and associated paraphernalia to set-up and photograph to tell narrative tails here on the internet - which can be a solo activity and appeals to the story teller within me.    

Besides all the combatants, I have that vast array of civilians to ‘decorate’ the game and because I study the real old west, not just the fiction and the cinematic, I have included plenty of freed men and women of color, peaceable Hispanics, and numerous Chinese folk (though I get a bit cinematic with the latter by including a Shaolin Temple - a place to host Kwai Chang Caine, of course).  Alas, not only do these figures help my collection reflect the true nature of the Old West, they also allow for a variety of scenarios where these poor souls become targets - maybe even targets of the White Hats, sad to say.  But mostly my civilians will just be peaceable folk that sometimes have to dodge out of the way.

One last thought for the moment, I expect I will have the two white hat factions separated by a different color of wash and shading so each stands out.  And do something similar with the black hats though a bit of a challenge to get a darker and lighter black but I will figure it out, maybe use colored hat bands.  The brown hats are easier since one can be brown and the other tan.  Same with the gray hats, one can be darker gray (but not close to black), and the other a lighter gray (but not close to white).  When mounted each group will be easy to see because I plan to paint all horses in one group as the same color - but with varying distinguishing marks like points, think bay, dun, black, brown, etc.  And when dismounted each group will get a defining color on its clothing, say all wearing white dusters (for those so modeled) or all wearing a particular brown coat - and then paint the other items of clothing in varied tones to avoid any uniformity.  Of course, the mounted and dead men within the group will need to be painted to match as close as possible.  As a safeguard and for ease of sorting, I am also marking the underside of all the bases to make it easy to distinguish a group.

Quite a grand plan.  Now I just need to put in the effort to make it “real”.  I have a good start with perhaps sixteen hundred pieces already primed and ready for paint - plus some painted and ready like the buffalo and pronghorn antelope herds.  Yee-haw, get along, little dogies.

Evidence of Progress

Above reveals one full "set" of the Lakota/Cheyenne native Americans, 4 x 12 mounted warriors with 8 dead, 3 x 12 foot warriors with 6 dead, 3 x 12 villagers with 3 dead, and up front on foot is the Big Man and 2 companions with 1 dead.  There are a total of 8 such sets - though two of the sets have villagers on the move with travois so a bit different, mostly those travois and horses with villagers mounted.  The Crow and Shoshone, army allies, and others are structured differently - such as the Apache.

This shot shows two sets of the White Hat/Black Hat sets.  The primed grouping is the Town Marshal with 12 mounted men, 12 men on foot, 12 dead, and 4 standing horses to mark points of dismount.  Beyond doubt, some will quibble (even mightily) that basing figures as I have before painting will result in a lesser paint job.  Very true.  But I have to compromise between getting things done and a reasonable paint job.  That unprimed group - with some of the mounted figures not yet glued into their saddles has 19 companions waiting to get prepped.  With those sorts of numbers, speed matters. A lot.  So, I compromise and accept lesser paint jobs in favor of greater spectacle through quantity.  Or, that is the plan.

Last is a group of Apache acquired painted to which I've added 2 unpainted figures to make 36 total and 6 dead.

The standard grouping for all 'units' is twelve figures plus any dead with the exception of the Special Figures.

Next target to work on is one of my civilian wagon trains.

Sometimes I'm bad, sometimes I'm worse

Case in point, and meaning no offense to the poor soul who "inspired" me through no fault of his own, but I've taken Matakishi's Tea House (a perfectly respectable fellow as far as I know) and abused it into Matasquishy's Pee House.  Why?  There is no rhyme nor reason, sometimes these things just strike.  Recorded for later use.  A named outhouse?  Why the heck not?  That is all.

Bones Apart

Ordered some skeletons for decorating my games, humans from one source, dead horses (and wolves and wild boar) from another.  These are not for any sort of fantasy but for warning of poisoned wells or marking the site of a battle where not all of the dead got buried or an indian attack on a wagon train.  These bones are game table clutter.  Also ordered a few figures that I'm not sure how I will feel about them but will see when they arrive.  If I don't like them I can use them for parts of some sort.

