For a while now I’ve been sitting on a project that really never went anywhere. I’d been wanting to play a western skirmish game and so I set about collecting various things I’d need to eventually set it all up but I never really got past the collection phase. Then, I saw Back to the Future Part III again and started getting the itch to finally start this venture up.

I’m still not 100% set on the ruleset but I have Dracula’s America and my initial research pointed me to that system as the one I’d most like to start with. It has a heavy dose of supernatural in the theme (which I don’t want) but the bare rules don’t require it.

My back system is an old Games Workshop title, Legends of the Old West. This is pure historical with no supernatural. I’ll try out both and look for more if neither of these rule sets satisfy.

With the rules narrowed down, the easy part was done. I now needed to start getting figures and terrain. The figures I settled on were some nice sets from Knuckleduster Miniatures. The sets they offer are well sculpted with a lot of iconic western personalities.

The terrain is mainly from TTCombat’s Old West MDF line. They are really inexpensive and work well for what I’m doing. There are definitely better terrain sets out there but you’ll pay for it as well. With any new system, I want to make sure this is worth the effort before I really start investing.

I also have to think about painting. I have 12 figures primed up and ready to go but I decided to go with my fast monochrome technique again, similar to what I’ve done with The Walking Dead and Test of Honor.

Monochrome sits well with historical themes for me but I’ve decided to push a little more so I’ll be using a sepia tone with this monochrome collection. I’m going to be sick of brown by the time I’m done but I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

I have four buildings in MDF but will likely need more or at least some other terrain features. I have in mind a train station as well and even picked up a train so that will likely be the first route I take with expansion. First, I’ll want to finish up the rest of these, including a church I’ve been sitting on from The Walking Dead days.

This is a Renedra model and it seems pretty popular as I’ve seen it used often but it is a pretty terrible model. I really struggled to get it put together as it has very little to help guide the construction. No pegs or supports, no guides, and the wall corners are like trying to glue two edges together. I finally resorted to using a glue gun and it has a lot of unsightly gaps and misaligned pieces.

It is also really small. Like you might be able to get 8 worshipers and a minister packed in there. I looks like it might be sized for 20mm or max ‘true’ 25mm. I might look for something else and keep this for Walking Dead (need to check those minis against the size as well).

I have some miscellaneous additional terrain pieces like cacti and fences that will get thrown into the mix but first I’m going to start in on the figures and work them up.