A walks not a walk without squirrels

 A dog related tale or possibly tail (woof woof).  

Since George’s death Barney has been an only dog.  While he has missed George, he hasn't been pining.  In fact, he seems to be a more 'cheerful' dog as he gets longer walks now that we don't have to take George's arthritis into account.  He gets a long walk to the local park every day and is able to have a good run, off his lead, while there.  The real bonus is that he isn't barking at other dogs as George is no longer there to start him off.  Even better he has been playing with a few of them which wouldn't have been possible with George along.

Now that Barney can be allowed to roam free he has discovered the joy (and frustration) of squirrels!  It is a very mild autumn up here in Humberside and the squirrels in the park are still very active even in December.  Barney has taken to stalking them and then making a final mad dash over the last ten yards to try to catch the little grey devils.  To date he has been unsuccessful because of trees.  Squirrels climb them you know, and Barney considers this unsporting rodent behaviour.  This does not stop him trying though and he does seem to be considering tree climbing lessons as an option.

So, life goes on without George.  We miss his cheeky behaviour and the way he always came to greet us if we had been out, clutching something in his jaws with his little stumpy tail wagging ten to the dozen.  We don't miss his choice of things to bring to greet us with quite so much, I actually liked some of those cushions.  The local hedgehogs are sleeping more soundly as well, now that he isn't getting up in the wee small hours to chase them around the garden.  So to finish here are a few pictures of George in his last year, cheeky until the end 😛.

George (like Snoopy) considered the saddest sight in the world to be an empty dog dish

Faster my good women I must be at the park before 2.00pm

George hoping that there is food on the table

I have tagged this post under 'George and Barney' at some future point I suppose I will have to change that to something like 'Our dogs', but not just yet.

 

The Painting Table - November 2022

The suspicion will have been growing amongst you that the late delivery of the November update must mean that little or no painting progress has been made since the last update.  Even worse is the fact that this month’s photo shows a painting table without any spare space upon it.

The table of shame.  Now with added 2mm figures

Sadly your suspicions are correct. The Huns have not left the table! Neither have any Wild West shootists. I have, however, been buying so there is a real danger that 2022 may end with an increase in the size of the lead pile for the first time in years. I don’t know if I should be ashamed or proud! I’m going to go with proud on this occasion though. That’s because I have moved closer towards completing the 2mm ACW project. Just before the end of November I ordered the figures and tents needed to complete the Federal, and Confederate cavalry, commanders and HQ bases. Or so I thought. I miscalculated the tents needed to make up the required number of HQ’s. As Generals tend to object to sleeping in ditches I suppose I will order more when I order the artillery.

The good news is that the Huns did get some brush time and only need flesh and bows doing now to be done.  I also finished the painting of a couple of shootists bar the varnish and shader.  I also cleaned up the bases of the 2mm order and got them primed.  Lastly the Livery Stable had the straw added to the floors of the horse stalls and straw bales made as scatter terrain.  So not a total loss then.

Yes it's a scale model of a pile of straw!

The plan is to get the 2mm figures done in December just to have the ability to say that the lead pile has shrunk.  At least a couple of shootists are going to be finished too.  Last but not least I’m going to finish the Huns.  Really, I am…definitely gonna finish them…this time, for certain, probably.

Ukrainian guests - moving on

Although they obtained visas for the Canadian equivalent to the Homes for the Ukraine scheme our guests have actually decided to stay in the U.K. and have found a rental property in our town.  Mum had visited a few larger British towns and cities, but didn’t like them.  I think she found them too crowded and a bit frantic compared with home in the Ukraine.  London which she had expected to like was far bigger than the cities in Ukraine and I think she felt a bit lost amongst all the other nationalities living and working there!

She has been lucky in finding a small property in the town centre closer to her work and her son’s school, at a reasonable rent.  While living with us she found work in a local restaurant’s kitchen (albeit at minimum wage on a zero hours contract) so she was able to save a deposit and the initial rent.  The local council has been really supportive giving a grant to help with costs of furnishing the place and acting as guarantor.  So as of yesterday she has her own home.

The last six months have had their ups and downs but overall Mrs E and I have been pretty lucky with our guests compared to some other hosts.  Mum has been great about cleaning up after she has cooked and has kept their room clean and tidy.  Others have not been so lucky with their guests and FB forums for hosts have numbers of posts asking for advice about guests who are traumatised, unable or plain unwilling to work towards becoming independent.

This is a refugee situation involving a first world nation in the 21st century which has made it different to past crises. Like other modern conflicts it is a ‘televised’ war so our guests are more in touch with events at home but unable to influence them.  What we have really noticed is the impact of the internet for our guests.   The son can take lessons from Ukraine remotely and although dad had to stay in Ukraine thanks to the wonders of internet telephony mum could speak to him every day via video calls.  The connection hasn’t always been great and over the last few days there have been times when calls didn’t go through, probably due to Russian attacks on infrastructure, but it is far better than say the situation of refugees from the Bosnian war in the 1990’s.

I honestly don’t know what her next steps are going to be.  Her husband is not liable to conscription due to his age and job but can’t legally leave Ukraine.  She doesn’t want to go back as there is no end to the war in sight and attacks on civilian infrastructure look set to continue.  Yet it is unclear whether she can stay in the U.K. after her three year initial residence visa ends.  As things currently stand any time accrued in the U.K. under the homes for Ukraine visa do not count towards residency consideration.  So after three years she could be told to leave!

Mrs E and I have by turns been perplexed, annoyed and confused by the differences between Ukrainian ways of doing things and our own.  We have torn our hair out trying to navigate the various systems and procedures put in place by central government while being really impressed by the time effort and commitment put in by of our local government and various charities such as the Red Cross.  Yet overall it has worked far more smoothly than might have been the case.  There have been issues mostly around parenting techniques but it could have been far worse.  The house is our own again while at the same time it seems very quiet without our guests.  

