Some painted figures and a scenario in development

 

Figuring out a stock yard - got the size I want, need to base of course.  And not shown but at the bottom of the yard I'm going to add a loading ramp to get the cattle in to the stock cars - which I have in the wings waiting to get finished, conversions/scratch builds on top of Peter Pig flat cars.

Newbie Pauls - mounted, on foot, and dead.

Eldred Gregory

Picky Slim

Bren Walters

Buckskin standing horse and dead horse - another character due on buckskin horse, three characters form a group and each group gets a standing and dead horse.

Palomino group - another character due on a palomino horse.  These are painted by a friend - and if all goes according to plan there will be a total of 24 characters as well as a dozen each unarmed men and women from him on foot only.  The twelve figure foot only unarmed groups only get two casualty figures for the whole group.

The First Old West Scenario:

 

"Incident at the Van Vittles Ranch Stock Spur"

 

George "The Dude" Van Vittles owns a spread about the size of Rhode Island and has his latest shipment of longhorns ready to board trains and head out to meet an army contract.  Kettle Kelly, the ranch cook - and the best in the west: as George says, "With a name like mine, I've got to feed my men the best I can and 'ole Kettle sure cooks a fine meal" - is preparing to put on quite the spread.  And some of the 'neighbors' are traveling to enjoy the festivities, the ranch's spare rooms are among the finest in the territory so why not and George always puts his guests up overnight given the travel times required.  Why, heck, there just might be a few surprise dignitaries showing up on the noon (well, noonish) stage that runs near the stock pens.  Or maybe they will be making a whistle stop at the station nearby that serves the ranch; it is a huge ranch.  

 

What isn't known on the ranch is some of the recently hired cowhands have acquaintances in that nest of thieves Muleskinner Canyon.  Word has made it to the worst of the worst that there will be quite the pay day for the cowhands and a plot is brewing to 'borrow' the strong box, no interest to be paid.  A few of the old timers warn that tangling with Van Vittles is asking for several wagon loads of trouble, serious trouble.  The young guns intimidate them into keeping that nonsense to themselves.  And since it's been a while since the last score, there is no shortage of 'volunteers' willing to ride out for the promise of so much loot.  Naturally, the local soiled doves - denizens of The Pig Farm - egg them on in the hopes of getting their own share of ill gotten gains.

 

The sun has risen on what promises to be a glorious day.  At least until it isn't.

 

A whole lot of horses are getting saddled up over in Muleskinner Canyon.  A whole lot of appetites are whetted near the main ranch house given the delicious smells emanating from the cook house.

 

Never know what might result if a lot of gun play goes off in the presence of a lot of cattle - even if they are all penned up.

 

What will sunset see?

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In preparation for that scenario and in addition to what is being painted for me, I have the following items in process - hopefully get it all for the event but don't strictly require it all to get done:

An overall shot of some of the items.

Water tower from Blue Moon with modified spout, small train station from Stone Mountain (?), grain wagon from Blue Moon's Napoleonic generic wagon range, buggies and buckboard from Blue Moon's Old West range - with swapped out drivers except for the doctor in his buggy.

Stagecoach from QRF/Freikorps' Yellow Ribbon Range.

The two outhouses - one with door open! - are from Peter Pig as is the well.  The six figures represent George van Vittles and two of his formidable side kicks - Johnny 'Forest' Blue and Clark Twilight.

Windmill is from Woodland Scenics (?) acquired from an estate sale.  Chuck wagon on the left is from Peter Pig as is the sign just to its right - and the longhorn head (from Peter Pig) will be attached to the sign.  The figures in 'yellow' at the bottom are certain women of the Old West: Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, and Belle Starr - no mounted versions though I wish there were (not designed at such, just figures I've designated as such).  The two dead on the right belong to Sister Veronica aka Veronica Veloputous who also has two mules which can be seen in the overall shot above.

The 18 ranch hands (or whatever they need to be) from various sources including some Frontier Miniatures figures I've had for decades and then hitch racks and water troughs from Stone Mountain and Peter Pig and others.

The, mostly, unarmed and multi-based civilians, five groups - two of women, three of men.  The bottom group of men is armed, a few other figures have a few weapons but don't count as armed groups.

This box includes what has been painted for me and much of what remains to be painted for me.  Painter, John W., has eight more characters to paint and those twenty-four unarmed individually based figures plus four dead.  So, at least - I hope - will have twelve characters ready for the game from him.  Perhaps the civilians, too.

I will be painting the balance not being painted by John.  The train and tracks are already painted enough to be in a game but could use some additional work.  A variety of additional buildings to be included in the scenario also already painted.  May pull out a bunch of tables primed and ready to paint to represent that spread from Kettle Kelly.  As of now, planning to run the game in early to mid-December so really need to push to get all of this done, or as much as possible.