Dead (Wo)Man’s Hand

To come back to this project, the main thing is to get terrain done. I have big plans for custom buildings but recently I did a mental check in and realised that if I wait until I get to that, these gunslingers aren’t getting to the table for years. So, quick terrain that looks good, doesn’t involve a lot of work and can be chucked into a box without breaking.

Given those criteria, plastic would be better and some part of my memory retained the fact that Renedra did some. Technically they only have a few kits but hopefully if I paint them differently and set dress them, you won’t notice it as much. Renedra do a deal on their own website for a house, a store and a church for £48 so I picked it up to get me started.

First up, the Church. The plastic Renedra kit was easy enough to put together and I wanted the paint job to be quick and cheerful.

Primed with a mid-brown

Vallejo Pale Sand sponged over to give them weathered painted wood look for the walls.

Vallejo Dark brown and Mournfang Brown for the doors, window shutters and the cross.

Contrast Wyldwood on the roof shingles and a dry brush of Vallejo Color Model US Field Drab.

Vallejo Air US Field Drab (weirdly a totally different colour compared to the Model Color) for other bits of wood to just differentiate them (window frames etc).

Total painting time was about an hour not accounting for drying time. Every time I thought about adding in little details, I had to remind myself that it is just a terrain piece and done is the point. It’s a little small once you put it up against the miniatures (one is a Great Escape Games plastic gunslinger and one of their metals) but once there is a whole table, I won’t care. Other people might. The wrong kind of people who have no place in my gaming life.

It’s that time of year and, even after the big clear out of the pile, there are always projects that need to be picked back up again. A bit late to start but there’s a lot to crack on with so better get to it! Thanks to the OTT team, I can post on my old project with my new username, all hail the Twin Totoros!

After painting up the two player starter set for this last summer, I’d bought the plastic gunslingers pack and taken a bunch of photos for my table build (more on that in a future post). The boxes got put into the cupboard and there they have laid since. That was them for their winter hibernation. With the new female gunslingers coming out, I told myself that I wasn’t allowed to buy any until the other minis were finished.

All ten built up. Did I look into the rulebook and see what weapons I could do with more of? Did I quack! I threw together all of them by what I thought looked cool. The minis themselves are nice sculpts. As I was making them up, my feeling was that the hips were a little narrow for the torsos and the heads were oversized. Once they got to the painted stage though, I’d changed up my mind. They also sit perfectly alongside the metal minis that were in the old two player set and are still onGreat Escape Games’ website as separate posses.

With them all done, I’d saved the best for last. I had picked up at some point the Stronghold Terrain “Joe” model. Can’t have a cowboy game without Clint on the table. He’ll be getting painted this week.

As part of my October painting goal to finish a bunch of models I had started, I finally got round to the rest of the two player starter box models. The Lawmen are clearly 100% original and not based on anything…

I had issues with my bases. I’m a lazy hobbyist if I’m honest and I hate Milliput-ing bases. I should know by now though that skipping the step doesn’t look good. I tried to just layer enough sand to level out the bases but as usual (again, not the first time I’ve done this), you get a sink point right next to the pill bases and it’s really obvious. One night this week I went through all the previously based models and cut all the sand layers off to start fresh.

After levelling out the base with putty and leaving it to dry overnight, I put down a thin layer of sand, added some cork boulders. Once that was dry, I base coated with Vallejo US Field Drab and then a dry brush of War Front SS Camo Top Lights by Scale 75. The clump flock I have no idea, it came from an unmarked bag in the Box of Many Flocks.

It took a while to get here but now they are done I’m ready for the next part of the project, the table

Very kindly Ben handed over a golden button for this project – without the need for a pistol in his face. Meant to spur me on to doing more.

Not in a position to spend any money on the project right now but the plan once the two factions are painted up is to try and scratch build some buildings. I have a lot of coffee stirrers and foamboard so we’ll see how well this goes over the next few months.

Taking a much needed afternoon offline, I got cracking on the Outlaw posse box.

Picking paint schemes for them was a bit of a thinker. There are plenty of photos from the time but all are sepia toned so not much use. Looking to movies and other media, we’re looking at lots of browns and other earth tones. If I get to the point of making a table for the game, it’ll likely be much the same tonally so I want to be mindful of losing minis in the terrain.

I also know that I’m going to paint the Lawmen posse as the Earps in Tombstone so heavy on black and white. The Outlaws then need to be more brightly coloured but not too bright.

After picking out the three primary colours, I went with a mix of earthy tones and had to throw in some black… When I was a kid I always liked the cowboys in black the best ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ Everything got a black wash and then just highlighted with their base colours.

Not entirely sure what I’m doing with the bases yet. Started by putting on a layer of bird sand with pva and see if inspiration hits tomorrow once it is dry

2021 has been a tough year financially and so new models have been few and far between. Not the end of the world as I’m trying to not generate a big backlog after clearing it but still goes against the hobbyist’s nature. Back in June, I got a bit of birthday money and after much pondering decided to pick up the Dead Man’s Hand limited edition two player starter set. Don’t know what makes it limited edition – it was out of stock on the website when I placed my order but it shipped that day so ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Given each of the sets of minis are £20 each, £40 for two of them, plus the rules, deck of cards, dice, tokens and a piece of MDF terrain is a bargain.

The sculpts are nice. Had a couple of mold misalignments (more serious than a mold line, less serious than needing replaced). There were two in the Outlaws set that also had big holes in them that had to be filled with Milliput before spraying.You also see that I tried taking one off it’s pill base but decided against it for the rest.

Didn’t have much time this week to get into them but I squeezed in a little 30 minute block one morning before work. A quick spray coat of Wraithbone and then with Kislev Flesh for the skin and Vallejo Charred Brown for a couple of hats, boots and all the gun handles.

Only