Whether we would do it again is currently a matter of discussion.  We are pretty clear that if we did host again it wouldn’t be for a parent and child. While we meet the accommodation requirements for a mother with a child under 12 we are not happy not to be able to give them a room each. At the moment it’s nice having our house back and not worrying about mum going out to work or to language classes and leaving her son alone without checking if we are available to keep an eye on him.  On the other hand we feel as if we have been selfish about about wanting things done our way in our home, which if you think about it is odd.  Cognitive dissonance for the win eh?

Barn raising completed.

Well Livery Stables actually but let’s not split hairs. I’m calling this build finished.  Internally I added stalls to give cover and outside I have added some scatter terrain in the shape of straw bales (well a horse gotta eat).

The roof tiles before painting

The roof was covered with home-made shingles (timber tiles if you haven’t come across the term before).  These were cut from cardboard as short strips with some irregularities in the tile lengths to create a nice visual effect.  I used a grey card and then painted it yellow ochre using Windsor and Newton galleria artist's acrylic paint.  Over that I painted a thinned Burnt Umber which I immediately rubbed off with tissue paper.  This darkens the yellow ochre and creates areas where lighter paint shows through, creating a worn creosote effect.  The topmost roof I did more to, but I decided that less is more and didn’t replicate the effect lower down.

And after

I then started on some scatter terrain items.  First up are straw bales.  These are simply blocks of balsa painted yellow ochre with finely chopped sisal string glued all around.  I also intend added sisal ‘straw’ into the stalls inside the stabling.  The stalls themselves are bass wood with matchstick bracing.

A few straw bales around the place add character (and cover)

With the roof off you can see the stalls I added

I have started some extra scatter terrain using DAS airdrying clay.  These will be a pile of loose straw and some bags of grain.  I'm just waiting for the clay to dry and harden at the moment to see if these have come out OK.  I am going to need more 'straw though, so you will have to excuse me as I need to nip off and start trimming sisal string into 28mm straw stems!  

Remembrance Day - I'm remembering a man I never met

It needs a bit of TLC after a century on display

 As far as I know my grandparent's generation came away from the Great War having suffered less personal loss than many of their contemporaries.  In that generation I only know of one combat death; the man who would have been my Great Uncle had he lived, or perhaps is still my Great Uncle despite my never getting to meet him.

That man was Rifleman Tom Hartley service number 26979 of the 1/6th King's (Liverpool) Regiment killed on 30th November 1917 aged just 20.  He has no known grave but is commemorated on panel 4 of the Cambrai Memorial at Louverval.   I have seen only one photograph of him, and he looked shockingly young almost a child in a military uniform.  I do have the bronze plaque issued to his parents after the war which hung on my grandmother's wall until her death when it passed to my mother and then to me.  Not much to remember a life he never got to live.

De Lancy is expanding

The town has added a livery stable courtesy of Warbases’ Cactus Creek buildings range. I also thought an improvement to town sanitation was required so ordered an outhouse as well.

The Livery Stable kit comes as three large MDF sheets and one smaller one, but without any assembly instructions.  The kit includes are some quite thin parts such as window frames and roof supports, so it’s important to use a craft knife to help break these fragile parts from the MDF sheet.  Assembly was fairly straight forward even without an instruction sheet but it’s worth dry fitting all the parts before reaching for the wood glue.  

I started by glueing all of the window frames to the walls as it would have been near impossible later.  I then built the main four walls of the stable (hint make sure to get the hay loft floor in place at the same time) before fitting that assembly to the base.  I then built the roof of the hay lost which was the hardest part of the build as getting the roof panels flush with the supports took a bit of brute force!  This simply sits on top of the hayloft.  I then added the two lower roof panels simply clicking these into place so I can access the interior more easily.  The supports for the roof panels to the outside areas were then placed and the panels clicked in place which essentially completed the build.

To fully complete it I want to cut a hatch in the floor of the hayloft and add stalls on the ground level.  I will also need to create some fencing for a corral and a couple of water troughs.

Now we have somewhere to stable the horses

It’s a lovely MDF kit for the price point.  Not as detailed internally as a Sarissa Precision building but more than good enough for what I need and as I said I can add those details later.  The roof panels don’t have any detail etched into them which I suspect is deliberate to allow a printed paper roof texture of your choice to be used which is my next job.  All in all, £20 well spent.

The outhouse was a much simpler build consisting of four walls, two roof panels and a square former to keep the walls square.  There is also a large circular base that I probably won’t use.  The only slightly tricky bit is getting the two roof panels placed correctly as one has to slightly overlap the other at the apex.  Given that every old west building would have an outhouse (or more for hotels and saloons) I can see that I’m going to making a fair few of these.  For variation I will probably use a couple of other outside buildings from other Warbases ranges.  There is an Eastern European outside toilet and a couple of small sheds that will work.

I’m led to believe that the Cactus Creek range is intended to provide a lower cost option than the competitions offerings.  They meet that objective by offering less details in the model.  To be honest given the number of buildings even a small Old West township will need I can live with that as the trade off on cost.  I’m going to be using some buildings from other ranges alongside these ones, after all we wouldn’t want to start a range war…or would we?

The Painting Table - October 2022

I have managed to clear some space on the table this month! The 3mm 1980’s Soviet support vehicles are finally based and textured so that’s got them out of the way. I also finished a 28mm Foundry old west figure. This is a civilian who can flesh out town scenarios. He is checking a fob watch so could be waiting for a stagecoach or could be the town doctor wondering why his next patient is late. I also finished one base of ten 6mm cavalry. These are Irregular Miniatures’ Celts but I’m going to add them to my Dacian forces.

