Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 7
With Frank McMiller, the trio of McMiller's sons is complete. All in all, I used the same color scheme as on Eugene or Seamus to establish a visual connection.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 6
Another Wild West Wednesday casts its shadow and with the redskin shown here, only one member remains in Killer McMiller's gang of outlaws.
I've painted a Northern Union uniform for the first timewith this model, and the overall look of the model already urged to use this color combination. The pants were an experiment in this respect and I used Sombre Grey from Vallejo Game Color as the base color.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 5
It's Wednesday, and this means it's time to introduce another member of my Outlaws for Dead Man's Hand. The McMiller brothers should all have a color-coordinated look to bring out their family bond. For the henchmen, on the other hand, I wanted them to look like a very different bunch, made up of very dissimilar characters.
"El Toro" was McMiller's right-hand, stoic and loyal. Weasel, on the other hand, should be of a completely different nature. The miniature from Artizan Designs had a wonderfully devious posture and I wanted to underline this with the paintjob.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 4
In one of Vince Venturella's many videos on YouTube, he once said that, no matter if you're in the midst of an army project, you should always try out new and different things while painting. Since I was in the mood to do so anyway and this approach offered itself to a Dead Man's Hand gang, I took his advice to heart and experimented a bit with the colors of the skin and the jacket.
The skin of el Toro has a slightly darker nuance than, for example, McMiller's sons Eugene and Seamus. The jacket was a rather unusual experiment. I searched Google for pictures of mariachis, western jackets, and the poncho that Clint Eastwood wears in "A Fistful of Dollars". In the result the jacket received embellishments on the sleeves in the form of yellow stripes and a stylized bull's head on the back, inspired by the Dead Man's Hand logo.
I also painted the sash around his waist in a rather unconventional way, brghtening the red up with Dwarf Flesh, giving it a milder, pastel tone. Since in my mind a sash is never just plain, I decided to paint a few stripes on it too, which eased the tense look of the miniature a bit.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 3
With the growing number of gang members, the concept and backgroundstory of the gang gradually grew as well. Seamus McMiller is Eugene's younger brother and comes from another affair of old McMiller. To illustrate that they're brothers, I tried to use the same colors as on Eugene.
The only exception to this was the shirt. While I was painting, I had the idea of distinguishing the brothers primarily by the color of their shirts.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 2
Unlike old McMiller, I've chosen brighter colors for Eugene, inspired by the beige and pastel tones of the Briscoe County Jr. series, a Western adventure series from the 1990s.
The model is from the Foundry range and offers a wonderfully silly facial expression. That was just right for Eugene to get a matching backstory that went well with the bright colors of his appearance. The trousers were painted in Steel Legion Drab again, while the hat is a wild mish-mash of shades of gray. You do not have to be very neat with the shades because sweat stains on the hat do not leave a consistent mark and are rather random instead.
Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws – Part 1
In the review of Dead Man's Hand, I had already suggested that I would make a small gang, and after relieving Dennis's holdings by a few minis, it was not long before the first protagonist of my outlaws was done. These are my first experiences with "historical" minis and I have to say that they are quite grateful models paintwise.
Old West – Moving to Colorado
I have been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 in late summer and what shall I say, it really got me hooked again with the Old West. I already own a complete collection, with a posse or two even painted up and am pretty rounded with the latest addition in 2020 with Boothill Miniatures.
I have a few rule sets for the stock as well, favouring Warhammer Historicals Legends of the Old West, but I picked up Shootout in Dingstown at Rhein-Main-Multiversum this year. And of course there is always Osprey, in this case just very horror / pulp with Dracula's America.
Necromunda – 1995s House Orlock Gang
I have finished a Middlehammer Chaos warband, I have finished a 90s Blood Bowl Chaos team and now it is time to jump into Sci-Fi. And what better miniature stock to do so by taking a look at Necromunda?
Necromunda has roots in the Rogue Trader era as well. Not entirely unlike Blood Bowl, it had a predecessor. In this case called Confrontation (not to be confused with the game by Rackham), which wasn't released as a boxed game but as published across multiple issues of the White Dwarf Magazine in 1990 and 1991 (Mordheim initially went for a similar approach and was published across multiple issues in White Dwarf until it was released as a boxed game). Confrontation shared a lot of similarities with Necromunda, like the gang warfare setting in a Hive City, yet had a different design approach, as you can see from the artwork and miniatures.
Necromunda – Outlanders Stock
I went over my Necromunda Underhive stock and did an update to the 2021 article, as I managed to complete large part of the collection, extending into the Outlanders supplement as well as beyond. From the core collection, I'm only missing a single Goliath ganger and I'd like to share the status quo of the extended Underhive collection.
Just to bring you up to date, a brief repetition from the last article: What is Necromunda about? It is a 28mm skirmish between the street gangs of the bigger Houses on the planet Necromunda, fighting over supply contracts, mines and facilities. And all that in the underground of a megacity (so very 2000 AD) in the Warhammer 40.000 universe. With the character / gang development it even included a narrative part, to tell the story of your own gang, with all the ups and downs that belong to it. And that narrative part is simply the cherry on top of that old school goodness.