Now all I need is time to paint some stuff up!

Horse colors

Just grabbed this information off the web:

From Boots & Saddles at the Little Bighorn by James S. Hutchins: 

"A" Company--coal black horses
"E" Company--gray horses
"B," "D," "F," "I," and "L" Companies--bays
"H" Company--blood bays
"G" and "K" Companies--sorrels
"C" Company--light sorrels
"M" Company got the left overs, so they were a mix
Trumpeters rode grays; officers usually rode the same color horses as their company
Custer rode a horse called "Vic," a sorrel with four white feet and a blaze on the face.
Captain Miles Keogh rode "Commanche," described as a light bay or buckskin. Keogh commanded Company "I" a bay company.

That is for the 7th cavalry, of course, so not directly related to Rosebud but I can paint my full regiment to that standard for when I do want to do Little Bighorn.  Will continue to 'research' for other cavalry of the period.  And just horses in general during the period.

Funny, how now we consider a quick search of the web to be research - which is potentially wildly inaccurate.  Though, over time with corrections, a lot of what is on the web will at least be reasonable information - or so it can be hoped.  Just have to remember the goal is not precise adherence to history but using history to guide towards a fun game.

More sorting today

So, being off work today courtesy of the protests, partly doing some work from home, I did a bit more sorting and discovered there are three more groups of civilian figures not assigned.  Two are armed men that will be for special assignments, whatever that may be - something scenario specific.  And another group of trainmen that will be used for trains 'out on the road' which means mostly likely used for hold ups.

I then realized I have enough native American figures to create two and a half units of allies for the army at Rosebud.  I will use the three units already set up as scouts for the Shoshone - famous for their 'military' type formations and these 'new' groups as the Crow.  That means there will be 66 figures for the allies which works out pretty well at 1:4 figure ratio.

The one thing I ought to do, that I haven't the heart to do, is to settle in to just one period and make it my full miniature focus.  At least I am trying to keep focus on three: AWI, Colonial (but which part of that?), and this Old West massive collection.  If I paint 15 figures a day, every single day, for a year solid, I could finish this collection.  I am lucky if I paint once a month lately but getting closer to being more free to do as I choose.

Priming a batch of civilians for Anachronism

The figures are only primed so far but I want to show a portion of my civilians for my main Old West town, Anachronism.  

It is the town beside a navigable river where steam boats ply - but their future is in doubt because the railroad has arrived and spanned the river and is pushing well west of the city.  There is also a freight and stage road that pushes into the southwest from the city.  It is a veritable spring board for settlers seeking new opportunities.  

Unfortunately, it's prosperity also attracts a less desirable group of those outside of the law.  A spanking new courthouse (started, not finished) will help - as will the gallows erected outside (purchased, not yet started - and might get modified to be at least a three noose affair rather than a single noose affair) - to improve the situation for the large, law abiding citizenry.  

These twelve groupings - some other primed additions not meant for Anachronism included - were one third of the total civilians for the town but I've recently done some sorting and organizing to better incorporate purchases over the last few years that have expanded all three town populations (including those 'assigned' to a town but not meant to be 'in' the town but in the town's out-lying region).

It should be obvious that the photos were taken right after priming the figures since the paint is still wet.

Up front in this first photo is the blacksmith group, like all groups there are twelve people, men, women, and children as appropriate or available.  For the civilian folks carrying babes in arms, those are not officially counted though they certainly count to their little metal mommies.

In the center is the hangman's group - the hangman and the preacher behind the condemned man having his last say are the left stand in back.

In the back is one of the two groups of armed civilian men for the town.