O8 3mm Soviet  SA-9 Gaskin armed BRDM 2

More 3mm - Soviet AT3-B Sagger armed BRDM 2

Dacian Light Cavalry

28mm Foundry civilian

On the Modelling end of the table, well actually a different table in a different room but you get my drift, I have completed the Sheriff’s office scratch build by adding the fencing. That build has been a longer job than anticipated and it’s MDF kits for me from here on in.

Rear of the block house scratch build

Next up for finishing are those long-suffering Hun horse archers that have been clamouring for some attention for the last few months.

Ukranian Guests - an update

Our Ukranian visitors are still with us, but it seems that they are planning to move on to Canada in the near future.  Or at least we have been asked to take Mum to London for an appointment at the Canadian High Commission.  I did a bit of research to make sure it wasn't going to be a wasted trip (as it's a long drive from Elenderil Towers) and it seems that appointments are only issued if an application to travel to Canada has been made.  So, it seems that it's being seriously considered.  Mum hadn't told us that she was making plans to move on and only last week was asking the local council about housing grants.  It actually makes a lot of sense as her adult son has either just moved there with his job or is about to move there.

This lack of sharing information has been a common theme for the time she has been with us.  We get told what she thinks we need to know.  From what I have read this is common as Ukrainians are very private people.  Still, it would be nice to have a bit more warning other than a Thursday evening chat on the lines of:

"I need you to take me to London on Monday"

"Really, why is that?"

" I must go to the embassy for a visa, I have an appointment at 12:45"

Being charitable I'm going to assume that she has no idea about how long it will take to drive from Humberside to Outer London and then travel onwards by tube to Charing Cross (I'm not going into Central London by car what with congestion charges and parking costs).  Things are not helped by the fact that we are never sure that she understands the processes and procedures for these things.  I would also need a second person to travel with me and Mrs E can't do so on Monday.  

Another interesting thing we have learned about Ukrainian culture is that they are loud and sound aggressive when having even a friendly conversation.  Even her nine-year-old son is like that, shouts of Nyet when he doesn't like what mum is saying at a volume that would have me reaching for earplugs if I was in the room with him!

There is also an interesting view on rules!  Apparently, we have far too many rules on things like medicines and medical appointments, driving rules, schools, road safety... the list goes on.  In Ukraine there is always a way around the rules we have been told (Which seems to be code for 'a way for me to get what I want straight away or not be stopped from doing what I want').  An example being that her son was recently prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection.  The British ones were not strong enough, so she was going to take those for her cough and buy a new supply from Ukraine for her son.  It came as a bit of shock to be told that unapproved medicines were unlikely to get through customs!

Talk about different strokes for different folks!

The Painting Table - September 2022

 It's been more of a modelling table for the last month rather than a painting table.  I finished the Old West General Store scratch build and then started onto the County Sheriff's office.  That isn't quite finished though.  I have everything glued together except the fencing around the exercise yard and an external stairway and I need to paint in the window on the front door.  My first attempt at the roof and parapet didn’t look right so I had to do it over.  The original roof was based on a sheet of card which didn’t sit flush to the top of the side walls.  I redid it using a foam sheet which I sat inside the parapet edges which looks much better and was actually easier to build.  Instead of having to plank the roof with individual lengths of bass wood I could scribe the foam sheet with a plank pattern.

View of the exercise yard end (Fencing not yet erected)

Front and roof area

Overview of the interior

The astute viewer will have spotted a couple of 'features', no stairs to the roof inside the building and no gates on the jail cells.  There are three hatches in the roof one for each cell and a ladder will be stored up there.  I'm going with an external wooden stair way to access the roof for reasons of playability.  The overview shows a front office accessed off the sidewalk, a rear office with a door to the cell area and a living area come bunkroom.  The corridor to the front of the cells would act as a drunk tank (this is a friendly jail only the real nasty types get chucked in a cell).

The jail also features ‘granny grating’ cell walls and window gratings.  I think that worked well.  I’m going to use the same material to make some snake rail fences for 2mm ACW games. Output during September and early October suffered as we had a weekend away and because of George’s declining health.  Hopefully next month will actually see some figures painted.

In other news, the figures on the painting table haven’t changed although they may have moved around a bit!  There are currently Hun light cavalry, Pictish cavalry, Late Roman infantry, Byzantine infantry (using Sassanid figures from Baccus) and an assortment of Dark Age command figures in 6mm and the Old West figures in 28mm awaiting my painting attention.  I also have Soviet light armoured vehicles in 3mm to finish basing.  It’s a good thing I don’t overstretch myself!

When events overtake you!

And they certainly have done that, with a vengeance.  There is no way to sugar coat the thing, George died on the 3rd of October.  We knew he was ill, and his arthritis had progressed despite all the best efforts of the vet.  Worse though was the tumour in his mouth.  That had grown to the point where he bit it every time he ate, and it was in danger of falling back and blocking his airway.  He was fine in himself wanting to go for walks and to come upstairs to sleep with us.  It was just that his joints were so sore that he struggled to do it.  I could watch him screw up the courage to climb or descend the stairs and walks required regular stops and sit downs.  I carried him up and down when it was too much for him.  Yet we never heard a whimper or a squeal from him.  We bought him a dog trailer that could be used as a dog pram so we could take him to the park and let him have a short walk there before wheeling him home again.  He only got to use it half a dozen times.

We took him to the vet thinking he would have some treatment options to offer, but when he examined him, he told us it was time to make the hard choice.  We were given the chance to take him home and return the next day, but we knew we wouldn't be able to handle that, and more importantly it would have upset George.  So, he was put to sleep that day after we had sat with him for a last time.  Mrs E and I were allowed to stay with him to the end which was mercifully fast.  We were both in bits and cried all the way home.  I collected his ashes this afternoon which had me in bits again.  Our other dog, Barney, seems to be coping better than we are although he keeps looking in all the places where George used to lie.  He even put two dog biscuits on the sleeping mat George used and has refused to eat the second one, almost like it is there for George.

