Thursday, January 23, 2025

The Great Reduction Shifts into Overdrive - or something like that

 Just a first pass through with some things still to be winnowed and not quite down by half for the 'on foot only' civilians. Which is still way too many figures than will ever be needed.  

But now I have a cunning plan.  All groups listed below - except for the saloon men which still need a bit of tinkering - are organized in groups of six figures (totals below all divisible by six except as noted).  

And the plan is to pull out and paint whatever group(s) of six figures I need for an upcoming game and paint them. Many, not all, will be primed and ready.  As I paint, once I reach a point where I know I have enough of 'this or that', the rest will be consigned to extraville and be parted with. 

I imagine - and hope - by the time I've painted a third of the retained figures, that will be more than enough.  Yeah, still excessive at 'only' a third of the retained figures but the plan feels right.  At least the 'unretained' figures reduces the painting total by many hundreds of figures.

Here, with an annotation or two, is the break down, armed first:

Mountain Men                    24 (all unique sculpts - I think)

"Denver" Free Militia         36 + 6 (the six being Oracle Jones, Clayton Howell, etc.)   

Armed White Men              42 (all unique sculpts!)

Armed White Women         18

Armed Mexican Men          12 + 6 (the six with machetes only)(another 24 or 36? painted)

Armed Mexican Women     12

The rest are unarmed:

White Men                          96 (almost all unique sculpts)

White Women                     78 (definitely duplication with all the women but tried not to duplicate within a single group of six where possible, not always an option)

White Children                   36 (as above but more so with all the children, had to duplicate)

Mexican Men                      12 (another 24 already painted, peons to work the land)

Mexican Women                 36

Mexican Children               18 (only some ethnic kids are appropriate, most are just 'kids')

Native Men                         12 (the old and the infirm who hang around town or the fort) [lots more native villagers for the 'wild' Indians, men, women, and children, aka off the reservation (or on if needed)]

Native Women                      12

Native Children                     6 

Colored Men                        18

Colored Women                   18

Colored Children                 12

Miners / Prospectors            12 (and six pack mules)

Photographers                      18 men and women (three cameras and then subjects, observers)

Film Crews                           12 men and women (old fashioned early film cameras - just for fun)

Train Crews                           60 (conductor, engineer, fireman, two brakemen, and express car man so ten crews but, clearly, excessive - only have nine steam locomotives after all)

Saloons and Baudy Houses  24 + 2 men (may pull figures from above lists to add some here to get to two more groups of six)

Saloons and Baudy Houses  18 drunks {rereading and it occurs to me I can use two sets of drunks to 'balance out' the saloon men and just drop two figures, less to paint!}

Saloons and Baudy Houses    48 +1  women (dancing girls, soiled doves, French bauds, etc., plus one gal ready to 'fly the eagle')

If I added that up right, that comes up to 783 (781 by dropping two as above) figures (+ mules?) which is obviously more than is needed.  But, there is that plan...

Not yet gone through in complete detail are the dead figures but I was pleasantly surprised at how many unique sculpts there are.  But I have multiples of most - those without multiples are converted ACW from Old Glory 15 mm ACW casualty pack.  And enough dead figures to be a multiple several times what 'saner' Old West gamers have in their collections.  It's okay, my 'insanity' here is quite benign.

The mounted civilians are still awaiting a rework to winnow down.  Well, those not already done.  And more mounted/dismounted/dead sets are likely next up for getting painted, the two more Characters and then the US Cavalry and some native warriors to oppose them.

One last thing, as I individually base the foot figures - on 3/4" steel discs - I hope to somehow mark each group with a distinctive mark, a colored stone, same colored grass tufts, etc.  Might be a few on larger bases, like the card players and the paino players in the saloon groupings.

More winnowing later today I hope.

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