Assorted Heroines of Western Films 01

I have always been a big fan of Western films and I still am. In recent years I've noticed that more and more Westerns are featuring females in the starring roles, and this is a good thing in my opinion. I have already shown the two heroines from the film, Bandidos in action in my first Six Gun Sound batrep. In this post I want to show the figures I've collected for two more of my favourite Westerns - Bad Girls and The Quick and the Dead.
Bad Girls was made in 1994 and very briefly the film follows four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and prison escape, who later encounter difficulties involving a bank robbery, a train robbery and being chased by Pinkerton detectives.

The four Bad Girls who aren't really that bad.

In this still from the film are the four Bad Girls, who are from left to right, Eileen Spenser (played by Andie MacDowell), Anita Crown (played by Mary Stuart Masterson), Cody Zamora (played by Madeleine Stowe) and Lily Laronette (played by Drew Barrymore).

These are the figures I've used to represent the gang and they all came from different companies. At the far left is the gang's leader, Cody Zamora. Cody is based on the Reaper Chronoscope figure, 50111 Diamond Sue Dawson, who costs £5.22 from the Miniature Heroes webstore. Diamond Sue Dawson was far too good a name not to use, so one of my Black Scorpion Tombstone ladies has adopted that name.
Next up is Eileen Spenser and her figure came from the Knuckleduster Gunfighter's Ball range and is GBF37 - Elly. I added her waistcoat, made out of Milliput, which was a really simple conversion. Her figure costs £3.50 from the Caliver Books webstore.

Second from the right is Anita Crown, and she was produced by Black Scorpion as one of four figures in the Tombstone Cowgirls 1 set, which sadly was just withdrawn from sale at the beginning of this month. I suspect that was because the new range of Tombstone Females were released at the same time, but that seems like a strange decision to me. Surely more choice is a good thing? I do wonder if these older figures will ever return? If not, that is a sad thing, but I'm glad I bought mine when I did.
The last figure in line is Lily Laronette produced by Belt Fed Gaming in foot and mounted versions. I've already shown her once before in this post, https://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2018/05/belt-fed-wild-west-ladies-01.html However, she is worth showing again, only this time with her three cohorts.
I have created stat cards for these four to use in my Six Gun Sound games. I feel a team up with my two ladies from Bandidos would make for a fun game.

Sharon Stone as "The Lady" or Ellen

Another strong female lead who greatly impressed me was Sharon Stone's character known only as "The Lady" or Ellen from the 1995 film, The Quick and the Dead. The story focuses on "The Lady", a gunfighter who rides into the frontier town of Redemption controlled by corrupt mayor John Herod (played by Gene Hackman). She joins a deadly duelling competition in an attempt to exact revenge for the death of her father by Herod.
"The Lady" character is a popular figure for sculptors of Wild West miniatures. I know of three such figures and there may well be more. Probably the most well known of them is the Reaper Chronoscope figure - 50003 Cowgirl Ellen Stone. I do like how they have combined Sharon's surname with the character's first name. The only thing that prevented me from using that figure as "The Lady" was the fact that she was armed with a double-barrelled scattergun, which she never used in the film.

However, the figure I have chosen for my own Ellen Stone (somehow that name is so appropriate for her) is this new release from Black Scorpion. This is the female leader on foot and mounted from the Female Faction of the recent Tombstone Kickstarter range. I backed this project as soon as it was launched last year. As soon as I saw this figure, I knew that I wanted to use her as "The Lady".

I copied her colour scheme from the photo shown above. All of the leaders of the seven factions from the Tombstone skirmish game come in foot and mounted versions, which I do like a lot. This is a fantastic sculpt, very animated and a darned good likeness of Sharon Stone. As I said earlier, the female faction has only just gone on sale at the start of this month and the foot version of the female leader costs £4.50 and the mounted version costs £9.50. Expensive, I know, but they are high quality resin sculpts, full of detail.

Belt Fed Wild West Ladies 01

Whilst viewing Vagabond's excellent "Little Whiskey" Wild West campaign on his blog (see here ) I noted that he had added a new character called Donna, an absolutely superb sculpt from Colonel Bill's Belt Fed Gaming range, and I immediately wanted to add her to my own collection. This is the picture taken from John's blog that so impressed me. (I hope he doesn't mind me showing it here).

Browsing through Colonel Bill's webstore, I noticed that he had a few other Wild West ladies in this range, so I ordered them all, and I have to say, I was mightily impressed with them all. They are quite superbly sculpted metal miniatures, and are so full of character. Let's take a look at them.

At the far left is Dolly Mop - Victorian Harlot, whom I renamed as Dolly Mopsey. Many Victorian era figures fit in well in a Wild West setting and I knew that I could use Dolly as a saloon girl. Despite the fact that she is baring her breasts, I see her as a high class lady who has fallen on hard times and has to sell her body to get by.
Another lady baring her breasts is Calamity Jane, whom I renamed as Calamity Kate McCormick to avoid confusion with the real life Calamity Jane aka Martha Jane Canary. She is chewing on a cigar and is wearing a 7th Cavalry tunic and hat. I have yet to decide what profession to give to her. An outlaw seems the most likely choice. On the other hand, she could be a stage performer in a bawdy saloon. Clearly, she is a woman with no shame.

At the far right is Dulce Maria - Mexican Bandito. I kept her name but gave her the surname of Espinoza. Apparently, there is currently a Mexican singer called Dulce Maria Espinoza - who knew? This really is an outstanding figure. Armed with two pistols and a Winchester rifle, and carrying a bottle of booze (whiskey or tequila?), she is not someone you want to mess with.

Finally, is Doll-Face Kitty - Wild West Outlaw. She is available in foot and mounted versions. Her mounted version is the very first 32mm scale figure on horseback that I have painted. That figure will increase dramatically over the coming months. The figure reminded me of someone I'd seen in a film and whilst lying awake in bed one night thinking about it, the answer came to me.

She is Lily Laronette, played by Drew Barrymore in the 1994 film Bad Girls. This is one of my favourite Western films and after watching it again, I knew that I wanted to have all four Bad Girls featuring in my Wild West campaign.

I found this picture below and based my colour scheme for Lily and her horse on it. The woman alongside her is Anita Crown played by Mary Stuart Masterson, another one of Lily's gang. I am currently on the lookout for suitable figures for Anita as well as gang leader Cody Zamora, played by Madeleine Stowe, and Eileen Spenser, played by Andie MacDowell to make up the rest of the gang. It shouldn't be too hard given the amount of great sculpts of Wild West females currently available.

You can find these five figures on Colonel Bill's webstore here - http://shop.colonelbills-store.co.uk/epages/4f27da57-42ee-48c0-9cb8-22c9dd921a68.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/4f27da57-42ee-48c0-9cb8-22c9dd921a68/Categories/130
Prices are very reasonable - £3.00 for each of the foot figures and £6.75 for the mounted and foot versions of Doll-Face Kitty/Lily. I have always found Colonel Bill a pleasure to deal with. He always delivers any order very promptly.