He was the dog we didn't plan to have.  He was a rescue from Spain who came over to a family in Lancashire at same time Barney came to us.  The original adopters found he was too much for them to cope with and demanded that he be taken back off them with immediate effect.  The charity asked us to foster him while they found a kennels to board him in pending a new adopter.  Within a couple of hours of him turning up on our doorstep we knew we wanted to keep him.  Brittanys are a handful but if you stay firm (but kind) they respond really well to training.  At heart they want to please their humans and this was very true of George.  Indoors they are snuggle monsters while outdoors the hunting instinct takes over and they become rugged individualists!  All that said he was a pleasure to have around, a real dog's dog, the only dog I have ever known to actually bury bones and dig holes.  He made dens in the shrubs around the edge of the lawn and even stole cushions to take out to put in them.  Every evening a 6.50pm we would be barked at if we were not already getting collars and leads on for walkies.  He was a dog that liked things to happen on his timetable.

I never thought losing a pet could be so traumatic, made worse by the fact that he was only nine.  In normal circumstances he might have lived to be anything up to seventeen or eighteen, in fact we worried that he might outlive Mrs E and I or at least still be active when we no longer were!   He has left a very large cheeky Brittany shaped hole in our family, and it is all a bit raw at the moment.  

RIP George Dog - April 2013 - October 2022

 

First western building completed

The first building for De Lancy is complete, well almost there are a few things I will probably touch up in due course.  That said it is in a playable form so the De Lancy General Store, proprietor Colonel J De Lancy, is open for business.  It's made of balsa and bass wood cladding over a foam board core.  I went with a removable flat roof design for this one.  Signage is a mix of home designed and Sarissa Precision items. The brown plate part way up the right side of the building is:

a) a plate for me to mount a lamp to, and

b) a disguise for a poor bit of building work!

My shoddy workmanship shows in this shot!

And some of the required touching up can be seen here.

I copied some modelling tips from a couple of blog sites where the authors had scratch built their towns, but I'm not entirely happy with the suggested build process.  To me the main failing is that there is a solid box core to the building with no gaps for windows or doors, so figures inside cannot be seen from the street and doors are always closed.  For my next build I have cut gaps in the foam board so let's see how that works.  The other issue is that there is no internal detail.  I don't think the designer really intended fights to happen inside buildings.  I'm expecting that they will.

That next building under construction is a County Sheriff's office and jail (Yes, I know that civilised folks spell it gaol, but this is Texas when all is said and done).  This represents a stone-built structure, so I have been inscribing the foam board and applying washes to make it look, well, stony!  That also means no balsa cladding is needed.  Unlike the store I am putting in internal walls and detail.  At present I have the external walls done and one of the internal walls completed but the building is not glued together.  The bits of bass wood lying on the foam in the picture are being tested for size, they will line cut outs for the doorways and windows to give a flat surface to place doors and windows into.

Who knew stone walls came flat pack!

As back story to the building I'm saying that it was a block house built as a defence against Commanche raids by the Mexican military back in the 1820's.  Subsequently it was taken over by the Texas Rangers as a way station before settling into its current use.  It will probably be known locally as the 'old block house' rather than the sheriff's office.

The end of an era

I have waited a few days to put my thoughts in writing since the death of Queen Elizabeth.  I'm not what you might call a dyed in the wool monarchist, after all I fight for Parliament when re-enacting the Civil Wars.  That said I'm not exactly a republican either, the thought of yet another job for politicians to screw up doesn't exactly fill me with glee.  What I do recognise is that for my entire adult life the same person has been Head of State.  Not having a huge personal effect on my life and yet managing to be a huge presence within it at the same time.  The ER II on post boxes (in England at least, she was Elizabeth the First in Scotland), the head on money and stamps, the person I swore allegiance to when I joined the TA.  Yes, there in so many aspects of daily life.

I think the suddenness of it all has been the most peculiar aspect of it all.  Greeting the incoming PM on Tuesday and dead two days later.  No time to get used to the idea.  Now it will be a new head on coins (looking in a different direction), a new set of words the National Anthem yet for most day-to-day purposes it is business as usual.  Others have given tributes in the media that sum up a life of service albeit one with few financial worries and a guarantee of continuing employment (although that was also a promise of dropping in your traces as well) but not a life without cares.  Looking in from the outside it is hard to know what sort of person she really was, but to me at least it seems clear that she cared about the role she filled and its continuation and the clincher to me she stood head and shoulders above the dirty mess of day-to-day British politics.  I might not be huge fan of hereditary monarchs, but I like the alternatives even less.

I have lived my life as a New-Elizabethan and from Tuesday teatime I'm now a something else.  What that will be called I'm not sure, Carolinian perhaps?  It really is the end of an era and the start of something new.

What does a good Old West town need?

A Western shoot out game needs a locale, perhaps not a full town but at least a main street, but what businesses would be on that street and the ones branching off it.  In fact, what would a town look like back in the period 1870 to 1890(ish).    So, it was off to Google to check a couple of forums for some information.  The answer I found is that town layouts vary by location, type of settlement (that's the main industry the town supports) and how long the town had been in existence.

Location would have been partially linked to the type of settlement, for example a mining town isn't going to be founded where there are no minerals to exploit.  In cattle country the movie style grid layout would be standard, but in areas originally settled by the Spanish there was a formal layout that was followed, based on royal law.  In mining areas towns tended to be in valleys below the mines and followed the line of the valley sides.  Railroad towns tend to develop with main street at right angles to the track with stock pens and related businesses over on the 'wrong side of the tracks'.  Most main streets were much wider than we might expect at around 100 feet to allow a wagon and its team to turn 180 degrees.  Side streets were slightly narrower at around 60-80 feet and residential areas had far narrower streets.

