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.