Re Return to Rio Morpork

With all I have shown, most are probably wondering why I’m putting it in Spring Clean challenge as it all looks done.

1. I actually needed to dig the figures out, , they have been on a shelf for years and I forgot what I had .
2. They are all metal figures, with nice paint jobs,
3. The new Plastics are lighter,  more wear resistant and easier to transport for games outside the home
4. I can now build some of the newer Icons such as the Firefly crew and the new Magnificent 7
5. Town always needs to expand so new 2 storey building brought, May get more catwalks etc.

Anyway a I decided to build my 1st bunch of Plastics,  to represent the crew of Serenity

1st up was Zowie, the figure herself was easy to build from stock parts from Gunfighters 2.

But how to arm her, in the show she has a sawn off Winchester Shotgun, from what I can see, not to sure on date it came out ,so gave her a hefty sidearm and had her carrying  Henry Rifle

Next was Wash, again from stock parts from Gunfighters,  Put him in shirt sleeves ( not going to be the outrageous Hawaian type) given him a conventional pistol, and as no ship to pilot so made him demo man with pack of Dynomite.

Then came Mal Reynolds, again mostly stock parts apart from the head, most had beards moustaches etc, and wasn’t sure about hat  then found suitable short haired clean shaven head in all things the Frostgrave Wizards Box. For suitable weaponry went for large Navy Colt and my old Favourite a sawn of Shotgun

Wayne was the last of my initial builds ,and by far the most divergent from the base Figures,

The body and legs were standard from Gunfighters,  as was the head as their was a suitable Cigar smoking head , not in wooly hat but the slouch hat will do.

The arms and wpns come from Wargames Atlantics Britih Bulldogs their Steampunk British Figures. Wayne is the character who is the most not western look of the group, in dress and wpns.

I wanted him to have a longer range wpn, Noe I could have gone for a Sharps Buffalo gun. But I wanted something that looked a bit out of period but not too overpowering, so thought Lee Metford , perhaps a prototype design, now it came out in 1888 so not too out of period. How did he get it you ask… He is friends with Pete ( see previous Photos) who is the English owner and mad gun tinkerer of the Rio Morpork  Gunsmihs Lon G Shot. Infamous for his rotating shot pistol

So it’s one of his designs and who better than Jayne to test it.

In addition the Bulldogs had a heavy duty pistol, which looked close to the one Jayne has in show.

As for the arm pads on the arms, I figured padded shoulders!!@.

When I did the original Gunfights back in the day , Having multiple platers a day factions  s is a real bonus as once you have set the stage  campaigns tend to run themselves,  fueds begin,  Alliances develop and fade as the  players look for ways to enhance their faction for example from our campaign a Brian the Brat, would want to rescue gang members captured in a robbe or rob a stage particularly if it hurt a rival or tweeked the nose of their favourite Marshall/Sheriff.

As is often the case with RPG’s reason any intricate scenario plan go out the window by players going g down an unforseen way, but this  helps  your town/ County grow.

Scenarios demand, you may fight in one end of main street , one week another end  a week later. Your  town and County will  grows to fit the  . Rio Morpork was just a main street (it did have a square for a particiaption game but that was  for the boxing match another story) as we only had a few one Storey buildings a barn and a Saloon ,  Your town may  will groaw as mine has over the year or you can just move what you have to make other locatio s in town.Mine has a station and railway line.  A big Saloon/Hotel and another gunsmiths , and a replacement Spanish Church (the original damp ruined )

( odd steampunk pipes ettc added for Wild West Exodus gasme)

It will grow again, as it will gain a River Dockside at some point ( most of it already done for San Ecila Project) and more of the Mexican quarter will be added as Morpork is on the Rio Grande border with Mexico.

Also the County you set the games in will grow with scenarios and again Terrian, There will be a disused Gold mine  in mine, , Your may had a Big Ranch House etc .