For most towns the first buildings would be a store and a saloon.  These would start with tented establishments and if the town prospered these would be converted to more permanent structures.  Brick or stone buildings would be rare outside the centre of older, more important settlements with two exceptions the jail and the bank.  These might not be made entirely of brick or stone, but the secure areas would aim to be made from one of the other (depending on local material availability).   In the Southwest adobe buildings would be found in the older settlements and those built to the royal law would have a plaza and a church from almost the very start.

In terms of businesses, as noted above, the average town starts with the general store and saloon but there would be more drinking establishments than you might expect (more akin to UK market town numbers in the period up to the mid 1970s) with roughly one saloon/bar for each 100 inhabitants.  A cattle town would also have stock yards from very early on in its history.  After that a livery stable and blacksmith and additional stores would be added with the owners often living in the back or above the shop.  As those businesses prospered or if the town was attracting families, then housing would appear at the edge of town.  With time a cemetery, County Sheriff or Town Marshall's office/jail would appear.  In farming areas, a seed store would appear fairly early on.  Other businesses might include:

- A hotel 

- Restaurants (Man's gotta eat)

- Billiard Hall (more common than I expected)

- Undertaker (Can't leave 'em on top)

- Saw mill/lumber yard (the lumber for buildings has to come from somewhere)

- House of ill repute (or three)

- Barbers/dentist

- Doctors office

- Gunsmith (for passing bandits to steal weapons from)

- Butcher

- Baker

- Dry Goods Store

- Clothing Store

- Rooming house

- Land Office (for burning down to get rid of land grant records)

Eventually if the town attracted families a schoolhouse and a church would be built.  There was some basic urban planning with building lots marked out but no strict rules on what buildings went where but the main street tended to be where the less salubrious bars and businesses were sited the older areas being dodgier than the newer ones.  Spanish founded towns had to conform to Royal building laws so would generally have a more structured layout to the centre of town.  One reason for starting in 1869 is that I can legitimately have a limited number of buildings in De Lancy and add to them over time.

Basic construction front view

and rear view

Front with just the window frames to complete and roof to build.

I'm aiming to start with a couple of stores, a saloon and some stock pens.  I will also need a county Sherrif's office for story line purposes. Work has started on an initial scratch build store but longer term I'm eying up MDF kits.  The De Lancy Construction Co has started operations!

The Painting Table - August 2022

A little late with the August update.  I didn't get much painted this last month as Mrs E and I took a holiday at the start of August and went away re-enacting over the Bank Holiday weekend.  My total output was four 28mm western shootout figures.  I did base and texture twenty-one 3mm Soviet light anti-tank and anti-aircraft vehicles, but I still have a bit of work to do on those so I can't count those as completed.

The monthly painting table shot

Space is starting to appear on the table but fear not there is a lot of unpainted lead to go yet!  You can just about see the based Soviet BRDM2 Sagger AT missile armed) vehicles and  SA-9 Gaskin AA vehicles (on round bases).

Three more shootists and a target ... er ...bystander

So welcome four more citizens to De Lancy County.  

De Lancy's Reckoning - May 1869

For the purposes of this test scenario all you need to know is that Colonel De Lancy (the old Southern money in the county and founder of the town which bears his name) is at odds with two Yankee Carpetbaggers who have broken his store monopoly in town.  For various reasons the good Colonel feels that an example must be made to preserve both his honour and more importantly his profits.  He has hired a trio of ne'er do wells to remove the problem with what will be known in the future as 'Extreme prejudice'.

To achieve this, the would be assassins enter the store owned by Messrs Butler and O'Keefe (the Yankees) with the intention of calling them out.  It is important that they provide an excuse, no matter how flimsy, for their intended actions as this part of Texas has a quaint notion that whoever goes to draw a gun first is the instigator of events and likely guilty of premeditated murder.  Also in the store at the time is one Davis 'Doc' Travis, passing through on his way west.  He has stopped to buy supplies and becomes caught up in events.

The characters in this drama are:

The Targets

Randolf (Randy) Butler.  Novice, unarmed, slow reactions, slow draw.  Skills Pistol 2, Rifle 4, Hand to Hand 2.

Jim O'Keefe.   Average, unarmed (but a scattergun is under the store counter), average reactions, slow draw.  Skills Pistol 2, Rifle 5, Hand to Hand 3.

The Assassins

Little Ned Tice.   Average, Breech loading Sharp's Carbine, Colt 36 Navy revolver, Bowie knife.  Average reactions, slow draw.  Skills Pistol 5, Rifle 6, Hand to Hand 6.

Jake Hartley.  Average, Colt 44 Army, Knife.  slow reactions (he has been drinking  but isn't drunk), Average draw.  Skills Pistol 5, Rifle 1, Hand to Hand 3, Throwing 6.

Roscoe Penny.  Professional, Smith and Wesson Model 1 .22 (7 shot, low impact), Bowie knife.  Slow reactions (more Dutch courage), average draw, Skills Pistol 6, Rifle 4, Hand to Hand 4. 

The Passing Stranger

Davis 'Doc' Travis.  Professional, 1856 Le Mat .42 (9 shot plus .60 shotgun barrel), Knife.  Fast reactions, Fast draw.  Skills Pistol 9, Rifle 6, Hand to Hand 5, Throwing 3.

Civilians

There may or may not be any non combatants involved if there are they will have slow reactions and skills of zero.

Set up

Doc is stood inside the store.  His pistols are holstered.  The assassins are on the sidewalk outside.  Jake and Roscoe have holstered pistols, Little Ned has his Sharps in his hands with a round loaded but the hammer isn’t cocked.  Ned will be posted outside the store while the other two go in to ‘do the deed’

When the assassins enter they will initially be focussed on their target and will have to react to any others in the store. They will have to trigger some sort of argument with the store owners to provide an excuse for gunning them down.  The owners will only start to react on a threat being made or weapons being drawn. 

