Another Set of HO Scale Miniatures

The Gang of Six. I am in process of painting these little jewels. I am having another go at them. These are from Rusty Rails miniaturers. If the truth be known I have been working on these six figures for years; always off to something new.

My Western Town | Building 6

Why not start at the end and work your way forward? I just happened upon this video while going back to look for other vidoes by this author.

West World Season Two Episodes

West World Season Two

The second season of West World has made its way to DVD and I have been binge watching this new season of episodes. This new season has been titled "The Door". In the last episode of season one, the hosts had started killing off the visitors. Season two continues the host's rampage. Although corporate is trying to contain the situation, there are darker subverting forces at work.

Here is a list of season two's episodes. The introductions are from the inside booklet that accompanies the three disk set.

Episode	Title	Introduction
1	"Journey into Night"	The puppet show is over, and we coming for you and the rest of your kind.
2	"Reunion"	Why don’t we start at the beginning.
3	"Virtù e Fortuna"	There is beauty in who you are,. Shouldn’t we, too, try to survive?
4	"The Riddle of the Sphinx"	Is this now? If you’re looking forward, you’re the wrong direction.
5	"Akane no Mai"	Welcome to Shogun World.
6	"Phase Space"	We each deserve to choose our fate.
7	"Les Écorchés"	Strike the match.
8	"Kiksuya"	Take my heart when you go.
9	"Vanishing Point"	Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything.
10	"The Passenger"	You only live as long as the last person who remembers you.

Frank Reade and his Electric Prairie Schooner

It has been a while since I posted anything on Frank Reade, how ever I am about to. I just found a site that features public domain comics. Comic book plus has a large collection of Reades work. I don't remember how I ended up on this page, but I did land on the Frank Reade and his Electric Prairie Schooner pages.

WestWorld Season 1: The Maze

Disk One
The Original
Chestnut
The Stray

Disk Two
Dissonance Theory
Contrapasso
The Adversary
Trope L’Oeil

Disk Three
Trace Decay
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Bicameral Mind

I just completed watching season 1 of WestWorld. Although the plot was excellent, I am left feeling a bit disturbed by the ending of the last episode.

1:72 Bum Far West Town

Very Nice Art Work on Box

This is my second BUM model kit and perhaps my last. I purchased this kit for war-gaming. As you can see from the second image the kit includes twelve figures and two structures. The structures are made from some very flimsy and shiny plastic. The kit is supposed to be in 1/72 scale, but the figures and the building look like they could pass for 1/87 scale. There are two horses with two riders. The mix includes six cowboys and six Indians.

Western in My Pocket a Free Print and Play Game

Download the "Western in my Pocket" zip folder which contains the games components. Once you unzip this file you will find a set of tiles, Event and Score cards, and game rules. Pick a character and scenario. This is a one-person or solo game. There are good guys and bad guy scenarios. The rules are very basic and open for interpretation. Not that you need them to play I suppose “old” west miniatures of any size could be used, but with the size of the tiles as they are I would propose using either 15 or 25mm miniatures instead of some miscellaneous token. This might make playing the game more meaningful.

My Readings of Zane Grey

Over the winter I read, among other novels, this set of Zane Grey’s novels. Zane Gray is a writer of westerns. Most of all of what I have read has taken place in Arizona and Utah and depicts the old west. Zane gives you quite a few glances into the forests, deserts, and canyons of Arizona and Utah. The beauty of these places see detailed for the reader where you feel like you right there with the characters.

Zane make use of many colorful characters: villains, rustlers, vigilantes, heroes and heroines. Zane tells stories about Navahos, Mormons, outlaws, horses, and of gold. His stories are spirited, full of adventure and intrigue.

All were read as epubs.

• The Young Forester
• The Man of the Forest
• Riders of the Purple Sage
• The Rainbow Trail (is a sequel of the previous title)
• The Call of the Canyon

Edgar Rice Burroughs Official Website

The other day while researching one of Edgar Rice Burroughs novels I stumbled upon his official website. I have read a few of Burroughs’s work. I have read his Caspak series starting off with his The Land the Time Forgot a science fiction thriller and his War Chief a western about an Apache war chief. All the texts have been good reading.

