Towns and their populations

[One of the challenges with more than one blog is that sometimes it is possible to post to the wrong blog - which I did with this post over on my Pirates of the Carob Bean Sea blog back in July.  Just fixing now.  Also, I have added some new groups, a few, based on recent figure releases - they are not in the listing.  Hard put to justify adding more unless it is a purpose designed horse drawn hearse, mud wagon, or tumble weed wagon.  Oh, and each group of civilians - other than the 'specials' not listed - are 12 figures plus two casualty figures, 1,372 figures including the dead.  Already made a start on reassigning the White Hat/Black Hat mounted/dismounted/dead groups (see earlier post) - those below in this post all being on foot.]

I have been working this week to assign, or sometimes reassign, the various civilian population groups to all those towns and other population centers.  A detailed list eventually but for now, it is working out this way:

Anachronism               34 groups (408)

Lodgepole Creek        13 groups (156)

Alkali Wells                13 groups (156)

Muleskinner Canyon    6 groups (72)

Mescalarilla                  6 groups (72)

Dork's Claims               2 groups (24)

Bull's Butt                     2 groups (24)

"Environs"                   22 groups (264)

That is 98 groups of civilians (1.176), a considerable ballooning upwards from 60 groups.  Much more important change is that some groups are actually painted and many groups are primed - almost all of Anachronism and Alkali Wells groups are primed and all groups are washed so just need minor filing work before gluing to the also prepared bases (primed on the underside for labelling) and, once the glue is dry, priming.

Environs refers to, mostly, groups out in the hinterlands like farmers and ranchers, trading post and stage station, prospectors and miners (Dork's Claims being a gold mining area located in the Pyrite Hills and Bull's Butt, home of a 19th century type copper mine).  The 'mostly' also includes my photographer group and a recent addition, an Old Fashioned Film Crew - can fit that into the tale end of the Old West.

There are more civilians but they are in smaller groups and meant as 'personalties' and 'characters'.  Need to count this up.

Why so many?  No good reason but no bad reason either, just somehow I have gotten to that point.  Oh, all of the above are on foot with the only animals included being the pack horses/mules for the prospectors (6). 

And the above doesn't count the two wagon trains of 25 people each (plus 12 dismounted armed men for any fights - who replace the seven men wagon drivers).  This also adds 28 draft horses and 28 draft oxen to pull those wagons.  It also doesn't count all the wagon, cart, or stage drivers (and passengers, shotgun) or the cowboys tending the various herds (18 of the latter, both mounted and foot versions, plus the 18 horses they ride).  I guess I need to count up the drivers and passengers, too, and the associated animals pulling those vehicles.

I suppose now I need to do some reassigning of the mounted civilian figure groups, the white hat/black hat groupings.  Those now 27 groups add 324 more men to the total civilians.  Finding mounted females for the Old West just doesn't seem in the cards.  (And each of those 27 groups include 12 mounted, 12 dismounted, 12 dead, and 4 standing horses - so a lot more than 324 figures to paint.)

All told, that means at least 1,500 but probably closer to 1,650 civilians in my fictional Old West county in the equally fictional Joetanazona Territory.  The county has a name to be revealed when I am ready to do so.  Plus there are some uncounted 'babes in arms' for some figures.

Anyway you stack this up, that is a LOT of figures.  My towns are not the improbably sparsely populated towns of Hollywood's Old West towns due to the costs of hiring extras but more like 'normal' towns - though even my numbers are small compared to many towns, especially some of those boom towns of the era.

Town and other assignments for the Top of the Line Talent

First, for those not familiar with movie-speak, the Top of the Line Talent are the actors featured, the stars, the sidekicks, the significant speaking roles, etc.

In this case, we are talking about the mounted/dismounted/dead/horseholder sets of which I have 27.  Back in February, I listed them and noted the town assignments weren't working so well, especially after adding towns to the setup.  Well, tonight I hope I've finalized, or at least refined, how those 27 groups will be allotted:

Anachronism

Town Marshall

County Sheriff

Posse

Pinkertons

White Scouts

Mountain Men

The main town, lots of white folk but freed men and women, too, and Chinese men and women plus some Shaolin monks. Plenty of banks and saloons here along with railroads, wagon trains, cattle drives ending, and even riverboats - floating gambling halls and army supply boats.  Might be a few places where a man can 'fly the eagle' if he is in the mood.

Lodgepole Creek

Magnanimous Dozen

Regulators

Cowpokes

The town ahead of the railroad - or the current western most point on the railroad maybe.  The gold miners come here as do many of the ranchers and farmers.  This is also the land of the Lakota.

