Hawk (aka Frank) and Harper (aka Harmonica) about to square off from the Gunfighter’s Ball Linguine Faction Pack.
I’ve been buying and painting miniature wargaming figures for something like 45 years now.
When I started, finding high-quality 28mm Old West miniatures wasn’t easy. I think my first pack was made by Grenadier Miniatures. Crude by today’s standards. The best you could find back then.
That’s certainly no longer the case. I now own 28mm Old West miniatures from at least a dozen companies, perhaps closer to two dozen.
Easily my favorite is the Gunfighter’s Ball range from Knuckleduster Miniatures.
I started buying Wild West figures from Knuckleduster several years back, attracted by the reasonable cost ($10-$12 for a pack of 6) and the wide range of figures available. Who else sold a full pack of can-can dancers? Or saloon crowd figures? Or barroom brawlers? Or pool players?
Then owner Forrest Harris began digitally sculpting his figures, named them Gunfighter’s Ball in conjunction with the release of an Old West rules set. And the quality shot through the roof. With the diversity of figures still intact!
The price jumped too. A pack of six now costs $29.50. But that’s still less than $5 per figures. And these are high-quality figures, usually arriving with very little flash.
And if a rifle barrel gets bent jostling around in a blister pack, you’ll be able to straighten it without having it snap off in your fingers. (Yep, I’m looking at you Great Escape Games and Dead Man’s Hand).
A huge bonus, many of the sculpts resemble characters from well-known Westerns or TV shows. Given the nature of this blog, you can imagine how much I enjoy painting those.
One of the most recent releases features the four main characters from “The Wild Bunch.” Another new release features supporting characters from “Unforgiven.” Forrest had already released mini versions of the William Munny (Clint Eastwood) and Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) characters in previous packs.
I keep hoping that one day, he’ll will get around to releasing Jill (Claudia Cardinale), Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and crippled railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) from my all-time favorite film “Once Upon a Time in the West.”
The Linguine Western Faction already includes Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda). Heck, add Jack Elam, Woody Strode and Al Murdock from that great opening scene, and you’d have a new pack of six.
Bottom line: This is a great range of 28mm Old West miniatures. And if you haven’t checked them out, you should.
The school marm and the shopkeeper’s wife from the Gunfighter’s Ball Frontier Women faction pack.
Paint recipes (all Vallejo paints unless noted otherwise):
School marm
Dress: Dark Blue Gray; then keep adding Gray Blue until it’s the final highlight
Apron: German C. Beige WWII, Add Yellow bone (Reaper), Yellow bone (Reaper) as final highlight
Pure white around collar
Retributor armor for charm around neck
Shoes: Light brown. Wash with Agrax Earthshade
Flesh:
Flat Flesh & Beige brown / 50-50
Flat Flesh & Beige red / 50-50
More flat flesh to that mixture
A bit of basic skin to that mixture
Straight basic skin for small touch highlights
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Shopkeeper’s wife
Dress: Golden Yellow and Yellow Ochre mix, Keep adding Ice Yellow to that mixture, Final highlight with ice yellow
Apron: Leaf green (Reaper), Leaf green and Pale Green (Reaper), Pale Green
Broom: Pale sand
Broom stick: Orange brown
Shoes: Light brown
All covered with Agrax Earthshade wash (Citadel)
Flesh:
Flat Flesh & Beige brown / 50-50
Flat Flesh & Beige red / 50-50
More flat flesh to that mixture
A bit of basic skin to that mixture
Straight basic skin for small touch highlights
One of the great things about the Gunfighter’s Ball range is that it includes more than gunfighters. Here are three of the six figures from the Laborers faction pack.