Burroughs, a prolific writer, has written science fiction, adventures, romance, and westerns. His titles run the gamut of Tarzan, The Moon Maid, and Beyond the Farthest Star to name just a few.

The site summarizes many of his titles, offers a few video clips, and the chance to purchase official merchandise such as shirts, hats and other sundries.

Two Tutorials on How to Paint a Horse

The Aspen Modeling Company is offering a tutorial on painting one of their S gauge Cowboys(S-23). The 15 page PDF will walk you through the process of painting of their highly detailed resin casting.

The second tutorial “How to Paint a Brown Horse” gives you a step by step instructions on how to paint a 1/72 Zvezda French horse. There a many images showing the transition from a highly detailed plastic casting into a work of art.

Excuse me, but I have go see man about a horse.

Zane Grey

I recently downloaded the following titles to my Android tablet: The Rainbow Trail, The Call of the Canyon, Desert Gold, Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Young Forester, by Zane Grey. These titles will be fodder for my winters reading. It has been a while since I have read anything of Zane Grey, but I do remember reading Grey’s work sometime ago.

Grey brings the imagery of the frontier to your imagination and keeps you interested with his characters and plots. “A hundred miles of desert travel, with its mistakes and lessons and intimations, had not prepared him for what he now saw. He beheld what seemed a world that knew only magnitude. Wonder and awe fixed his gaze, and thought remained aloof.” (The Rainbow Trail)

Grey was a prolific writer and many of his titles were put to film. Zane Grey stands up there with the likes of Louis Amour as great writer of westerns. Project Gutenberg and Feed Books both feature numerous titles by Zane Grey. These titles will transport you back to a time where the American west was still rustic and raw.

Frank Reade Jr. Indian Hunter

It has been reported that before Frank Jr. participated in his jaunts in the Caribbean, Frank Jr. took part in the Indian wars of Abobe Walls, and Geronimo.

• Second Battle of Adobe Walls (1874): A battle over a spot of land in the Texas panhandle that once held an adobe build that served as a trading post.
• Geronimo (1885-86): A venerated war chief of the Apaches. His warring parties took part in raids on Mexico and US territories.

As was the case of his Caribbean affairs, Frank Jr. and his crew provided cover for US troops from his air and land ships.

The American Indian never really had a chance and were outnumbered and out gunned from the start. They might have been called savages because of some of their barbarous ways, but who were the real savages in these conflicts?

Ghost Town Gallery

The Ghost Town Gallery features dozens of images of abandoned western mine towns located in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Montana, Arizona, and Utah. These towns like Bodie CA, Stedman CA, Glendale MT, and Clarkdale AZ, once were populated with people and flourished when precious metals, like gold, silver, and lead, were abundant. Once the metals gave way they were abandoned and left to decay.

Found. Two HO Gauge Miniatures

I found these HO gauge miniatures at a model train meet over the weekend. Both castings are cast in some form of metal and are painted; I suppose that is what you call it. The attendant with the cart full of baggage is not painted all that badly, but the horsemen’s livery is frightful. No well-meaning model railroader would have done such a crack-up job.

There is no indication where the casting was manufactured and although the casting seem to be a bit worn, they are probably mass produced and hand painted by some poor worker getting paid a few dollars per hour.

The attendant is a full dimensional miniature, however the cart is flat. The horseman, from the bottom of his boots to the top of his “ten gallon” hat is seven scale feet. The horseman is a big guy, maybe its Hoss Cartwright from the TV series Bonanza.

Italeri 1/72 Buffalo Hunt

Italeri Buffalo Hunt has been discontinued and is no longer available from some channels, although you might still find a copy on the shelf of your local hobby shop. That is where I found mine.

The box contains 56 1/72 detailed figures. The box contains four identical spruces with fourteen figures on each spruce. Each spruce contains one horse, two rider figures and two other Indian figures. The rest of the figures depict Buffalo in various states of being hunted down or trying to escape the frenzied onslaught of these native warriors.

Although these plastic castings are well formed and had no noticeable flash I was a little disappointed with only having a total of four horses in the mix. In addition, I believe that the horses have a rather an unnatural appearance.