From HerrRobert: Dastardly Daddies and Pistol Packin' Mamas (20 points)

Cornpone Junction is a dusty town bisected by the El Paso and Southwest Railroad, lured north from the dusty border crossing with Mexico by the allure of economic growth and wealth along the railroad line. Neatly bisected by the railroad in an old-fashioned arrangement, it's a dusty combination of Anglo wood-frames and Mexican adobe. And, naturally, home to all manner of desperate and dangerous creatures, most of them human.

Ma Baker, J. H. F. Mudd, Minnie the Moocher and the enigmatic Mr. Chen

Cornpone Junction is the Western setting for many of my Western games, mostly played using (heavily) modified Legends of the Old West ruleset, and I'm slowly building up my collection of figures. First up is Ma Baker, the grandmother and diabolical mastermind of the Hoss Posse (pronounced so it rhymes), a notorious collection of ne'er do wells infamous for bank robbing, mine rustling, kidnapping and wanton cattle murder. Ma Baker joins the ranks of the infamous Boss Hoss, Fancy Dan, Bat Masterson, and Gentle Nell.

"Freeze, I'm Ma Baker, put your hands in the air"

"Gimmie all your money"

Ma Baker is a 28mm Knuckleduster miniature from their Gunfighter's Ball line; she can be purchased either independently, as I did, or from their Pistol Packin' Mamas pack. 

My inspiration was the eponymous Boney M song Ma Baker, and the various Hollywood movies around Ma Barker, the supposed mastermind of the Barker Gang, though scholarship is quite mixed on her actual involvement and culpability in the gang's crimes. However, the various movie posters matched the figure almost exactly (just substituting the Thompson for a more prosaic double-barreled shotgun), so I based the paint scheme after one of the many movie posters of the time.

I think I did a pretty good job matching the purple dress, grey hair, and white apron. The dress was several thin coats of DecoArt Cranberry Wine, with a wash of Voluptus Pink contrast paint from Citadel.

Next up is Minnie the Moocher, another Knuckleduster figure available independently as a single figure. In the Gunfighter's Ball Universe, she's the head madam of Front Street. while in Cornpone Junction she's a less genteel and more nefarious character.

Paint scheme comes predominantly from the Gunfighter's Ball card, which I matched as closely as I could. The skirt and hat were fairly easy; it's the same paint mix as Ma Baker, but with a pinker coat between the two coats of Cranberry Wine. Her blouse was more involved, necessitating multiple different shades of pink before picking out the collar, cuffs, ruffled and buttons in white. It was finally all brought together with a light gray wash from GameColor.

She's also named from another song, this time Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher; though, with a derringer cheroot and her award-winning smile and personality, she doesn't need the King of Sweden to give her the things she's a needn. 

Though Roz from Monster's Inc might also be claimed as an inspiration.

Next is the enigmatic Mr. Chen, head of the Chinese Benevolent Association in Cornpone Junction. 

Many American cities and towns had Chinese brotherhoods, business associations and secret societies often known as Tongs set up to assist Chinese laborers, immigrants and residents across America. Traces of these smaller and more rural Chinatowns survive, especially in parts of California's Central and Sacramento Valleys.

Mr. Chen is a Great Escape Games miniature from their Tong set for Dead Man's Hand. Again, I stuck pretty closely to the box art for the faction. Black dry brushed with Delta Ceramcoat Pavement (lower robes) or Charcoal Gray (hat) formed the basic design, though the sleeves were painted in Reaper's Dark Elf skin triad. The central jerkin was Mondo Llama Whipped Honey, with Army Painter Soft Tone to take off the satin shine.

I was less satisfied with my choices for skin tone. I didn't have a good paint mix for Chinese skin tones the way I do for various Caucasian, African or Middle Eastern figures, so I had to whip something up on the fly. ChatGPT helped a little, but I'm not satisfied with the results. Since I have lots of Chinese and Japanese figures to paint up for various eras, I'll probably just buy the Foundry triad.

Last up is not a resident of Cornpone Junction. The rapskallion J. Harcourt Fenton Mudd is for my Darkest Africa scenarios. Much like his descendent in the 23rd Century, he is trader of ill repute who will buy, sell, trade, dabble or deal in virtually anything, though he's somehow become an erstwhile representative of Her Majesty the Queen, or so he claims. Though one's choice for consul in deepest Tangayika is quite slim, if he has any official standing beyond sheer presumpton, gumption and the largest whiskers in East Africa.

