Citizens of Calamity - Knuckleduster Iconic Faction

I have been messing around with the town of Calamity again. Revising old thoughts and such, nothing worth writing about at this point. I have decided I need to do some painting though and I pulled out the Iconic Faction from Knuckleduster's Gunfighters Ball Kickstarter. I have cleaned them up and primed them and hopefully they will see some paint before the end of January. Rubicon Armor kits keep distracting me from painting minis it seems. 

I cleaned these up and overall I'm pretty impressed. Of course there were a couple of figures with mold lines across their faces and in some really hard to reach spots as well. Some of the details are a bit soft but I think that's just related to the 3D sculpting and printing process rather than a mold flaw. They looked considerably better after I primed them with the gray primer (Badger Stynylrez).

Nothing identifies these minis as specific characters but if I had to put some names to faces I would go with: Rooster Cogburn (the John Wayne version), Maverick, Shane, Marshal Dillon (Gunsmoke), the Rifleman and maybe William Munny.

Left to right: Rooster Cogburn (True Grit, John Wayne), Shane (Shane, Alan Ladd) William Munny (Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood), Maverick (Maverick TV Series, James Garner), Marshal Dillon (Gunsmoke TV Series, James Arness), Lucas McCain (The Rifleman TV Series, Chuck Connors). Identification is just idle speculation on my part.

Citizens of Calamity - The Prospector - Reaper

While I have been working on the Knuckleduster miniatures I discovered this Reaper miniature hanging around on my desk. He literally just needed his scarf painted so he is finally finished. I have no idea how long he has been sitting there waiting (at least 2 years I reckon) for that but he is ready to base now!

59016: Coot Jenkins, Prospector
Bob Ridolfi

Citizens of Calamity - Swede - Knuckleduster

Here is the first of the Gunfighters' Ball line from Knuckleduster that I was able to finish off. Well almost finish off. His hat still needs some touch up and I'm sure I can find a couple of other things wrong (like that huge mold line that I missed). But since he is just the bystander type he is "good enough".

I must admit those that these new 3D sculpts from Knuckleduster are really nice!

GBB - 1 Swede

Citizens of Calamity - Gunfighter's Ball - Citizen Pack

Since I did get in on the Kickstarter for Knuckleduster's Gunfighters' Ball I decided that I should try painting up some of the ones I did have on hand. I had bought a specific pack of Bystanders but I don't see that on the website anymore. The six that I have are (and apparently the first six they produced):
GBB - 3 Carpetbagger
GBB - 5 Lawyer
GBB - 6  Pa
GBB - 2 Sally
GBB - 4 School Marm
GBB - 1 Swede
They are all currently available as singles. The quality is excellent and the two female figures are far better than earlier Knuckleduster females.

I had already cleaned these up (although not very well I discovered as I started to paint them) so I went in with some brush on primer and started the skin tones. Unfortunately none of the pictures are particularly good, all do better on the next batch.

Lawyer, Swede and Sally

Carpetbagger, Pa and School Marm

Primed

Initial Skin tones

A bit lighter for the ladies

Brigade Games for Calamity

I think I suffer from sever shiny syndrome. The World War II project is underway so that was a sure way to get me thinking about Calamity again. I was wandering around the Brigade Games site and decided to pick up a few cowboy packs that I was missing from them. Another package on the step and the bin of Calamity figures gets fuller.

Just three packs from Brigade at this point. Nice minis will look really nice when I get around to painting them up.

A very small package from Brigade

A few rifles are going to need some gentle straightening

Knuckleduster for Calamity

I have some of Knuckledusters 28mm digital sculpts in my collection for Calamity from summer of last year. Of course those haven't been painted yet, but that's pretty typical. Last week I decided to try out their new 32mm line. In theory these will be closer in size to Reaper and Black Scorpion. Plus there is certainly nothing wrong with a little variety in size amongst the various citizens of Calamity.

I was really intrigued by the poker player and faro player sets so those are what really drew me in. The final order included the two packs of wounded gunfighters from the 28mm line, nothing special there they are just going to be markers, the Faro Game, the Poker Players, Saloon Gal in Cowboy's Lap, Mounted Cowboys (I'm really quite behind on mounted figures) and the pack of Longhorn Steers.

I'm quite pleased with the quality. The older sculpts in the 28mm line can vary considerably in quality, these new 32mm are very nice. I might start to pick up some more of these. I don't really need more gunfighters though, I need a lot more innocent bystanders!

The Loot

Love the detail on the table. I think I need to talk to Knuckleduster since one of the minis is duplicated. I'm pretty sure that's not how its supposed to be packaged.

The poker players, all different! Again lovely detail on the tables.

A little vignette for the bar

Cowboys! Lots of Cowboys and horses!

I see a tail I need to fix

The longhorns. These are pretty beefy, I think they will work in with my herd of ERTL longhorns quite nicely!

