Yippee Ki Yi Yay!

Well, I've been dropping hints for some months now that I'm working on an Old Western project. I've been wanting to do a 19th century skirmish wargame for a long time now. I considered the British colonial wars, especially the Zulu War, having fond memories of playing the Sword and the Flame a few decades ago. I thought maybe the American Civil War, the Boxer Rebellion, and even the Napoleonic era (there's a well-reviewed set of rules called Sharp Practice). But, shoot, I'm an American, and though I'm East Coast elite through and through, the Old West still looms large in my cultural imagination. I grew up watching The Magnificent Seven, High Noon, and Rio Bravo on UHF. So Old West it was going to be.

I looked at about a half dozen rules sets. "Gutshot" and "Cowboy Wars" both had a lot to recommend it. But I was looking for simple, fast, and bloody. Fortunately, I picked up a copy of "Fistful of Lead" at Historicon. The rules cover about four pages, they use a deck of playing cards, and they look like fun. Boom. All three of my criteria met. I'm thinking about some house rules (like holding an action and giving gunfighters different ratings for Shootin', Fightin' and Guts), but I don't want to lose too much of the elegant simplicity.

I found a sheet of insulating foam about 8'x2' in the trash of a construction site. Using a foam cutter I sculpted some hills, painted everything light brown, then scattered sand into the wet paint. Total cost so far, about $1 for craft store acrylic paint. The sand I got from my daughter's shoes. She brings home a fistful of sand after school every day. I've been saving it.

I picked up three resin buildings from the Old Glory booth at Historicon. With my 40% discount, all three wound up being $42. I then sculpted two more houses out of balsa wood, foam core, and Starbucks coffee stirrers. I also made some adobe huts out of foamcore ($1 a sheet at the Dollar Store) and bamboo skewers. Then, some cacti from Pegasus models and I'm ready to go. Total cost, under $50.

The figures are all Old Glory. The Mexicans are Zapataistas, but they can double for banditos when they're in a less revolutionary mood. The gunfighters are also from the Old Glory "American Experience" line. It took a little practice to get back into painting 28mm figures after doing 10mm for so long. I'm working on my techniques for painting eyes, shading, and sculpting bases. I've even begun adding tufts of tall grass to some bases.

As always, click to enlarge the photos.

First, two long shots of the table.



Here is El Gato Gordo and his band of ruffians in the adobe village. One shot used the flash, the other didn't.




Here's a wide shot of the town.



Here's Clint and the Airedale Gang. If you've ever met an Airedale Terrier, you just know they're tough.


The building in the right foreground and the grey one with blue trim are my scratch-built houses.

My kids think the outhouse is funny.

Finally, we have Duke and the Scruffy Bunch. If one gang was going to be named after a former dog, then the other would have to be named after a former cat.

Old West houses

The Old West skirmish games at Historicon were inspiring, so I got off my duff and started painting up my Old Glory gunfighters and banditos. While I was at Historicon, I picked up some great resin southwestern buildings. However, to have a proper town, I decided to scratch-build some houses out of balsa. Here are the results of my first efforts. The house on the left is actually painted a weathered grey, but the digital photo rendered it light blue. I'm pretty happy with the results, though I will never use craft acrylics for anything other than a kid's poster. It took five coats to paint these guys, and some serious bracing efforts to prevent to wood from warping (you can see the roof on the left house has taken on a barn-like shape). The total cost of materials was less than $5 per house, and total time was about two and a half hours each from planning to the final touches of paint.

Miniature Wargames: Free!

So, if you're a wargamer like me, you're particularly fond of two things: free stuff (I'm off to Starbucks today to pick up some coffee stirrers for use as 28mm planking), and sources of inspiration. The folks at Miniature Wargames magazine, in an effort to get you to look at their pages, have asked bloggers like me to offer a link to a free sample issue. It's worth supporting publications like these, either through patronizing their advertisers or through a direct subscription, because they help those of us in the hobby connect with each other and with the manufacturers and merchandisers we depend on.


So give them a click. The free issue is on the left.

10mm Medievals assemble!

Historicon inspired me to pick up the pace of painting once again. I completed my third batch of 10mm medievals, enough for a good-sized rumble in Impetus. I still have two more batches to go before I make it a club game. But since I'm taking a detour to the Old West, I thought I would post pictures of what I have at the moment.

As always, click to enlarge.

Historicon: Borodino

This is my last installment from Historicon. My final game a Borodino scenario was run by Tod Kershner. I was drawn by the idea of a (nearly) all-cavalry engagement in the Napoleonic Wars. This particular engagement was a moment at Borodino where several Russian cavalry divisions tried to retake the fleches captured by the French.


Below is my command. The Russian Dragoons on the right flank. Imagine my surprise and horror when I saw the French player maneuver two divisions to counter me. Fortunately, he ran into traffic problems, and my position became something of a trap for the French as I brought my artillery to bear.

Here are the lovely lancers who were the first into the meat grinder. By the time they regrouped, we were at the fleches.


And some French heavies from the other side of the battlefield. Over there, it was less about maneuvering and more about a massive and bloody scrum.