West Wind ZCW-28 The Pinkertons #2

Lately, I've been trying to post photos of complete West Wind packs to give folks an idea what comes in them. I think I mentioned this before, but I sold off many of the mounted versions of these figures. All that remains are the on-foot versions. The mounted versions are fantastic, but I was not going to be able to paint them properly. That's why I sold them years ago on TMP. Sigh. Not one of my best ideas.

Keeping with the blast from the painting box past and the Western theme from the other day, these are the figures from West Wind's "The Pinkerton's #2" pack in their Cowboy Wars line, complete with finished bases. While the pack says Pinkertons, these guys can be anything you like. There really is nothing shouting "Pinkerton" to me here.

Love-Hate Relationship
These are among some of the first figures I completed when I began painting five years ago, when this blog was new. My wife says that often I can be a bit too critical, which is probably the writing teacher coming out in my everyday life, but this pack is really 50-50 for me. The top figure just is not sculpted as well as it could be or should be. For example, the face is a bit deformed, causing me no end of headaches to paint when I was still trying to figure out techniques. The shoes and pants are quite crude. Some other bits that bothered me as well, causing me literally to push the half-painted figure to the back of my painting box for about four years. Then one day last year I forced myself to finish him. In the end, when the figure is on the table and the shooting starts, all those niggling bits fade away when we see the figure from 3'+ away. He winds up looking okay. Not a hero figure, but a henchman that dies quickly in order to make the hero look good. Then he goes back into the box. :-)

Get Shorty!
I really love this figure and enjoy bringing him out of the box. He has been on the blog before. Again, he was an early paint job before I ever tried wet blending or glazing, the latter being my preferred method now when I can pull it off. But he works well on the table. Why the nickname "Shorty"? Well, he is shorter than many of the other West Wind figures I have. So my nickname for him stuck as his permanent name. (There is quite a bit of height variety in the Cowboy Wars figures, but I like that. Looks more real.) Shorty is firing a Colt revolving rifle, which seems to be a favorite Cowboy Wars' weapon even though the weapon was rare. BTW just don't call him Shorty if you want to live.

Watching "The Magnificent Seven" Tonight
At 8pm this evening, my son and I are going to watch "The Magnificent Seven" in glorious High Definition. I keep forgetting that he has never watched this movie, even though his hobby is watching classic movies from the silent era though the early 1960s, though he best loves the 1930s through 1940s. He also collects classic movie memorabilia, like posters and other tidbits, as well as books on the subject. Plus he has a big autograph collection of old movie stars; he writes a nice letter to them and they sign things for him. (He hates how modern movie stars charge big money for autographs, especially those tied to science fiction properties like Star Trek.) He also loves classic black and white foreign films, especially the Japanese director Ozu. Jeremy's walls in his room are literally covered with framed memorabilia and autographs. (We often troll Central Florida thrift shops looking for old DVDs and VHS tapes.)

Anyway, he is not a big fan of Westerns. Can you believe that? But this one intrigues him. So we are going to have a good time watching it together while his mommy is away on business. Of course, I can't help but get ideas for painting figures, building scenery, and planning games as I watch. This is the curse of being a miniature gamer!