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.

Minor Progress

Heat has dissipated substantially but smoke continues to be a major issue.

Able last evening to spend about an hour in the garage and labelled all the bases for the denizens of Alkali Wells as well as the bases for the buggies, buckboards, and grain wagons - and a couple of other items to appear at some point.  Over 160 bases.  Also did the replacement of some of the individual male drivers with couples, a man and a woman, so that two buggies and four buckboards have two folks instead of one.  While only minor progress, it does mean as I prep the figures I can glue them to their bases to await priming more quickly and well organized - that last a critical element in so large and diverse a collection.

Closing in on a solid month of smoke filled skies but there is hope in the weather patterns that might help clear - or at least partly clear - our skies.  I have seen some bad fire seasons, mostly in very recent years, but nothing that compares to this.  The volume of fire related ash in our pool cost me a major chunk of a day just to clean it out to a reasonable degree - won't clean the filter until I see some blue sky!  The bag on the pool sweep has been turned black several times after being cleaned - by far the worst this has ever been, worse than ash from a distant volcano many years ago.  I 'watered' all the plants in our yard (a Lot!) to rinse the ash off.  Climate change doubters need to be required to drive down some of the flaming roads turned dark in daylight despite the illumination of the fires.  Nothing like a near scorching to change someone's mind, maybe?  Science over politics.  From where I sit, the science is crystal clear.  I am pretty sure there will be no real, concerted action until after crossing the "tipping point".  Our house sits a bit over 100' elevation and about an hours drive to sea level water in the San Francisco Bay area.  Maybe in a decade or two we will be a ten minute drive, maybe a three minute drive from salt water?  At least there will be lots of new farm land available in Greenland after all the ice melts and raises ocean levels 20 to 30 feet worldwide.  I fear that will happen much sooner than expected.  But will there be any water for that farmland?  Scary times in too many ways.  I cannot imagine the psychological burden this must place on the minds of very young adults who are paying close attention.  Okay, enough on this - see what all that time under so much smoke has done?