...those who keep up with their blogs and those who don't. It turns out, I'm the latter.

I have managed to keep with with various bits and pieces of building and painting, but family time, results day and then preparing for the new year got in the way of keeping this old thing up to date.

I finished one major project - which I'll blog about this week - but then I've dabbled a bit before starting on something new. Or rather, old.

Here is the start of the new project:




Yes, my return to Ratwater and Old West gaming. These are the Artizan versions of Angel Eyes, Blondie and Tuco from Leone's masterpiece*. They're fabulous sculpts but alas the Lee Van Cleef was marred by a horrible miscast on one side of the face that I simply didn't see until after priming and basing. As long as you don't look too closely, it's fine. Certainly not enough to put me off buying more.

I am actually rather proud of these; they're pretty screen accurate - matching the green/brown of Clint's poncho was a cast iron sod.




I've also treated myself to some more scenery to expand the town of Ratwater so watch out for those in the near future.



*Yes, I know everyone is supposed to think Once Upon a Time In The West is the best; it self evidently isn't and it's my blog, so suck on it.

Continuing my current Wild West phase - and pardner, I gotta tell ya, there ain't nuthin' as restorative as watching Deadwood and paintin' some desperadoes - I've finished off the cacti:

Just a quick update to show off the work on Doc:



And a shot from the back to show off the shading and highlighting on the black:



Wild Bill:


and The Preacher:

Hopefully will have some more done this week and then a basing session.

Tombstone had a massive impact on me in the halcyon days of university. It's still one of my favourite westerns. I am happy, therefore, to show my latest nearly complete miniature;

I've been watching a lot of Westerns while I've been painting this week because, Hell, who doesn't like a good western?

As part of my digging around in the garage I located the last set of miniatures I was painting before the birth of my firstborn, 3 years ago. They are a sorry-lookin' collection of half-painted cowpokes and desperadoes from Black Scorpion and Artizan.

Here's the photo taken way back when:





I've started catching up with them - I've already posted big Al:



And yesterday I sat down to watch True Grit (the original version, although Lord knows I do love them both) and painted the Duke in his Oscar-winning turn as Deputy US Marshall Rooster Cogburn:





As an interesting aside, I really need to stop using the big macro lens to shoot my minis as it makes the brushwork look horrible:




So the next step is to paint a few more; I have the Artizan Doc Holliday and Wild Bill to do as well as the Black Scorpion generic chaps.

Can anyone recommend any good Western rules...?