Wild West – Fistful of Lead, gallows, houses, outhouses and more

We’ve started a Wild West campaign at the club using the Fistful of Lead rules. They are really easy to learn, but not in any way simple. Two games in and we are really enjoying ourselves and the carnage that inevitably ensues.

The games inspired me to finish some figures, print some suitable stuff on the 3D-printer and go over the houses I already have and improve them somewhat.

First off is the gallows. I assembled and painted one from 4Ground a while ago, and now I dirtied it up with a wash. Nothing much but it does make it fit in with what other stuff we have at the club. Let’s say it’s a bit of a grimdark past.

I also had some unpainted crew and…customers… for the gallows, and they got a quick brush-job. Beside the gallows is a blacksmith from Shadows of Brimstone.

Next were some houses from Renedra, the American Church and a Farmhouse. They were also already painted and assembled, but got a couple of washes to look worn down.

One thing that is usually sadly missing when it comes to Western towns in 28mm scale, is outhouses. There ought to be quite a few of them and they do present some excellent cover.

I had a build but unpainted one from 4Ground (I think) that got a paintjob and a wash making it look…lived in… or well used. I think this will belong to the Saloon…

Then I printed two small shacks from Hayland Terrain. One is a sturdy shack, maybe filled with dynamite, and the other a conventional outhouse.

On top of that I also finished a couple of wagons, crates and some other small stuff.

Finally some photos of the last two games. The heroes are Killer Kim's Killers, a gang of kind-hearted desperados that love kittens and help old ladies cross the streets (preferably in cover behind them).

Killer Kim (in brown trenchcoat), and his gang - Fast Freddie, Rifle Rich, Shotgun Shaun (RIP in the first game) and Hatless Harry.

A huge shoor-out with the Castroulle Bunch. They were more or less slaughtered which was very satisfactory. For my part most of the game was a big shoot-out more or less centred around the barn in the background.

Second game - Rob the Coach. Two gangs try to rob the coach and one tries to defend it.

Jeppan manages to secure the coach in the end, and gets all the loot. But I get to shoot a lot of people and feel rather satsified.

Read of the first game here. It is of course filled with lies, but it will have to work.

Another game tonight. Should I go for a sneaky game and actually get some loot or the usual all guns blazing approach? Hmm, brawn or brains?

I think I know the answer to that…

Hangman’s Gallows from 4Ground

Hangman's Gallows from 4Ground

Another piece finished for my Old West games – a Hangman's Gallows from 4Ground. What Western town could be without one?

I painted this one as I wasn’t too fond of the prepainted wood-look. A relatively easy job.

The ropes are provided in the set and I stretched them and soaked with super-glue to get them stiff as they have a tendency to bend if untreated and that looks like crap.

Finally a big welcome follower Leo Donkersley.

Old West Buildings from 4Ground

Main Street Building No2 and 3

I'm dusting off all my wild west stuff as I intend to start playing Dead Man's Hand again. My intention now is to finished all half finished stuff and everything unpacked, and this was two of the latter. 

Main Street Building 3 from 4Ground

A view from the back

Finished these two-story buildings from 4Ground in a couple of evenings and they do look great.

The crates comes from Supreme Littleness Designs.  

Getting closer to a game.

We did have a game of Zombicide: Black Plague last week. Well, two games actually, but our chaps got massacred very early in the first.

Ooops, two extra activations for the runners seals our fate as one of the heroes fails his six (!) armor saves. The other ones in the space were down to one hit point each. End of game 1.

Hurry up! They're coming!

Most of the zombies are on the board and we get lots of extra zombie activations. It's close. Both our demise and the exit-zone.

We randomize which of the painted heroes we get to play with and sometimes it is less than optimal, which is interesting. First game was one of those, when we had no magic-user and no shooter. It went downhill very fast.

Yippee! We win!

The other game was really close and very fun. 

Also, every figure from the base game is painted! Now there's only a... few.. left unpainted from the kickstarter. Or maybe a little more than a few.

Far East Asian Hand Carts from 4Ground

Two fantastic 28mm hand carts from 4Ground and perfect for my Dutch East Indian harbour.

Assembled in minutes. A quick drybrush with Vallejo Cork Brown and the wood looked good. I painted the steel rims of the wheels with Vallejo Gunmetal Grey.

Total time about half an hour and that gave me two pieces of clutter suitable for all manner of games set in East Asia.

Far East Asian Ox Cart from 4Ground

A quick little project – an ox-cart from 4Ground to be used in our Pulp Alley games as a prop. Another little thing to add character and life to the gaming area.

Drybrushed ox-cart from 4Ground

Without drybrush. Nice as it is.

It’s a very easy build, done in 10 minutes. You could use it as is, and it would look great. I drybrushed the cart quite heavily with Vallejo Cork Brown and followed with a lighter drybrush of Buff.

28mm furniture from 4Ground

I’ve bought some stuff for my growing 28mm Wild West collection. Easiest to get table-ready were these counters from 4Ground. I wanted to try their new MDF furniture, and the counters looked useful.

Straight Counter in light wood – this is a set with 12 pieces that glues together easily. It took me less than 10 minutes to finish.

Corner Counter in light wood – 22 pieces makes this corner counter. It bit harder to build. I recommend that you dry-fit the pieces, as some are mirror images of each other but they have the same identifying letter. I noticed that when I had glued some pieces together, but before the glue had set. Took a bit longer, but still just slightly more than 10 minutes.
I used white glue as you have time to make adjustments (and have a chance to rescue your failures)

Highly useful pieces of furniture this. Relatively easy to assemble, and ready to game with as soon as the glue sets.

She’s drunk, that’s the reason for the blurry picture. But you'll get an idea of the size of these things. 

4Ground recommends that you coat these furniture with a matt varnish. I haven’t yet, but might.

Marshall’s Office from 4Ground

Another excellent kit from 4Ground and their Dead Man’s Hand range.

It’s made of pre-painted laser-cut MDF, and you only need glue to put it together. A couple of clamps and some rubber bands are good to have also.

I put the kit together during two evenings, and it is really very easy with the very clear instructions. Great  kit that will cost you about £24. I need some furniture now.

Also included is a couple of poster that you can put on the Wanted-board, or elsewhere in town.

Horse hitches, signposts and water trough in 28mm from 4Ground

A little pack from 4Ground, containing 10 hitches, one water trough and two different signposts.

I wasn’t impressed with how they looked out of the box, so I painted all wood with chocolate brown and dry-brushed buff.

Sign hand-painted and posters found on the web and printed on my laser-printer.

A nice set for details, but not great.

Welcome follower

Derek Robertson with Lead and Paint – lots of miniatures of every possible kind. Nice!

28mm Wild West house from 4Ground

This 28mm house, Dead Man’s Hand Side Street Building No1 from 4Ground, took me two evenings to build. Effective time was about an hour.

The joy of pre-painted, laser-cut MDF.

 The door can open

 

Detachable roof. Two rooms.

A very nice kit – highly recommended.