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!