Other players in your group may want a turn ru ning a  run a town, etc for there own scenarios, no reason they cant be more than one town in the County , the new locations can be added to the map as games progress.

One thing about the Wild West was it was a big place and character and bands moved about so there is no reason one of a players gangs could not appear in another groups games . I all being well will be going for Holiday in Northern Ireland later in year so one of my gangs may appear in the games at the Visitor Centre, and then interact with the gangs in their county . In fact you could have a bigger map with the counties on it, in mine it is centered ein New Mexico and OTT’s could be in Wyoming (or Austrailia)

Now with all these minis from the past what’s next, we’ll I recently brought What a Cowboy, and Deads Man’s Hand Rules, I’ve played the former recently funnily enough with sone old 54mm figures. I also brought a set of the male and Female Gunfighters, the 2nd was definitely needed as it might not have gone un-noticed that I don’t have many female figures.

I also brought the Plastic 2 storey building,  now I have a couple of Saloons , so it may become a replacement Hmph Hmph Hotel as the original resin model is showing its age

Next Day update.

Having had a thunk whilst working  I have come up with Cunning Plan , plus looked through the various partly used figure boxes I have been colecting up from various manufacturers,  which I can kitbash to do the models that they never did the metals for at time ( plus the TV series didn’t appear till.later)

Firstly with the various boxes above ( mostly from Gunfighters range ,but odd Rifles from Bulldogs, plan is to build the crew of Serenity, but putting g them in a historical setting . Let’s be honest most of the episode were Westerns anyway.

Then should be able to do the New movie Magnificent 7, with added figures from Frostgrave sets.

I may do the Heroes from the old 70′ s Alias Smith &Jones , Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry.

And Finally a late 19th Century Version of Sharp and Harper for a bit of Colonial Goodness.

As Guernsey did release so my Town Bystanders grew. Mostly From their range but also a couple of forgotten figures from that GDW box

Now you may be Wondering why their is a Cossack in the group. Simple Guernsey Foundry had brought out a set of 17th Century Cossa ks and added a sample figure o  orders, he was such a nice figure that I decided to Western ise his Wpn and the Infamous Count Roubles was  born.

Later Factions were added later as campaign gained its own inertia,

The local Big Rancher and his cowhands .

In addition were singleton figures who could interact on their own or be added to factions as required.

Well the lone shot, caused chaos, as it gained friends. The Clactons who had been watching the events unfurl, (at this pont no one knew who had fired the shot as the Bannermen had been concealed in various Town Buildings ) decided to take a hand  they didn’t want their Mexican rivals having the herd  and if they got Burp it was a Bonus, so they opened up on the Mexicans, this of course got the Bannerman shooting at the Clactons. The various lead wizzing round the town  , just missed Brian the Brat, who hadn’t been planning a robbery and was just in town for a comfort break at the Hmph Hmph Hotel, the sudden gunplay seemed to good an opportunity   so he and his gang decided an impromptu Bank Robbery was overdue  and they opened up into the firefight.

The above are a mixture of the previously mentioned ranges, but Mongo , Cherokee Jake are Gueurnsey Foundry..

Taking advantage of the hoolabaloo , Apaches Brave Lookout Bulow decided it would be a good time for his war band to raid the Town Grocery Store  for their cheifs favorite foodstuffs English Muffins and Earl Grey Tea ( Chief Redshirt ( The Honrable Lord Arthur Wibbly Wobbly…. he had been found by his adopted father the famous Sir George Wibbly Wobbly on an archeology expedition , abandoned after his village had been destroyed by Mexican Banditos. Adopted and raised by Sir Wibbly he had returned to lead his people in their war with the White men.. but still hunkered after some of the comforts of home.)

All above are Guernsey Foundry and I think they were my favorite Paint jobs out of all I did back in the day.