The fight

Roscoe and Jake enter the store and Jake approaches the counter.  (Each phase of action is about 1 to 1.5 seconds, so far 15 seconds have elapsed).  Jake looks over at Jim O'Keefe and snaps "Gimme some of that rollin' tobacco" and slaps a dollar bill on the counter (This takes a further 2 seconds as the rules allow three words to be spoken a phase).  Looking down O'Keefe realises that the money is worthless Confederate script.  "Hey, this is Confederate money, it's no good".  Jake snarls a reply " Damn  ya Yankee, take the money".  At this point things start to move real fast.  Both Jake and Roscoe go for their pistols.  They are both average draw speed so this will take two phases before they can shoot, longer if they aim.  Unfortunately for them Doc standing in the corner has already turned towards them after hearing the raised voices.  As he sees hands dropping to holsters he reacts   A reaction is a response to any act seen by the character which may require a change in their current orders or state.  For example to draw a weapon on seeing someone going for a gun.  Professional characters react faster than average or novice characters.)  He shouts "Drop those pistols" and starts to draw his Le Mat. (Only needing one phase as he is a professional and has fast reactions and draw speed).

Positions as the shooting starts

The next phase he adopts a firing stance and continues his shout with "or I shoot".  The sudden interruption forces Jake and Roscoe to have to react (A reaction is forced by being shot at unexpectedly, after shooting, seeing a comrade fall wounded or sight of a seriously wounded or dead comrade or any unexpected or sudden event).  They decide to continue to attack the storekeeper.  Meanwhile O'Keefe is moving closer to the counter in an attempt to grab the scattergun hidden beneath it.  At this point Doc fires a snap shot at Jake who has his pistol clear of the holster.  He inflicts a serious body wound on him knocking him to the floor.  (The rules calculate a chance of scoring a hit with a possible range of 1-99%.   There are adjustments for skill, time spent aiming and other factors. Percentage dice are then rolled and if the score is below the adjusted total a table cross referencing the to hit and dice roll is checked to see what the wound is.  Serious wounds always knock the target to the ground and leave them stunned for  up to 10 phases.  The location of the wound has other effects to.)  Jake is unable to act for 10 phases and after that can only crawl or stagger and all actions take twice as long.  Realistically he is out of the fight.  While all this is going on Randy Butler is heading unseen for the store's back door.

Everyone takes a phase to react to this first shot and Doc also shouts "I said Drop em" while switching his aim to Roscoe.  Outside the store Little Ned has been standing unnoticed by everyone.  After the first shot rang out he reacted to events as he was cocking the hammer on his Sharps carbine.  He decides to go for O'Keefe as he can't get a clear shot at Doc.  Three shots now ring out as Roscoe also opens fire at O'Keefe while Doc fires at Roscoe.  O'Keefe staggers, hit in the body by Ned but it is only a light wound and he doesn't fall although he is stunned for four phases.  Roscoe isn't so lucky he misses O'Keefe before suffering a serious leg wound from Doc which knocks him to the floor and stuns him for five phases.

Little Ned watching with horror through the broken window realises that he has an empty carbine and a holstered pistol making him effectively unarmed against a lethal opponent who has a gun in hand and decides to run.  (reloading a breech loader like a Sharps would take six phases and dropping the carbine to draw his pistol is going to take two phases to draw with a shot being fired on the third phase).  Doc can't get to the door before Ned ducks down an ally and is gone.  This fight is over after only twenty four seconds!

The Aftermath

The town Sherriff is called and initially thinks to arrest everyone, but both O'Keefe and Butler support Doc's account of events and passer's by heard his warning shout and vouch for the fact that he gave Roscoe and Jake every chance to stand down.  Despite being a De Lancy lackey there is little the Sherriff can do other than take the two wounded men into custody once they have been treated.  Ned has gotten away and reported events to the Colonel who has to decide what to do next.  With O'Keefe wounded a message has been sent just not as forcefully as desired.  However Jake and Roscoe are going to be a problem.

Next up

If Jake and Roscoe survive their wounds they are now a liability to Colonel De Lancy.  As long as they are in the Sherriff's custody it can be assumed that they are not going to be questioned but should a US Marshall get wind of events and take an interest things could become awkward.  De Lancy needs to get them out of jail before he is implicated.  I guess I'm going to need some buildings soon.  You can't have a jail break without a jail!

The Rules

I used the Old West Skirmish Wargames rules for this and they played fine.  The reprinted rules have been commented upon by Amazon purchasers saying they are slow and overly detailed.  I didn't find this to be the case.  This game revolved around reaction times, skill levels and draw speeds which seems fair for a fight in a tight space.  This shoot ot was played in under an hour including checking rules and writing out the sequence of actions to ensure I didn't miss things like delays due to reaction.  In a multi player game written orders are required but those are pretty basic and several phases orders can be written in one go any way.  I don't need a lot of the rules such as machine guns or artillery any way so I can play with the core rules alone.  The rules on misfires are the only thing I needed to look up and these are only triggered on a roll of a double.  At that point I'd just look up the effect.  To be honest in a game where revolvers are the norm most players ignore it and simply cock and fire again anyway.

I have added a couple of house rules one is to make reaction times separate to the experience status the other is for the longer term effects of wounds.  For example while a serious body wound might be survivable in a pre-antibiotic world as likely as not it will prove fatal and if not will require a long period of recovery and will create some reduction in capability.  A serious arm wound is probably going to require amputation and so on.  So things are not looking great for Jake and Roscoe.

By the way I misremembered the need to roll high in these rules.  You need to roll low to get under the 'to hit' value and increase the severity of resulting wounds.  So Deadshot Karen had a genius for low rolls not high.  Either way it was better to have her with you rather then 'agin' you. 