Alkali Wells

Territorial Rangers

Sombrero Caballeros

Mexican Armed Peasants

This is the town in the southwest not too far from the Mexican border and where the copper miners, sheepherders, and others come to.  It is also within Apacheria.

The Big Spread

Boss Rancher

Hard Luck Cowboys

The big ranches and homes of any range wars, more or less.

Hired Killers

Professional Gunmen

Gun Hands for Hire

These guys can appear just about anywhere - as long as they are getting paid.

Muleskinner Canyon

Outlaws

Robbers

Rustlers

Think of this as not far from where the Hole in the Wall gang would hang out.

Mescalarilla

Comancheros

Desperados

Apache Renegades

Gunrunners and other never do wells and sometimes folks with bad teeth (Hollywood cliche?) spend their ill gotten gains here.

Hacienda de la Pollo Grande 

Mexican Banditos

Many a plan is dreamed up here, maybe one day one of them will work out.  If only I could find a 15 mm Zorro and daughter figure!

Mexican Border - north

United States Army - cavalry

Reservation Police

Mexican Border - south

Mexican Federales

Presidials

The last two groupings will help with Major Dundee inspired scenarios.  And note that this is a 'special' US cavalry unit, not part of the other army units.

And as if I didn't have enough civilian figures, I've gone and added six more groups, three more of children, some of them more in their teenage years, mostly girls but some boys, too.  And then three more groups of women (well, one has four men to make it to the basic 12 figure strength).  The pack of men comes in 8 so I had 4 figures that I decided would make up my 'gallows' guard and I will paint them up as police, probably use the jail guard uniforms from Hang 'Em High as inspiration.  All those women added are Mexicans from the Peter Pig Mexican Revolution range, the kids are from the Western and Dark Ages range - the child captives which are not bound and can be painted to fit the Old West as far as I am concerned.  One unit of women is carrying burdens, another guns, as is the one with the men mixed in.

I do hope this latest addition wraps up adding figures to my Old West setup!  Truly.

Two hundred and fifteen

I just counted up how many photographs are displayed on this blog - including the pages - and it comes to 215.  Granted, not nearly enough photos of finished work but this blog is meant as much to keep track of progress and remind me of what still needs to be done as anything else.  Hoping in the next few months, while distracted with rounding out my painted pirate figures for a game at a convention in July, that more stuff will be prepped for painting.  Was examining and pondering last night how to convert three Peter Pig WWI ambulance wagons into Mud Wagons.  And I had a though that maybe I will do two versions of each Stage Coach and Mud Wagon, one with crew and passengers and one without.  Not really decided on that front so will wait and see.

Recreating Rosebud battlefield

So, while enduring some mandatory but excruciating online training today at work, my mind wandered - for preservation of sanity - and landed with an understanding that I can recreate a pretty decent version of the Rosebud battlefield that was a week - actually 8 days - before the Little Big Horn battle.

I can take some of the terrain I created for my Pirates of the Carob Bean Sea game and use them to create four parallel contours with three valleys between.  The valleys will be a bit narrow at only around 16" each and the two inner most ridges being too wide at around 4' each - the end ridges at around 2' each.  I can also use some of the 'wedding cake' hills I have that match to the contours and the underlying mat to create a number of the key features, to a greater or lesser degree.  And all that leaves the valley of the Rosebud in its more or less east west run before turning north.  By making the east most 2' ridge only 3' in length versus the 4' of the other ridges, I can even represent a little bit of the waterway's turn north.

While all of the above isn't perfect - especially the valleys running too much true north instead of northwest - it does give a pretty playable recreation of the field.  And since I do 15 mm figures and I am talking about a 5' x 16' table set-up, can really do a job on the battle somewhere near 1:4 ratio of figures to actual participants.

And I have enough figures - many still to paint, of course - to have all 20 companies, the 15 cavalry companies (or troops if you prefer) and the 5 mounted infantry companies that fought on foot - as did some of the cavalry at points of the battle.  For that matter, some of the natives fought on foot at times.  And I should have more than enough mounted and foot natives, too.  A bit of a challenge to get the Girl Who Saved Her Brother figure, though, she who gave the Cheyenne name for the battle, just have to extemporize.

I have figures, too, for the Crow and Shoshone allies of the army and figures I can use for the civilians that participated.

My biggest challenge will be coming up with 16' and maybe a bit more for the turn north of waterway to represent Rosebud Creek.  Just a terrain project and I love creating terrain so I guess I'll think of it more as an opportunity than as a challenge.

More progress in brownish red

Worked on assembling and priming 18 wagons today.  Was hoping to get to 20 but the last two required using plastic cement so will have to wait.  However, the 18 add up to a total of 84 pieces including the wagons themselves, the horses, and the people.  There are 4 grain wagons, 6 buggies, and 8 buckboards.  Modest progress. 

