Black Scorpion Old West Terrors 03

Following on from my last post here are the last five figures from the Tombstone Undead faction produced by Black Scorpion. These zombie figures are all 32mm scale and are sculpted in resin.

At the far left is the Undead Deputy, who is a zombie 7th Cavalry Officer who is armed with a .45 Colt Cavalry revolver and a cavalry sabre. He is sold separately from the others.
Next in line is a female townsfolk who at a distance could pass as a normal human. She still holds on to her shopping bag but in her right hand is a .32 Smith and Wesson revolver.
In the centre of the group is a zombie preacher. He is armed with a .44 Winchester rifle. Note his exceptionally long pointed tongue sticking out of his mouth. Creepy!

Second from the right is a Mexican bandido and hanging victim. He is armed with a .45 Colt Army revolver. The crow feasting on his neck is a gruesome but so cool touch. Note that he also has a long pointed tongue.
Finally is a zombie plains warrior. Although he has a skeleton face I'm assuming the flesh was stripped off by zombies before he died or scavenging animals or birds. He is armed with a .45 Colt Army revolver and tomahawk. He also has a bow and quiver of arrows on his back.
These are a great bunch of figures and are very varied. The detail on them is very crisp, making them a joy to paint. Having more zombies is never a bad thing in my opinion. The zombie deputy costs £4.50 and the other four come as a set costing £9.60.

Black Scorpion Old West Terrors 02

When Black Scorpion ran their Tombstone Kickstarter, I was pleased to see that one of the seven factions was the Undead faction. As you should know I'm a sucker for Undead figures. The faction included the four Tombstone Terrors that I reviewed here . In this post and the next I'm going to review the new figures for this faction, starting with the skeleton gunfighters.

I start with the leader of the faction, a gunfighter armed with a .45 Colt Army revolver and a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun.

There is also a mounted version of him, which I received as part of my Kickstarter package. I thought he might be riding an Undead horse but he isn't.

The next set of skeleton gunfighters has four figures who are similarly dressed and armed with a pair of .45 Colt Army revolvers. The exception is the one second from the right who has replaced his Stetson with a bowler hat and who is armed with a double-barrelled shotgun.

I think these are terrific figures. It is very rare to see skeleton gunfighters. Zombie gunfighters are much more common. The Tombstone rulebook does have stats for skeletons and zombies but I'm not a big fan of the rulebook. My two preferred Weird West rules are High Moon by Two Hour Wargames and Shadows of Brimstone by Flying Frog Productions. I will most likely just use their rules for zombies when I use these figures in a game.
The leader figure costs £4.50 for the foot figure and £9.60 for the mounted version. The four gunfighters cost £9.60 for all four.

Black Scorpion Hillbilly Boys

Here I present the four 32mm scale Hillbilly Boys figures from the Black Scorpion Tombstone range. I haven't named any of them yet but will do when I use them in my Six Gun Sound campaign.

At the far left is "Junior" who is armed with a pitchfork and a .44 Colt Army Revolver. "Junior" is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box. Note his buck teeth.
Next up is an old timer armed with a Double-Barrelled Shotgun and wearing dungarees and a big hat.

Second from the right is the leader of the group, sporting a mightily impressive white beard and moustache. He is also armed with a Double-Barrelled Shotgun.
It wouldn't be a proper Hillbilly gang without at least one moon-shiner. At the far right is the old timer in charge of the moon-shine still. He has a bottle of hooch in his right hand, a .44 Colt Army Revolver in his left hand and a banjo slung over his back.
These resin cast miniatures are very well detailed and so full of character. They'll be a great addition to my growing Wild West collection. This set costs £9.60 for the four figures from the Black Scorpion webstore.

Black Scorpion Female Gunfighters 01

Black Scorpion make my favourite 32mm scale Wild West figures and by far my favourites amongst them are their females. Here I take a look at their Female Gunfighters, all of whom have been sadly withdrawn from their website to be replaced by the Female Gunfighter Faction from last year's Tombstone Kickstarter. I think this is a crying shame. Why they couldn't sell both is a mystery to me. Anyway, let's take a closer look at these beautifully sculpted figures.

I start with two figures who came in mounted and foot versions. At the left is Missy Scarlet who wears an unfashionable for the time, short buckskin dress and a top hat. She carries a lasso and a 12 Gauge Double-Barrelled Shotgun.

Next up is Barbara Allen, who is much more appropriately dressed in jeans, shirt, duster coat and Stetson hat. She is armed with a .44 Winchester Rifle and a .45 Colt Peacemaker Revolver.

The scantily clad lady at the far left is "Diamond Sue" Dawson and she is the cover girl of the Tombstone skirmish game rulebook. She was offered as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter launch. This sassy lassie is armed with a 12 Gauge Double-Barrelled Sawn-Off Shotgun and a .44 Colt Army Revolver. She is one of my favourite figures and I'll certainly be making her a Star in my Six Gun Sound games.

The next two ladies have not been named yet. The one in the centre has a 12 Gauge Double-Barrelled Shotgun slung over her shoulder and a .45 Colt Peacemaker Revolver in a holster on her right hip.
The Gunfighter at the right is carrying two .45 Colt Peacemaker Revolvers by her sides.

In this next batch, none of whom are named. I start at the left with a Native American female who is carrying a .45 Colt Peacemaker Revolver in her left hand. It is unusual to see an armed female Native American but I welcome her wholeheartedly.
The lady next to her appears to be unarmed but I'm betting she has a Derringer Pistol hidden away on her person. To me, she looks more 1920's than 1870's and wouldn't look out of place in a gangster setting.

The lady in the olive green dress wields a .44 Colt Army Pistol in her left hand and looks like she knows how to use it.
Last in line is a young lady with incredibly long blonde hair. She is armed with a pair of .44 Colt Cavalry Revolvers. From the waist up she is perfect for the Old West period but from the waist down, she appears more suited to a contemporary period with her mini-skirt.

This final batch of female gunfighters are not how I'd expect women of the Old West to dress. As modern day cowgirls they'd be perfect with their shorts, miniskirts and crop tops showing acres of cleavage. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love them! I just don't think they're appropriate for the 1870's. Anyway, let's take a closer look at them. Once again, I have yet to name them.
At the far left dressed in a duster coat and skimpy denims, this lady is armed with a .44 Colt Cavalry revolver and .45 Sharps Rifle.
The busty beauty next to her carries a pair of .44 Colt Army revolvers by her sides.

Second from left, this miniskirted blonde is armed with a 12 gauge Double Barrelled Shotgun.
Last in line is a brunette firing a .44 Colt Army Revolver left handed.

Black Scorpion Townsfolk 01

In this, the first of two posts, I'm reviewing a couple of sets of Black Scorpion 32mm scale Townsfolk from their Tombstone range of resin cast figures.

The four figures to the left are the Civilians 1 set, consisting of a miner/prospector, a store owner with broom, an elderly fat gentleman and a young lady with umbrella. I haven't named any of these yet. This set costs £9.60 for the four figures.

At the far right is a rambler and Humphrey the dog. I named the rambler as Russell Tucker, or as most folk call him, "Ole Man Tucker." He and Humphrey are inseparable, which is rather appropriate given that they are a one-piece casting. Together, they cost £4.50.

Next up are Civilians 2, which also consists of four figures -  a blacksmith, a bartender, a doctor and a middle-aged lady. This set also costs £9.60.

All of these figures are crisply sculpted and were a joy to paint. I will be using them in my Six Gun Sound games and I will name them all and give them character record cards.

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.