Citizens of Calamity - Knuckleduster

Despite being distracted by the watertank arriving I did manage to get a few of those Knuckleduster minis finished before I left for Sacramento.

Nothing very exciting here, these are supporting cast minis not hero minis. I do wish that someone would start doing some really good old west female sculpts though. These aren't bad but they could be a lot better.

A few pretty poor pictures just to prove I was painting more than anything else.

Almost half way. There are three more male minis and four more female minis in this group

Gravedigger, Blacksmith and Worker

The next victims...er citizens for Calamity

I'm in that never ending cycle of painting more western miniatures for Calamity. This time around I'm concentrating on by-standers, those normal everyday citizens that are not likely to be armed although they certainly may catch a bullet now and then.

This batch contains a couple sets from Knuckleduster and another pack of Wargames Foundry. Got them all prepped and primed yesterday and even managed to get started on the skin tones last night. Just in case I get to bored with this bunch I still have some gunfighters ready to paint as well. Hopefully I'll make some significant progress over the weekend on these.

The one thing I do wish is that someone would spend some time sculpting some nice female western figures. The Knuckleduster ones aren't bad and there are a couple of nice ones in the Reaper, Black Scorpion and Wargames Foundry lines. But I really need some women without guns both your regular everyday citizen types as well as a better selection of soiled doves.

Here is what's on the table:

Knuckleduster OW28-306 Pioneer Women

Knuckleduster OW28-304 Working Men

Wargames Foundry  OW11/1 Town Traders pack
This pack was a little odd. It is suppose to have 6 minis in it, but mine had 8. It included a double of the Doctor and the Fiddler from OW11/5  Just Passing Through pack. I figure Calamity is probably going to need at least 2 doctors anyway.

Citizens of Calamity - Dance Hall Girl

This mini is from Wargames Foundry's Old West range. She came out of pack OW11/2. She is a pretty simple and it only took a couple of hours to finish her up mostly spent trying to get skintones right. I have been having problems with skin lately and it took a lot longer to get it mostly right. I'm not totally happy with her skin but she is gaming piece and sometimes its just good enough. I do like this color scheme though, I have to work to not use it to much. I think my tones may be a little to subtle and are getting washed out in the lights.

Citizens of Calamity - In Between Trips

I managed to get another citizen for Calamity finished over my few days at home. I wanted to be able to sit down and finish something so I set the Marines aside and decided on another western mini. This one is from Reaper Miniatures in their Savage Worlds line, #59005 Huckster. Now there is a little story to go with this one. The sculptor is a friend of mine; Bob Ridolphi who I have become friends with over the years at ReaperCon. I'm pretty sure he worked from the original artwork that graces the cover of the book "Hucksters & Hexes" by Pinnacle Entertainment for their Deadlands RPG. The original artwork for this cover was painted by an old friend of mine; Dan Frazier in Boulder CO. The "model" he used for that cover is another friend of mine Dave McMillen. Seems like I was pretty much destined to paint this piece, its not often you find a connection to mini like this.

Citizens of Calamity - Last one for a bit

I'm about to head out on business travel for the next couple of weeks. I have found it difficult to take painting stuff with me so this will probably be the last miniature I finish for a while. I have managed to finish off all but one of the western miniatures on my desk and that's because I'm not quite sure where he is right now. That leaves only the 18 WWI Marines as works in progress. Well that and the usual pewter mountain of primed and unprimed minis.

So here is the latest, Reaper's Wichita Witch from their Savage Worlds line #59027. I think the blending and highlighting may have gotten a little to subtle on this one, the pictures aren't showing the different tones in her boots and hat. But then again gaming figure!

Citizens of Calamity - Three more finished

There was a quick peek at two of these miniatures yesterday with the Marines. Late last night I got into one of those inspired painting sessions. It started with movies, I put in the Quick and the Dead and followed it up with Silverado, I like both of these movies a lot. I had Reaper's Ellen Stone in the pile of primed miniatures so I started and finished painting her last night (and into the wee hours of the morning) and finished the basing this morning. I trying to hone up my blending skills again (which tend to fall off when I'm doing army or bulk painting) and she seemed like a good candidate for it. Overall she is pretty good, although I'm having trouble getting my skin tones smooth again, something to work on since there is a lot of skin on one of the miniatures I have earmarked for the Genghis Con painting competition in February.

The other two miniatures are just more ordinary citizens for Calamity so I didn't spend a great deal of time on them. I tried a white coat on the preacher but I don't think it worked out very well and he kind of looks like a scientist raising his hand with a question. The Dixon bartender has odd eyes but was a fun mini to work on.

On to the pics, because pics are like bacon for blogs:

Reaper Miniatures, Ellen Stone, 50003 (Chronoscope)

Brigade Games, Western Characters I, Preacher
I don't like how the white coat came out on this one, but I'm not going to change it. I'm pretty sure I have at least one more preacher in the pile.

Dixon Miniatures, Bartender with Whiskey bottle, WG93

Action at the Saloon