The Pages

I have finally posted something other than the intro to one of the pages - for Alkali Wells.

Note the number x/x behind the name - that indicates how many posts/how many photos on the page.  Just an easy way to know if something is new to a page.  And, yes, there are a few new photos. 

Name inspiration from odd sources!

So, eating a late breakfast and watching a rugby match between Ireland and Scotland - Ireland crushed the Scots, and for a moment I switched channels to avoid some dread commercial and found myself watching the end of a Bugs Bunny cartoon - better than the commercial for sure.  And good 'ole Bugs was impersonating a doctor in his never ending annoyance of Elmer Fudd.  The good doctor's name?  None other than Dr. Killpatient.  I have found a name for my sawbones!  At least the Old West one.  😉

Garbanzo Gaspacho

 I think I'm going to have to have a character in my Old West by the name of Garbanzo Gazpacho.  Now, whether he is a hero or a villain is not yet decided.  But his name is settled.  Unless it gets modified somehow, say a nick name of some sort.  Of course, he will almost certainly be of Spanish heritage.  I already have El Pollo Grande, perhaps his alter-ego?  Only time will reveal.

edit later on same day: a couple more names while in the mood this morning.  The Mexican Grandee shall be Iago Latrans Embaucador and his lady will be D֘֘֘ona Zita Felipe Embaucador.  (have no idea how to add the accent mark here - I guess I need to learn).

A battalion of the 7th

Took delivery yesterday of the first four companies, A-D, of the 7th cavalry, a total of 168 figures.  The break down is 12 mounted men on 12 horses, 12 dismounted men, 1 standing horse to mark point of dismount, and 2 dead men and 3 dead horses for each of the four companies (42 pieces per company).  Photos in due time - bases still need texturing.

So, now have enough figures that are painted to consider running a game once the bases are textured.  Though still considering how I will do the texturing - need to be useful for both the northern plains and the desert southwest.  Might just use my 'standard' texturing and let the rest of the scenery define which of the two environments is on the table.

A New Town (s)?

 I was thinking maybe Fireweed but that plant is up in half-frozen (mostly frozen?) Alaska.  And then I came up with Mescalarilla (mes-cal-ah-ree-yuh more or less) for the other southwest town using the new Peter Pig buildings.  

Just how many western towns does one gamer need?  For me, it seems a handful or more.

So far:

Anachronism, Lodgepole Creek, Alkali Wells, and, now Mescalarilla.  But I can't leave Lodgepole all alone, I need a way station between there and Anachronism.  Maybe Muleskinner Canyon?  Yeah, that works.  That will use up some of the buildings I got from QRF Miniatures associated with their Yellow Ribbon range.  And there is going to be a mining camp by the name of Bull's Butt, more tents than more substantial structures.

Maybe Muleskinner Canyon will be a true den of inequity where the bad men and women are inexorably drawn to and where lawmen fear for their live's.

I think I need to take careful stock of all those buildings, commercial and scratch built for this era.  And, heck, we aren't even talking about Civil War buildings!

CHANGING UP AND ADDING OPTIONS

With the recent Mexican Revolution range from Peter Pig (Army and Sombrero Caballeros) and an Old Glory 15s order (Presidials), I've added three more Mounted/Foot/Dead/Horse stand sets resulting in:

Federal and Mexican Government:

Mexican Federales, Presidials, Reservation Police

US Army, Pinkertons, Territorial Rangers

Bad Guys:

Sombrero Caballeros, Mexican Banditos, Mexican Armed Peasants

Comancheros, Apache Renegades, Desperadoes

Outlaws, Robbers, Rustlers

Local Government and Private Good Guys:

Magnanimous Dozen, White Scouts, Mountain Men

Town Marshall, County Sheriff, Posse

Rancher Forces:

Range Boss, Gun Hands for Hire, Hard Luck Cowboys

Professional Gunmen, Cowpokes, Regulators

This no longer works so well for town assignments but I've also added another small town with the Peter Pig Mexican Buildings - still need to order a few.  The newer Peter Pig figures will allow some old Bearcats TV show scenarios which traipses into the pulpish side of things and can bring in things like motor cars, airplanes, and heavier ground vehicles even.

Return to the West

Finally able to replace my old computer system with an operating system that could not be updated. So, now I can start posting about progress and other musings again. Mostly in the realm of critters, like 96 alive and 6 dead long horn cattle painted and more in that realm. More soon. Adjusting how pages work so expect some odd responses - see the sidebar to the left for Pages.