Brigade Games Wild Bunch Outlaws

I'm moving away from my Shadows of Brimstone figure reviews for the time being but I am still sticking with the Wild West theme. This time I'm looking at a set of five 28mm scale figures produced by Brigade Games from their American West range. This is set BG-AWE015 Western Characters IV, which retails for $15.00 for all five figures. That's pretty good value for money, although I did order mine before the UK left the EU. As soon as I saw these figures I recognised them as the main characters from the 1969 Sam Peckinpah Western, The Wild Bunch. This is one of my all-time favourite Western films and I knew I had to buy them.

From left to right are the Wild Bunch outlaws, Tector Gorch (played by Ben Johnson), his brother Lyle Gorch (played by Warren Oates), gang leader, Pike Bishop (played by William Holden) and Dutch Engstrom (played by Ernest Borgnine). At the far right and separate from the gang is Deke Thornton (played by Robert Ryan). He used to be a partner of Pike Bishop but now he has turned his back on Pike and he leads a posse hired by the railroad to hunt down the Wild Bunch.
The plot of the film starts with the Wild Bunch robbing a railroad office containing a cache of silver. However, they are ambushed by Deke Thornton and his posse of bounty hunters. The gang escapes after a bloody shoot-out but discovers they have been tricked - the silver is nothing more than worthless metal washers. They head across the Rio Grande to Mexico, where they hole up in a town run by Mapache, a corrupt and brutal general in the Mexican Federale Army. They agree to do a job for him - the theft of a U.S. Army weapons shipment from a train. Thornton and posse briefly catch up with them but arrive too late to prevent the robbery. Escaping the posse again, Bishop expects Mapache to double-cross him and of course, he does. The Wild Bunch use some of their captured weapons to kill Mapache and in the extremely bloody gunfight (mostly shot in slow motion) that follows they are all killed. Deke and his posse arrive after the battle. Thornton leaves his posse, who decide to return the corpses of the Wild Bunch back across the border to collect the bounty on them. This proves to be a wise move on Deke's part as the posse are ambushed and slaughtered. Unlike most Hollywood films, there is no happy ending in this movie!

The figures are superbly sculpted and capture the likenesses of the film characters extremely well. The only difference is that the figures are all armed with Winchester repeating rifles whereas in the film they mainly used 12 gauge pump-action shotguns. The film was meant to be set in 1913 so I can understand why the sculptor has decided to go for an early Western vibe and have them armed with the iconic Winchesters. I'm okay with this change. There is no reason not to have them in an earlier setting in the 1870's or 1880's. My only complaint with the rifles is that their barrels are very thin and bend easily. I fear, if not handled very carefully, they could easily snap off. I strengthened mine by coating them in superglue before I painted them.

This still from the film must have inspired the sculptor a lot. Apart from Lyle Gorch (second from the left) the figures are in the exact same poses as the actors. The picture shows the Wild Bunch on their way to kill General Mapache. It's about to get very violent and very bloody! I'd love to recreate that last battle on the tabletop. The Six Gun Sound rules by Two Hour Wargames would be the rule-set I'd use.

Here is a still taken of Deke Thornton near the start of the film with his unsavoury posse in the background. He still retains some honour and dignity. The posse have none at all. They are just scum.