For those wondering the scenario dissolved into a series of interchanging gunfight, Brian Successfully robbed the bank, the Bannetmen completely missed the whole thing whilst shooting the Mexicans  the Clactons  ,innocent and not so innocent bystanders ,passing pigeons etc.

Winott Burp spent most of the game bouncing from each side of mainstream, like a carnival target, perking to a series of flesh wounds until the general carnage had reduced the incoming fire until nobody hit him and he could dive in the water Trough

Oh and Cheif Redshirt got his Tea and Muffins!

Our gaming group at the rime could run up to 8 players so obviously I had to have multiple Factions , One the Mexicans run by our youngest player who immediately got into character holding Winott Burp at Gunpoint in order to Force them to sign over a herd of cattle that had Been ‘Confescated’ from the Clactons

The Mexicans are a mixture of ranges, one Hinchcliffe,  the GDW boss, 3 Foundry and 4 Dixons .

Now this action by the Mexicans had not gone un-noticed by the Bannerman Detectives who were lying in wait for’ Brian the Brat’ and his gang who they believed would be attempting to Rob the Bank. Already annoyed bt Winott Burps refusal to help them catch the Desparados, one them decided to shoot one of the Mexicans totally ignoring his order to stay quiet until the robbery began. He later claimed he misheard his orders  not suprising as they were Given by Agent Elma Fudd

The above this time are all actually Guernsey Foundry Figures

Now I mentioned that I had played 54mm games way back in Late 70′ both at Alumwell Wagames and Chase Wargames club. The latter had a long standing campaign running ( I think using ‘Once upon a time in West’rules) and dad set up a county in which the various games were set . They had based it on another Gaming county set up by one of those stalwart grognards of gaming( forgotten name) who used to produce a bimonthly photocopied magazine, Chase had set up their county adjacent to the magazine one, and players from each group could and did transfer characters across for various games.

Taking this an Idea and having played a few games with Guernset Foundrys free ‘Rules with no name” we decided our county would be set in the mythical New Mexico County of  El Snoria, which centered on the Mexican Border Town of Rio Morpork ( we are all Pratchett fans) .

I set up the 1st scenario which centered on the ongoing Feud between ‘The Burps” and ‘the Clacktons’ which had various other faction s in the Town ( particularly the Bañnerman Detective Ageny based on the dodgy agents fro theTV series Alias Smih and Jones  , plus the notorious outlaw ‘Brian the Brat’.

At this point only one figure is Guernsey Foundry , Doc Dayoff  ,

Winott , Reliant and Scott Burp were were from a short lived range of western figures that came out at roughly the same time as Guernsey were getting popular and I can’t remember who they were.

Again only one Figure is Foundry, Shanghai Dave, most of the rest are from forgotten company other than Drongo who I think is Dixon’s.

This project was began between 20 and 30  years ago. Even then it was an attempt to re-create , Western Games played with old 54mm Timp and Britain’s Cowboys, most of which only needed slight painting modifications to make them Table Ready. ( I actually use a Plastic Timpo Train now, it actually works as out of scale as you have room to move figures in it.)

The then rehash was prompted by the then Guernsey Foundry issue of various 28mm Western figures( most are still available,  the company later merged with Foundry to become Wargames Foundry)

Old West

Now I didn’t actually start initially with above, as way way before that I had brought a handful of Western Figures from would yo believe … drum Role for Gerry,  Hinchcliffe. The few I found were used as my test paint figures   and do you know what,

I think they’ve stood the test of time

Now at about this time, whilst waiting for my 1st Foindry order to arrive, I found I  the Old Dungeons and Starship store in my home town, a box of Cowboys, which I think were by GDW, which gave me a set of figures to start factions wih.

Now all above we’re painted well before we had contrasts, washs and the Army Painter ranges, I imagine with mainly the older ranges of GW and MP paints as both were the range I could get. Shading wad done the old laborious , base dark ,and light shading all done by picking it out by hand, I would be lucky to finish 3 figures in about 8 hours!