Up front here is the wheelwright and cooper group.  You may have noted that all groups have two associated casualty figures - which is probably more than I need but was an early idea I stuck with throughout building the collection.  Alas, there are very, very few female casualty figures out there in 15 mm - only two I know of are in Bluemoon's London range, meant to be victims of Jack the Ripper.  I have them but for a different collection, not London.  Thus I will have to fake it by painting female and children group casualties a bit different - I expect pastels will be well used for the women to make easier to see they are women, whether living or dead.

In the middle is the undertakers group, he is in the back left with his cane.

And in the background is the other group of armed men plus one dead shot armed woman.

Up front below is the photographers group with three cameras taking photos of a young couple about to get married now that her beau is back from West Point, a couple of old soldiers, and an older farm couple in town for their anniversary and splurging on this new fangled technology.

In the middle is a group of the town's children.

And in the back is a set of shop keepers.

Up front in this photo is the sawbones about to, well, saw a bone.  Another patient is arriving and  a few armed friends stand guard after a recent untoward incident and an assistant - perhaps the town's veterinarian - is arriving to assist.

The middle is graced with a group of the town's peaceful women - anything resembling a weapon is just some tool the women use, or will be painted as such.

And in the back is a group of women out on the town shopping.

That makes twelve of the original thirty-six groups for Anachronism.  Still to be primed are the upper crust of the town including the visiting governor with his entourage and their ladies, the figures related to the strong railroad presence in town, and the diverse folks of varying ethnicities such as Chinese immigrants including the residents of the local chapter of the Shaolin - Kwai Chang Cane of course), free men and women of African heritage starting new lives in the west, and those bigamist Mormons (an homage to Paint Your Wagon of course).  The new groups are mostly some of the accumulated armed men and some more train men, six more groups in total for 42 groups of 12 or 508 residents.  The other two towns, Lodgepole Creek and Alkali Wells including those outliers, are each now up to 21 groups each with another combined 508 residents.  Which means at least 1,016 civilians for my Old West collection.  Of those 84 groups, I have 15 that are meant to be armed groups but there might be the odd weapon mixed in some of the other groups - but not enough to raise the group above being a more or less defenseless group against the better armed men, whether on the right side of the law or the wrong side of the law or somewhere in the middle.

Here is a Special Character, El Pollo Grande, (The Big Chicken) in both mounted and foot version plus a dead man.  The dismounted actually has four chickens on it!  A bit silly but fun - which is the ultimate point.

These are three stands of Mexican horse holders recently acquired from Peter Pig, a newish addition to their Old West range without a specified use for the moment.

And these are the armed El Mexicanos, assigned to the Alkali Wells region but probably out on El Pollo Grande's hacienda.

These are two groups of Mexican peasants.  Of course, by Mexicans we mean people of Spanish heritage living in the now American Old West since my Old West is decades away from the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  Though there is a very newly added, from QRF-Freikorps, unit of Mexican Federales in a mounted, foot, dead, setup - just need to add four standing horses.  I've also added a unit of Apaches in the same status (though need more dead and standing horses) which I also need for the 'new' Mountain Man group.  I hope to scrounge around the collection later today to see what I need to fill in these minor holes.

Just a shot of the whole lot from one end.

And again from the other end.

Not included here because not primed yet are the several other Special Characters I've developed for this collection: The Dude (rather similar to The Duke) in both a mounted and foot version, The Gals (Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, and Belle Starr) only on foot, Sister Veronica sometimes also known as Veronica Voluptuous (shades of Two Mules for Sister Sarah) replete with two mules in each of her incarnations (I know, Clint was the other mule in the movie but this isn't that movie), Mountain Men also both mounted and on foot, and Walks Far Woman (from an old made for TV movie starring Raquel Welch) only on foot.  And, of course, El Pollo Grande who is pictured above.  

For those of you thinking that is excessive, 1,016 and more civilians for an Old West game, you are right but perhaps you don't see the whole vision.  Remember, this is a collection with now over 100 wagons and carts included counting some 'destroyed' ones!  And three separate towns!  The refrain, yet again, "The Whole Wilder West, All At Once".