What wouldn't you buy from, or sell to, a man with a moustache larger than most Frenchmen?

Mudd is a Wargames Foundry figure from DA012 - A League of Exceptional Gentleman in their Darkest Africa line. I picked up a primed and based figure in a cheap figure bin easily fifteen years ago, though he was sitting in the primed to paint pile of shame for at least the last two Challenges.

I went with my usual British Army blue mix for the trousers, leather for the mid-calf boots, a Reaper or GameColor khaki for the helmet cover, and Whipped Honey again for the jacket. It was a fun mix to paint.

Figures were done on Sunday, when the first round of photos went very bad. Unlike my last submission, the black background resulted in blown photos, and the white background was horribly overexposed. After another long session with ChatGPT, I ended up building a riser for my painting studio, putting in a neutral grey foamcore background, and still not able to get a clean background deletion for that crisp black look. I'm not happy with the photos, but I just need to get these posted and on the board.

My photography booth

Scoring:

4 28mm foot figures @5 points per = 20 points

So I'm now 40% of my very modest goal, and ready to dive into some Villistas, and maybe score my first squirrel point.

 

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Sylvain: With your passionate description, your painted miniatures become alive before our eyes. And your paint job is fabulous, based on thorough pop-culture research. I especially like your basing, an evocation of the dry climate of Western country. Bravo

From TomL: Dredd, Pulp Figures & Knuckleduster - Gluttony and Greed (60 points)

 Escorting us to the Third Circle of the abyss is another well armed Pulp Figures Gangland Gal:

For our Gluttony entry we present two experts at speed and volume eating.  First up "Fatbo" the self proclaimed expert on rebellion:

Followed by "Fat Ram", the designated Judge line breaker.  No doubt he is regretting some life choices as he closes in on the Judges...

These militant members of the “League of Fatties” and their block mates fight for their inalienable right to overeat - famine and war shortages be damned. An extra shot of their entire gang rolling down hill... 

 Continuing on to Greed, the Fourth Circle of the abyss, I submit the Carpetbagger:

This Knuckleduster figure fits the caricature of a opportunistic Northerner, who post war packed a few clothes in a cheap carpet bag and strutted his way south for economic or political gain.  All of these figures were painted using Vallejo metalics and Foundry & TTC acrylics with a few GW washes.   

Points are 6 28mm figures plus Guttony & greed for 70 points.  The extra Fatties were painted before this challenge. Hope to finish some ACW CSA units next week.

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Well those, errr, cholesterol changed individuals have been reaching for my gym bag! Quite the overly engaging sculpts they are too! :-)

I make that 7 x 28mm figs plus 20 bonus points for a total of 55. I'm going to round that up to 60 for all those fabulous details of the fatties (including 2 'pushers'!)

- Paul

From TeemuL: Alien [LV426] (55 points)

We quickly move to LV426, a much rumoured place, but we are disappointed. More of these black and green aliens...

This is Broodlord, largish genestealerish alien beast, painted with familiar colours. Not much to say, anything new, at least.

Happily we encounter a Dame with no Name, who helps us aboard the Sarah's Star Yacht and our way back to Great Abyssal, from where we travel inwards and step to the nearby planet Krypton. Dame with no name is a metal miniature from Knuckleduster Miniatures. I got her from YourModelBox some time ago. I like the mini, but of course she might have more practical clothes.

I'd like to score this monster as a 54mm miniature, so 10 points and 20 for planet LV426. Western girl is 28mm so 5 points and another 20 for Star Yacht. 55 in total.

From Millsy:

Another wonderful addition to your collection of not-Tyranids Teemu. The more I see of this black/green/yellow scheme the more I like it.

Large and horrifying as it is, it doesn't seem to be phasing the Dame with no Name in the slightest. She's suitably dusty, weathered and has clearly seen some stuff so, this is probably just another opponent who thinks it is more badass than it really is. I suspect this particular Broodlord is about to get a swift introduction to messers Smith and Wesson. Nice work!

From MilesR: Gunfighters Ball II (211 Points)

Another Week's worth of painting Gunfighters Ball figures and terrain.

