Hang ’em High

Such is the nature of my current life, that I have only time to piddle, when it comes to my hobbies. These are some 28mm Knuckleduster miniatures that I’ve been doing said piddling with. I’ve been experimenting with ink washes, and not drybrushing. I’m getting mixed results. Typically my figures have looked better up close than at table distances-I think I’ve reversed that trend with this group of miniatures, but maybe a bit too far in the other direction!

A pair of Knuckleduster figures. The guy on the left is a random gunman, the guy on the right is a version of The Man with No Name.

Below is Clint’s backside, and my first attempt at free-handing a pattern onto a mini. I suppose I should have included a chair as a prop.

The mayor’s back side.

Now we have another Clint character on the left, who I repainted after having initially tried the ‘dip’ method. On the right is a bandit, or someone who is extremely paranoid about SARS, and willing to do something about it. Mr. Sars is supposed to be wearing a chocolatey coat, similar to one in a famous Remington painting, but it was difficult to pull off.

At last we have The Duke, who stands alone. This is the figure that looks the best at table distances. Too bad his face was a bit mangled in the casting process.

After a disfiguring stagecoach accident…

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I have a few more western minis to paint up, and a couple of squads of Khurasan Federals are on deck.

At my friend Brendon‘s suggestion, I’m going to try to get enough stuff together to run a simple old west skirmish game. Maybe some desperate shootout at a Pony Express station or remote ranch house. I’ll be using the freely available “The Rules with No Name.” The link leads to TRWNN’s Yahoo Group, which you’ll have to sign up for to get the rules.

Hey, It’s the 19th Century!

A Smattering of Paint

I haven’t been totally lazy of late, but I still haven’t gotten back to my WWII stuff. This post will show that my gamer ADD is in full effect. At this point, I’m embracing it, rather than fighting it!

Knuckleduster Miniatures

First up are three 28mm cowboy miniatures from Knuckleduster’s (USA) line. These minis have oodles of flavor/attitude, and were pretty easy to paint. They do have oddly small feet paired with oddly large hands, but the proportions don’t look crazy at table distances. My girlfriend painted the guy on the far right, and I have to say that she did a much better job on her first miniature than I did.

Some of these are intended to be characters from movies and TV shows. I think the guy on the left might be Eastwood from Pale Rider, but I’m not sure about the other two.

Italeri 95th Rifles Officer

Next we have a test painting of an officer from Italeri’s British 95th rifles in 1/72nd. Painting figures in ‘true’ 1/72nd, compared to the overly large Valiant minis that I’ve been doing is quite an adjustment. They’re tiny! I’m guessing that the 95th rifles are one of the easier Napoleonic units to paint, and even they are fairly finicky and highly detailed (even if you can’t tell on this overly-dark mini). I can’t wait/dread getting to some of the more exuberant units.

Both of these groups of miniatures were done using the ‘dip’ method. I’m really not satisfied with this batch. They’re murky, murky, murky – even in these photos, which have had some pretty significant levels adjustment in Photoshop. The minis look OK at a few inches from your face, but at table-top lengths they turn to dark blobs. I’ll go back and highlight these guys and see if it helps, but I need to work on brightening up my painting!