I’ve been a big fan of the Dead Man’s Hand plastic gunfighters ever since they were first released because of the versatility you have to put together some miniatures armed and equipped exactly how you want them. I was therefore very excited to hear that they were bringing out a plastic wagon kit and decided I must try some mix and match conversions using pieces from the plastic gunfighters sets.
Using the Gunfighters and Female Gunfighters sets you can make some dismounted versions of your wagon drivers and passengers, which is ideal if you are going to be using them in a skirmish game like Dead Man’s Hand or What A Cowboy. I’m planning to put four or five of these wagons together and play a What A Cowboy campaign themed around settlers heading west in a wagon train and the adventures that befall them along the way.
The left hand miniature has had a set of shotgun carrying arms added from the female gunfighters set. The standing bodies are also from the female gunfighters set with the two alternative female passenger heads from the wagon set added. The right hand wagon driver has had a head added to match the standing version from the plastic gunfighters set. Figures have been glued onto temporary painting bases and have been spray undercoated using Halfords White Auto Primer. Once dry a brown / sepia ink wash has been applied to bring out the detail and assist with the shading and highlighting.
When the ink wash is completely dried, matt white acrylic was drybrushed over the miniature using a medium sized make up brush. These are ideal for drybrushing miniatures and terrain and cost a fraction of the price of specialist hobby brushes.
Faces and hands painted with Crusader Flesh. This is my favourite flesh tone, I love the way it highlights.
Weapons painted using Broadsword Silver. I often add a drop od Grim Black to tone it back to more of a gunmetal finish.
Fire Drake is a great warm, medium brown tone. I’ve used it for one of the horses which are also being painted with Army Painter Speedpaints.
The second horse was painted with Satchel Brown which is a nice deep, reddish brown. I also used these browns to paint random pieces of clothing / equipment on the miniatures.
I’ve used Royal Blue to paint one of the passengers bonnets and a waistcoat. Western figures tend to have a lot of browns and greys so it is nice to have the odd dash of colour.
The wagon was sprayed with Army Painter Leather Brown. It was then given a good all over drybrush with medium fleshtone using a make up brush before finally being given an ink wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.
The canvas canopy was painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Bony Matter thinned down 50/50 with Speed Paint Medium. This medium works really well at reducing puddling when thinning paints. When completely dry the canvas was given a n overall drybrush with Army Painter Skeleton Bone followed by a light Dry Brush of Matt White applied with a large make up brush.
Grim Black, Sand Golem, Tyrian Navy and Burnt Moss were used to pick out various pieces of clothing.
Army Painter speedpaints mix very well, so if you do not have the tone you are looking for, it is worth experimenting. I mixed Zealot Yellow & Bony Matter to get a nice sandy, yellowish brown tone.
Here’s the wagon with the alternative crew and the canopy removed. The plastic wagon kit has a lot of versatility. You can build it with the tailgate up or down, no canopy, hoops for canopy or full canopy.
Here’s the wagon with dismounted crew.
The wagon comes as a kit with two horses and two figures, each with a choice of two heads, but they have also made the wagon available without the horses, canopy or figures if you want some parked up as terrain.
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