Building the Old West

I painted up some Native Americans using Great Escape Games box of Renegade Indians.  One of the figures is wearing an army coat with corporal stripes so I’ll probably add him to the cavalry posse as a Scout.

Indian Scouts had always been an informal part of the US Army but in 1866 the War Department officially authorized them. Initially issued Civil War era surplus they would eventually get their own uniforms and branch of service insignia.  The insignia was a pair of crossed arrows. This insignia was later adopted by Special Forces.

I decided to fancy up the existing hills while working on even more ridges, hills and mesas.  I used some PVA glue and sand on the flat horizontal surfaces to add some interest. I then gave everything a drybrush of Army Painter Skeleton Bone. I then glued some foam tufts to act as foilage.

I’ve been thinking about adding some door frames to the jail for awhile now. I finally got around to using some leftover MDF sprues to make two door frames. Once I cut them to size I glued them together in the proper shape, primed and then painted them.

It’s time to get out of town and add some wilderness terrain to the mix. Forests and mesas seem like a good idea.

I didn’t take a lot of photos of the forests but I had some Sarissa kits that I built up. Their kits just give a footprint for the area terrain and various sized bases from 25mm up to 50mm. Once assembled I used super glue to fix some plastic tree bases onto the MDF bases.  I then used some acrylic green primer from the hardware store on everything.  Once dry I used PVA glue and used some Woodland Scenics flock from a shaker bottle. Once that dried I shook off the excess and recycled that. Then I used water downed PVA in a spray bottle to help seal it in place. With that done I popped the trees back into their plastic bases.  The trees are also Woodland Scenics and are between 7 and 8 inches tall. They’ll be used for multiple game systems but the height was specifically chosen for Dropzone Commander as forests are a defat8 inches tall regardless of the size of the models.

Brought out the town and introduced four new players to the game. This time the outlaws were facing off against the lawmen and trying to spring someone from the jail. Simultaneously the Cowboys and Pinkertons were questioning townsfolk trying to locate a specific woman.

The special rules for this scenario was that the lawmen can’t shoot until someone else starts shooting first but!, they can fisticuff at anytime. But once the shooting begins every building has its doors locked and have to be broken down to be entered. Worst, once entered a civilian takes a point blank potshot at the first person to enter the building.  However they never shoot at the lawmen.  After that, the civilian scampers off and anyone can freely enter that one building.  I used some armed civilians as markers and removed them once they fired their one shot.

The outlaws had a rough time starting with the poor unfortunate who tried to “wagon jack “ a farmer delivering goods to the market and got KOed for his troubles. They then closed range to the lawmen and once they opened fire, missed and lost three more gang members in the subsequent fire fight.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys and Pinkertons located Miss Belle surprisingly early. Every time they questioned a civilian they rolled a die and added the total number of civilians questioned to the die roll. Once they rolled the result was over ten, Miss Belle was placed on the board halfway between the vying forces. Because both sides were afraid of shooting Miss Belle by accident they decided to fist fight instead of using guns.  Themis eventually turned into an amazing fight in the center of town that eventually drew in eight of the ten combatants. Ultimately the Pinkertons won and returned Miss Belle to her father the evil railroad baron.

Brought out the town and introduced four new players to the game. This time the outlaws were facing off against the lawmen and trying to spring someone from the jail. Simultaneously the Cowboys and Pinkertons were questioning townsfolk trying to locate a specific woman.

The special rules for this scenario was that the lawmen can’t shoot until someone else starts shooting first but!, they can fisticuff at anytime. But once the shooting begins every building has its doors locked and have to be broken down to be entered. Worst, once entered a civilian takes a point blank potshot at the first person to enter the building.  However they never shoot at the lawmen.  After that, the civilian scampers off and anyone can freely enter that one building.  I used some armed civilians as markers and removed them once they fired their one shot.

The outlaws had a rough time starting with the poor unfortunate who tried to “wagon jack “ a farmer delivering goods to the market and got KOed for his troubles. They then closed range to the lawmen and once they opened fire, missed and lost three more gang members in the subsequent fire fight.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys and Pinkertons located Miss Belle surprisingly early. Every time they questioned a civilian they rolled a die and added the total number of civilians questioned to the die roll. Once they rolled the result was over ten, Miss Belle was placed on the board halfway between the vying forces. Because both sides were afraid of shooting Miss Belle by accident they decided to fist fight instead of using guns.  Themis eventually turned into an amazing fight in the center of town that eventually drew in eight of the ten combatants. Ultimately the Pinkertons won and returned Miss Belle to her father the evil railroad baron.