Why Rosebud?

Here is a simplified order of battle for Rosebud:

CinC: Brigadier General George Crook

Lt. Col Royall (3rd Cavalry) overall for cavalry

3rd US Cavalry - Major Evans
Captain Mills' 1st Battalion -
Company A - Lt. Morton
Company E - Captain Sutorious
Company I - Captain Andrews, Lt. Foster, Lt. King
Company M - Captain Mills, Lt. Paul, Lt. Schwatka
Captain Henry's 2nd Battalion
Company B - Captain Reinhold, Lt. Simpson
Company D - Captain Henry, Lt. Robison
Company F - Lt. Reynolds
Company L - Captain Vroom, Lt. Chase
Van Vliet's Squadron
Company C - Captain Van Vliet, Lt. Von Leutwitz
Company G - Lt. Crawford

2nd US Cavalry - Captain Noyes

Company A - Captain Dewees, Lt. Peirson

Company B - Lt. Rowelle

Company D - Lt. Swigert, Lt. Huntington

Company E - Captain Wells, Lt. Sibley

Company I - Lt. Kingsbury (Noyes company)

Mounted Infantry - Major Chambers (4th infantry)

4th US Infantry

Company D - Captain Cain, 1st Lt. Seton

Company F - Captan Luhn

9th US Infantry

Company C - Captain Munson, Lt. Capron

Company H - Captain Burt, Lt. Robertson

Company G - Captain Burrowes, Lt. Carpenter

Packers and Montana Miners (67 men)

4 surgeons and 3 scouts (Frank Grouard, Louis Richard, and Baptiste "Big Bat" Pourier

 Crow (175) and Shoshone (86) allies 

The Sioux and Cheyenne have been estimated from 750 to 1500 (though there are some 'crazy' numbers at 4000 - had there been that many, I don't think there would have been one survivor of the army or its allies).  I lean on the 1500

That gives 15 cavalry companies to field from two different regiments plus five mounted infantry companies also from two different regiments.  More variety is a good thing to my tastes. And the supply train was distant so don't have to field a lot of wagons (most of us don't, I have quite a few just because I wanted that element - but not needed for this battle).  Sure, Bighorn is more famous, or infamous, but this was probably the best balanced battle of the entire Indian Wars.  Plus it lasted for hours and hours and the native village was distant and no settlers nearby so it really is a 'clean' battle.  And the army gets a critical reinforcement in the Crow and Shoshone who probably prevented a terrible army defeat.  Bighorn for the public who wouldn't get it, Rosebud for those who really know the period, a battle that can go either way.  And a wonderful what if is for the native allies to arrive late (they did but not on the actual day) and perhaps end up staying neutral (they would not have sided with the other natives since the two sides were mortal enemies).

I figure I can readily do the battle at 1:4 figure ratio - though I might need to add some more mounted natives to bring up the Crow and Shoshone forces, maybe not.  Also might want to get some more mounted infantry, have enough dismounted infantry - right now I only have enough for one mounted company.  That last is just a maybe, can have them fight on foot as a lot of them actually did.

Alkali Wells in the morning

Or, with better light.  May rearrange to create more of the traditional Spanish square.

Did one minor rearrange at the far end to add in my scratch building church which I may use if I cannot find a suitable resin version - which it seems likely I will not find.

 More of the same.

 These buildings, all with lift off roofs, are from QRF/Freikorps.

These four below came from Crom's Anvil but apparently they are no longer made - if they were, I would have ordered a bunch more!

No known provenance on these, the painted items are stone cast and given to me years ago by a local gamer.  The 'black' thing was from a swap meet and will get repainted to something more suitable.

Same story (with reverse shot of former image). 

Far side are all QRF/Freikorps except farthest left partial.  Nearer buildings are Crom's Anvil except farthest right which is QRF/Freikorps.

More of the QRF/Freikorps buildings.

And a last closer shot of the church - might have to modify the 'wings' into towers somehow, or might not.