First up, two more "factions". In the front row are the James Gang in their distinctive long coats.  Behind them are the "Cowboys" factions who were the sworn enemies of the Earps as depicted in the wonderful Western movie "Tombstone".  Hmmmm, I wonder if there is an Earp faction to paint up?

Some special characters and townsfolk to populate the streets.  I really liked the "old doc figure" (front center with the green vest).  The game has rules where this character can show up randomly and start patching up wounded players.  I think the guy in the bathtub is also very nicely sculpted.

Now we have some characters from a certain Western themed movie about the perils of real estate development in the Old West.

For IP purposes, the characters have different names - here's Magnus

and Sheriff Blazer and the Chaco-Kid.  You may remember with slightly different monikers....

No matter if you're Magnus or something else, you're still just a pawn in the game of life.

Every Western town needs a Saloon and my comes from Knuckleduster.  Its a laser cut wood kit with both metal  (windows / doors) and..

resin detail parts.  The Bar came out nicely.  The slots on the stage are for some dancing girl figures from the line.  You may seem them later on in the Challenge.  Don't get too excited, my games are definitely just rated G, unlike some other participants in this year's competition.

Lets see this week's submission is:

29 figures on foot for 145 points
2 mounted for 20 points
1 building that's 495 cubic inches or 2.3 terrain cubes.  That math says 46 points buts lets round it down to 40.

My math skills point to a 205 point total for these here cowboys.  Your mileage may vary....


TamsinP:

Howdy there, Miles! Lovely to see more cowpokes and citizens of the Old West. That saloon looks a very dubious joint to have a drink in - there are no tables and chairs for one thing. I assume that they all got damaged in the last barroom brawl.

After all that work, it would be unfair to have you miss out on those 6 points, so I'm going to add them back to your total.

Now, go sit on your horse and drink your milk, pardner!

From MilesR: Gunfighters Ball (165 Points)

The next project in the works are some miniatures from a new game system called Gunfighters Ball, published by Knuckleduster miniatures.  I got into this via kickstarter and don't regret it a bit (a rare statement for most kickstarters).  It's a skirmish level Western gunfighter game with a real emphasis on character and a bit of tongue in cheek.  I've manage to paint up 24 figures from 4 different factions along with a Hotel from Sarissa Precision.

The first faction is the "Outlaw" faction and and has your standard set of Western Ne'er do wells.

Next ia a faction that was one of the stretch goals from the kickstarter - the "Legends of the West" which are figures inspired by Western movie and TV heroes.  Who doesn't want a Rooster Cogburn, Matt Dillon, or Will Money in their collection?  The character names are changed in the materials to be slightly different for IP reasons.  I literally can not wait for a game where as the middle right figure leaves the board I can shout out "Shane, Shane come back!"  For those of you who don't get that reference you failed your childhoods.

A Pinkerton faction.  Not sure why one of the Pinkerton's is throwing a Bomb but it will be fun to play out.  I do hope I don't get sued for painting up Pinkerton's like the video game Red Dead Redemption just did.

Lastly, my absolute favorite of the bunch - the Mexican banditos - these will be my go-to faction to play.

A bit wider shot of the hotel.

The figures are heroic scale 28mm - really closer to 30mm but are superb.  They were all sculpted on a computer and then the mold masters were 3D printed.  The metal casting is flawless.

There are a few more to paint up and even some characters from a certain movie about Western Real Estate investing....

Lets see 24, 28mm figures is 120 points and the building clocks in at 480 cubic inches or 2.22 of our sacred 6inch cubes.  Lets round that down to 2 and go with 40 points for the building.

I think that brings me to 160 points

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Well, golly gee, this is one rootin' tootin' entry, Miles. I've not heard of this Kickstarter, but these figures look brilliant and that hotel is tremendous. I think, from first glance, that my favourites have to be the Mexican banditos. I can just hear them speaking behind a clenched cigarillo, 'No, Naranga. We're not paying for no steenking waaaall.' How does the game play? It certainly sounds characterful. 

Let's put this at 165 points as that wonderful balcony and sign has to be worth another 5 in the bank. Speaking of Bank, when do we get to see Sarissa's Western version of that on your tabletop, Miles?

Curt