De Lancy - A nice place to live?

The North West Texas town of De Lancy was founded in the aftermath of the Texican- Mexican War of 1836 by a returning veteran, the New Orleans born Major Joshua De Lancy.  He saw the potential in what was an isolated trading post on one of the western bound trails, and decided to expand it into a ranching community.  

He had seen money being made by supplying beef to the army and by dint of connections to Sam Houston gathered some small contracts to provide beef on the hoof to settlers, and military outposts.  However it wasn't until the US-Mexican War of 1846 that business really picked up and the town really started to grow.  The next decade saw steady growth in De Lancy's business but it wasn't until the outbreak of hostilities between North and South that the town really found it's feet.  Contracts to deliver beef to Confederate forces were paid in gold, at least to start with and times were good.   However, by 1862 the Confederate States had switched to paying in paper money.  De Lancy wasn't concerned though the money was good and the South was going to win, wasn't it.  This all came crashing down in 1865 when following the Southern defeat Confederate dollars became worthless and the small stock of gold De Lancy had left was dwindling fast.

Old De Lancy now styling himself Colonel (he had held a militia commission in that rank) looked around for a way out of his and the town's problems.  Most of the decent folk had moved on and the town was becoming a haven for the worse sorts.  These were a mix ex-confederate soldiers, Yankee draft dodgers and Tejano rustlers who made a living by rounding up wild longhorns and driving them North, when not committing more traditional crimes.  So De Lancy simply joined in, turning a blind eye to the sourcing of the cattle they sold north.  

The town became an assembly point for herds from the region as well as some stolen from farther afield ready for the drive north.  The town gained a kind of prosperity from gambling and prostitution as well as the income from cattle.  It also gained a reputation as a wide open town despite US occupation forces and carpet baggers attempts to impose a basic level of law and order.  The sad fact was that there were simply too few Federal troops available and they were only occasional visitors to town. 

By 1869 the Colonel had a decent herd and good grazing land but the lawless element are not above rustling his cattle which bit into his profits.  He owned the main mercantile store in town but is facing competition from a new saloon and store financed by a pair of Yankee Carpet Baggers.  What is worse is the cattle herders were no longer all working for him, some had set up in business against him.  A citizen's committee was starting to make noises about electing a sheriff  to clean up the town.  Colonel De Lancy was broadly in favour of this so long as it was on his terms.  Records show that the Colonel tried to bypass the citizens and and those damned Yankees by bringing in some independent contractors to impose his version of law and order.  This is the town that Doc Travis rode into in the spring of '69.

Why 1869?

Historically during reconstruction Texas was wide open with no real federal occupation force as the occupying Federal army was being stripped back.  The old agrarian economy dependant on slaves was being reshaped by the Freedmen's Bureau.  Old Confederate politicians were precluded from running for office until Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1870.  There was no state police until 1870 ,and even then they only numbered about 200 men, and were dissolved a couple of years later. The only other state law enforcement body was the Texas Rangers but until 1874 they effectively did not exist as there was no funding made available.  That leaves local law officers who were a mixed bag.  Some were effective others more interested in lining their own pockets and some were no better than those they were meant to protect their jurisdictions from.  In short in the period 1869 to the late 1870's there is a lot of scope for scenarios.

I also have an eye on the situation in New Mexico and Arizona from around 1870 onwards so the location of games (assuming there is more than one) may well drift west.

The return of Doc Travis

Doc was one of my western skirmish characters from back in my student days.  He was, in the terms of the rules we used, a Professional.  That meant he was someone who earned a living by the gun and had the skills and reactions to do so. He stayed on the right side of the law, mostly.  All our games were played with 54mm Britain's 'Deetail' Cowboy figures with the occasional cheaper figure thrown in.  The setting was always a town made up of the plastic Timpo wild west buildings.  Doc was usually to be found in the saloon sipping a root beer mainly because the rules penalties for being drunk were lethal!

Britain's Deetail Figures.  Doc is on the left of the rear row

I had the three figures on the left of the image.  They looked much better after a quick repaint, Doc acquired a red-brown hat, green shirt and blue trousers.  The Mexican was in dark colours with red trimmings and the one in buckskins firing a rifle from the hip just got a brown coat.

There were numerous other characters to be found in town beside Doc.  Dangerous Dave Le Mat, Bowie Pete and Deadshot Karen to name but a few.  Tales about them stick in my memory even though it was almost 50 years ago.  

Bowie Pete for example was so called not because of his prowess with said knife, but because that's how he normally ended up in Boot Hill,  lying wounded in main street when his opponent would simply write the order 'Bowie Pete' which we all knew meant that a bullet wasn't going to be wasted on him when a slashed throat would be as deadly!

Deadshot Karen was the long suffering (real life) girlfriend of one the players who would be roped in to make up numbers.  She had an unnerving ability to roll a natural 100 with her rifle skill which meant she usually killed you from the other side of town with a Winchester.  It didn't matter whose dice she rolled she seemed incapable of rolling less than 90 on a set of percentage dice, that in a set of rules where rolling high was a good thing.  You stayed off Main Street when Karen was in town.

Dangerous Dave Le Mat was one of my characters.  So called because on his weapon of choice was a nine shot Le Mat revolver (as used by Jeb Stuart) which had the bonus of a selectable 20 gauge shotgun barrel under the normal one.  I was playing in a winner takes all type game where it was everyman for himself.  Names had not been divulged and weapons were secret until used.  Dangerous Dave was sat playing poker in the saloon with three of the other players, unknown to them he had used one phase to draw his pistol under the table which no one had reacted to and a second phase to select the shotgun option, when the then (and still current) Mrs E looked over my shoulder and innocently asked 'why is your man called Dangerous Dave Le Mat?'  At which point all three opponents hurled themselves out of the cone of fire of the Le Mat and then shot me down like a dog!  Moral of the story don't name yourself after your weapon of choice if you don't want anyone to know about it.

