Friday 16 September 2016

Shadows of Brimstone Bandits

Having shown you the main Heroes of Shadows of Brimstone last post, it is time to turn to the Enemies. The vast majority of Enemies in this game are not human. However, this was fixed when the Frontier Town expansion set was released. It introduced a new type of Enemy, known as Bandits. Six 32mm scale plastic Bandit models were included and all were identical one-piece castings. Cattle rustlers, horse thieves and bank robbers, Bandits are rough and rowdy outlaws. They are not terribly tough, but can pack a serious punch with the hail of bullets from their six-shooting pistols or rooftop rifles. Bandits often ambush Heroes from the rooftops of buildings when they are in town. Down on the ground they favour their pistols. Bandits prefer a running gunfight rather than closing in to get their hands dirty. Because their main focus is making Ranged Attacks, they will attempt to stay back, away from the Heroes and attack them from a distance. Note that Bandits can be added to the list of Enemies who may be encountered down in the mines.
As I said above, all six figures from this set are identically sculpted. This, naturally,  did not sit well with me and I set about converting five of them. I wanted my Bandits to all be unique. The Bandit at the far left is the only unconverted figure in my group.
The Bandit in the centre had the billowing flap of his coat repositioned and bent forward. I achieved this by holding the figure over the flame of a candle until the plastic softened. I quickly repositioned the coat flap then dunked the figure into a cup of cold water to fix the conversion in place.
For the Bandit at the far right, I cut his pistol off and glued it in place in his left hand. I added a knife blade from my spare parts box to his right hand.
Moving on, I made three changes to this Bandit at the far left. First, I made a cut under the elbow of his right arm and carefully bent his forearm upwards. The gap in his arm was filled with Milliput. Secondly, I made his money-bag a lot bigger by increasing its size with more Milliput. Thirdly, I painted him with dark brown skin to make him a former African slave.
For the Bandit in the centre, I made a small cut above his elbow and gently bent his forearm downwards. He appears to be pointing his Pistol at the ground but if he was on a rooftop, he'd naturally be pointing it downward at a target below him. I also added an extra money-bag to him, made out of Milliput, which he holds in his left hand. I had to remodel his left hand.
The Bandit at the far right was converted very similarly to the previous one. He was also given an extra money-bag to hold in his left hand. I also bent his right arm slightly so that it was pointing more to his front. His coat tail has also been slightly repositioned, but not as much as the second Bandit I reviewed.
These were all very simple conversions. One obvious way to make these figures look different, if converting isn't your thing, is to paint them in different colour schemes. I decided to keep them all with black hats and black coats, to tie them together, but their bandanas, shirts and trousers were all painted differently.
Finally, here are all six bandits grouped together. They are rather basic sculpts but not bad at all. I do wish that the set came with a three/three split of pistol armed Bandits and rifle armed Bandits. I'll be looking out for similarly dressed Bandits wielding rifles to use in place of these when they ambush from a rooftop in a game. Black Scorpion have quite a few Outlaws who would fit the bill perfectly.
I haven't bothered naming any of these figures. For the most part they will just be unnamed mooks with a low life expectancy.
Expect more outlaws next time, but with a warped twist!

16 comments:

  1. Some simple but oh so effective conversions/tinkerings Bryan, and I nice choice in their colourful attire. I think the one with the "Jim Bowie" blade is my particular fave, though they're all good imho. Great posting :-)

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    1. Thanks, Simon. The one with the knife is the one who looks the most different to his colleagues, so he does stand out.

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  2. simple but effective as Simon said. A dastardly band of thugs they are too!

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    1. Cheers, Andy. A dastardly band is a great description of them.

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  3. Nice work Bryan, though subtle the conversions add a little personality to the group.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Exactly! I do like variety amongst my figures.

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  4. As you Say a shame all the bandits are the same scupts, but at least other possibilities to purchase bandits do exist.

    You have done a good job bringing these to life. Nice one mate.

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    1. Agreed. It would have been nice if they weren't all identical. But there are ways around that, like converting and using additional figures from other manufacturers.

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  5. Very lovely models Bryan, I like how you have converted them to make them all different from one another (sorry tar hun lol). I do know what she means though, and I guess I really don't mind either, rows and rows of uniform minis, or lots of individually posed ones ideal for skirmish. All in all, these look great anyway, and will make your games that much more enjoyable to play. I keep planning to do a few batreps for Brimstone, but time is against me lately. We do play lots, at least three dozen games under our belts all told between all of us, I`m guessing, but alas.. nothing written up for it by any of us.

    This expansion, the ones that comes with these cool Outlaws, is amazing isn’t it. You kindly sent m a copy, which was a godsend as I simply could not get anyone so ship a copy to us here in Ireland. Thanks again for that mate, was massively appreciated. Interestingly, the Outlaws see a lot of use outside the Brimstone game, proper, in addition to being used with the game. They made great Imagi-Boers for my early Colonial games, and bolster my forces a bit (a bloke has to improvise sometimes when he hasn’t got all the minis he needs lol). In fact all the Brimstone figures get used for other things from time to time.

    The terrain looks absolutely to die for, and I would be guessing will keep you going a good while *grins* I`m also guessing you now have some rather cool new backdrops to display your figures when you showcase your newly painted lots in all future articles ^^ Nice one.

    ENjoy it all Bryan, and keep us updated how it all goes with this pretty lot. My God you have LOADS hehe. Well done.

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    1. I like Shadows of Brimstone a lot but oh my, Frontier Town really opened up the game and is a magnificent supplement. I am so glad you are getting so much enjoyment out of it. When I saw that copy I got for you so cheaply on eBay I knew I HAD to get it for you. I did smile when I read of you using the Bandits in other games. Hell, why not?

      I have loads of cool stuff still to show for this game and for my more normal Wild West gaming. This is a project that is steadily growing and I'm loving it all! Believe me, i do plan to enjoy it all.

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  6. Ah, this reminds me of 30 years ago or so, when entire units in an army were made from exactly the same figure (that being the only one available). ow the times have changed; we *expect* every figure to be different :-) !

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