Black Scorpion Lawmen 01

Being without my computer for ten days was a major bummer, but on the plus side it did allow me to spend a heck of a lot of time on my gaming hobby. I've been painting lots of Wild West figures as well as making buildings and scenery for my upcoming Weird and Wild West projects. I mentioned in a recent Monthly Musings that I had received over 100 figures for the Black Scorpion Tombstone Kickstarter project. I also already had quite a few other Tombstone figures that I'd bought before the Kickstarter began. With so many figures to paint, I decided I had to make a start on getting them painted. Let me just say right from the start that I absolutely love the Black Scorpion range of resin-cast Tombstone figures. The detail on them is amazing and they are simply a joy to paint. In this post I'm going to concentrate on some of the Lawmen figures, starting off with the Earp brothers and their good friend, "Doc" Holliday.

This picture above was taken from the Black Scorpion webstore and shows the original sculpts for the three Earp brothers and "Doc" Holliday. I'll be honest, I think they are just okay. Not bad, but not brilliant either. Perhaps, sculptor Adam Clarke, felt the same way because last year he re-sculpted them and produced these four superb figures you see below. In my opinion, they are a vast improvement over the originals. They look far more dynamically posed. I think the new "Doc" Holliday figure is outstanding.

From left to right are town Marshal Virgil Earp, his two deputies, Morgan and Wyatt Earp and John "Doc" Holliday, who at the time of the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, was appointed as a Special Policeman by Virgil, essentially meaning he was also a deputy.The Earps are all armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and "Doc" is armed with a 12g Shotgun and a Colt .45 Pistol.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second shoot out between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 pm on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West. The gunfight was the result of a long-simmering feud, with Cowboys Billy Claibourne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury on one side and the Earp brothers and "Doc" Holliday on the other side. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys, who objected to the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton claimed that he was unarmed and ran from the fight, along with Billy Claiborne. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed. The shootout has come to represent a period of the American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws, largely unopposed by law enforcement officers who were spread thin over vast territories.

Moving on, we have another real life lawman, Sheriff Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett, better known as "Pat" Garrett. He achieved fame by pursuing and eventually killing the notorious outlaw, William "Billy the Kid" Bonney on 14 July, 1881. In November of 1880, Garrett was elected as sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico. Although Garrett's term would not begin until January 1, 1881, he was eager to capture the fugitive "Billy the Kid", and persuaded Sheriff Kimball to appoint him a deputy sheriff for the remainder of Kimball's term. Garrett was further aided when he obtained a deputy U.S. Marshal's commission, which allowed him to pursue the Kid across county lines. Garrett and his posse stormed the Dedrick ranch at Bosque Grande on November 30, 1880. They expected to find the Kid there, but only succeeded in capturing John Joshua Webb, who had been charged with murder, along with an accused horse thief named George Davis. Garrett turned Webb and Davis over to the sheriff of San Miguel County a few days later, and moved on to the settlement of Puerto de Luna.  There a local tough named Mariano Leiva picked a fight with Garrett and was shot in the shoulder. On July 14, 1881, Garrett visited Fort Sumner to question a friend of the Kid's about his whereabouts and learned he was staying with a mutual friend, Pedro Menard "Pete" Maxwell. Around midnight, Garrett went to Maxwell's house. The Kid was asleep in another part of the house, but woke up in the middle of the night and entered Maxwell's bedroom, where Garrett was standing in the shadows. The Kid did not recognize the man standing in the dark. He asked him, repeatedly, "¿Quién es?" (Who is it?), and Garrett replied by shooting at him twice.The first shot hit the Kid in the chest just above the heart, killing him. He is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols.

The final two figures are fictitious figures created by me. Wearing the black duster is Marshal Kingston Regis, a patient and determined man, who has some experience in the latest detective techniques. He is armed with a .44 Winchester Rifle and a Colt .45 Pistol.
At the far right is Sheriff Harrison Coburn, who is actually from the Black Scorpion Collectors range and not the Tombstone range. He is ambidextrous. He has a Knife tucked in his left boot and he carries a 12g Scattergun in his left hand. The long-barrelled pistol held in his right hand is a .45 Colt Buntline Special with its 12" long barrel. The gun was allegedly used by Wyatt Earp, but there is hardly any evidence to show that this was true. Fans of old Western films may remember that Colonel Douglas Mortimer (played by Lee Van Cleef) used one in the film, For a Few Dollars More (see picture below).

I have created character cards for all seven of these lawmen to use in Six Gun Sound. I'm building up quite a cast of characters for this game, which I hope to showcase real soon. You can buy six of these seven figures from the Black Scorpion webstore. The Earps II cost £9.60 for all four figures, Pat Garrett costs £4.50 and Sheriff Coburn costs £4.50. The unnamed lawman figure whom I called Kingston Regis is not currently available.