My Britain's figures are long gone now but I recreated Doc in 25mm a few years ago and he is getting a run out so I can refresh my memory about the rules.  So welcome to 1869 and the town of De Lancy, Texas, Population variable.  De Lancy has a detailed back story which I will unfold in some future post. 

The scenario I'm going to play is a straight shootout inside a dry goods store.  I don't have any buildings as yet so for test purposes a floor plan will have to do.  There will be Doc v two or possibly three greenhorns plus for interest a couple of innocent bystanders  these may or may not represent the Daughter's of the Confederacy Temperance League.

Didn't we have a lovely time. The day we went to Berwick

Mrs E, the dogs and I have just returned from a short break on the Northumberland coast.  We stayed in Berwick upon Tweed, a place I have never been to before.  The loss is entirely mine as it is a great place to visit in it's own right and a good location for visits out.  There are stunning beaches and castles within easy reach and a number of nationally important battlefields and historical sites within an hour's drive. 

Berwick itself has the only set of fully complete town walls in the country.  These were started during the reign of Queen Mary and completed by her half-sister Elizabeth I.  They replaced earlier medieval walls, traces of which can still be seen beyond the Tudor works.  The are in what was then the latest renaissance style intended to give all round fields of fire and to be resistant to artillery.  There were additions later to add barracks, powder stores and the like.  It takes about 30 minutes to walk the entire circuit.  There are also regimental museums in the barracks and and a good visitors centre.

The line of the Tudor walls can be seen in this diorama of the town

The town also boasts a thriving arts and crafts community and plenty of small independent shops.  It also has a decent array of pubs.  The artist L S Lowry (He of the matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs) considered buying a house within the town walls but was dissuaded as it was in a poor state.  He painted scenes from around the town and is commemorated by a trail around the town showing copies of his work in the places where he painted them.

Beyond the town are wide open beaches with fine golden sand (looked like it would make great basing sand too) which are popular but not crowded.  Bamburgh castle, Bebbanburgh in Bernard Cornwall's 'Last Kingdom stories, is about 30 minutes drive down the coast. Lindisfarne even closer and the Battlefield's of Flodden and Dunbar are within range of a day trip.

The harbour on Lindisfarne

We spent a pleasant morning on Lindisfarne but it wore the dogs out and they didn't want to move the following day!  As you can see from the above picture the harbour and beaches of the island have very  shallow slopes, perfect for beaching long ships.  In fact it's easy to see why the first Viking raid occurred here.  Easy access, good landing sites, a wealthy priory and best of all on an island that can't be reached by the local Fyrd until low tide!

English Heritage information board (well you didn't think I researched everything did you)

The gates of the Barracks now an English Heritage site

Badges on the Barrack's gates show whose museum is within

This gives some idea of the height of Berwick's walls

Pano shot (hence the distortion) clearly showing the stone facing of the walls

We only had four days and with the dogs with us we couldn't do everything we wanted but we will be returning before very much longer.  It's a part of the UK I hadn't been to before and I aim to play catch up as soon as possible.

The Painting Table - July 2022

This month's favourite brush work

Let's start with the good news. I have reduced the size of the lead pile. Partly this is because I haven't been anywhere to be able to add to it's contents for a while. The bad news is that after taking inventory of the unpainted/unbased figures the lead pile is bigger than I thought. Partly that is due to my counting figures larger than 6mm for the first time; of which there are more than a few lurking in the hidden depths of the pile (as detailed in my last post)! In total it turns out that as of the start of July I had 1,899 castings in the pile of shame. It isn't as bad as it sounds as some of the count are 3mm vehicles and Heroics and Ros 1/300 World War Two infantry which are not much bigger than the 3mm infantry. It's not as high a figure as I first estimated as I expected to hit 2,000! Although I just realised I haven't included 2mm buildings as I squeeze these into gaps in my painting as light relief and that I have a handful of 2mm ECW castings needing painting. Blimey this lead pile is a tricky beast, just as you think you have it tamed it springs a surprise on you. If a wargamer can't die while they still own unpainted lead, I think I'm good for a while.

July's output (minus three 3mm Scout cars)

The painting table itself is as crowded as ever. As soon as I finish something I seem to add something else!  Disciplined I'm not.  Movement out from the table has been a single 28mm Cowboy (see below), some 3mm 1980's cold war vehicles, some 6mm Hunnic Horse archers, Dacian horse and Justinian Byzantine light infantry and some 3mm buildings.  Joining the conveyor belt at the other end are 20 more 6mm Hunnic horse archers, 24 6mm Byzantine foot, around 20 3mm 1980's cold war vehicles and (gulp) a further two dozen 28mm wild west shootists. Still I'm ahead by 65 castings so far.  Not a huge dent in the pile but it's a start.

The paint desk chaos continues

My favourite completed painting job this month is actually a 28mm Wargames Foundry figure of Buffalo Bill Cody, as shown at the top of the page.  I know its a betrayal of the 6mm ethos but it is a lovely casting sculpted by Mark Copplestone and it looks a lot like my friend Lance (who coincidentally was working for WF around the time it was sculpted).  I have all my unpainted 28mm western figures in the painting queue now,  so I promise not to stray from the path of small scale righteousness again...until next time!  Those 28mm's are mostly Dixon figures but there are a couple of Wargames Foundry castings in the queue plus at least one I can't identify.  Things are moving forwards although I do seem to have resurrected an old project.  I will be using an old favourite set of rules if I do play some games.  Anyone for some good old fashioned, late1860's, Texas mayhem using ...

Vintage 1977 shoot out rules 

Apparently the rules have been updated and can be found as a Kindle edition as part of John Curry's 'History of Wargaming' project.  Or you can buy a second hand copy of the above version for a mere £42.32!