The Marshal Petain Gentleman's Club: The Gangs of Table E

OK, I admit that I may have gotten a bit carried away. 'Let's get some cowboys', they said. 'You only need a handful' they said. Yeah right!

This was meant to be last year's Christmas game and, although we did play it on Zoom, it's not quite the same as playing face to face. Hopefully, this year we will manage the real thing, as it were.

In the meantime, I have been steadily building my forces for my solo campaign. The idea was kick started by a couple of cracking lockdown games, run on WhatsApp, hosted by our Cyprus contingent, and set in the town of Purgatory. Whilst I didn't want to pinch the characters from Purgatory, I came up with the idea of using the players as the gang leaders for my own campaign. So here they are, the various 'gangs' of the Paradise County Wars.

First off we have the forces of Law and Order, represented by the Pinkertons. It's a bit of an in-joke that my characters are always short-sighted, so when I discovered one of the figures was wearing spectacles, I decided that was the one for me. Hence, the Pinkertons are lead by Blind Pea, ably assisted by Edmund Reid and Fred Aberline (obviously a second career after policing Ripper Street in London).

Blind Pea, Edmund Reid and Fred Aberline (all Artizan figures)

Next we have a bunch of ne're do wells lead by The O'Finnigan. Casting about for suitable Irish themed names I was quite taken by O'Rourke (Sharpe's nemesis) and Rabbi Milligan (from Fargo).

O'Finnigan, Rabbi Milligan and O'Rourke. (All Dead Man's Hand figures, with Milligan from the plastics set)

Next we have the Paradise County Regulators, under Knuckles McGurk. Knuckles earned his nickname in one of our Zoom games and the name stuck. He is assisted by Ringo and Cheesy Scurlock. The latter based on the Lincoln County Regulator Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland in Young Guns). I was tickled to discover that, at least according to Wikipedia, Doc Scurlock at one time opened a cheese factory; one of his employees being Billy the Kid (allegedly).

Knuckles McGurk, Ringo and Cheesy Scurlock (DMH, Knuckleduster and DMH plastic)

For the next gang I decided I needed some 'European Adventurers'. These are lead by Swiss Michael. I don't know why but I decided that a Tom Petty vibe would look good and gave him a swanky long coat, top hat and long hair. For some reason I also decided he would be an albino. As his sidekicks, I needed two Victorian era European adventurers, so who better than Peachey and Dravot? (Obviously, before their misadventures in Kafiristan.)

Swiss Michael, Peachey and Dravot (all DMH plastics)

Of course, every good western has to have a bunch of sadistic vigilantes, so who better than the Native American hating characters from Chato's land? So here we have Quincy Whitmore, Jubal and Young Earl. In the film, they are all ex confederates but only Quincy still wears a uniform. I decided, that in this version, all would be in uniform and, in addition, Quincy would keep his cavalry sabre.

Quincy Whitmore, Jubal and Earl (all Perry Miniatures confederate cavalry)

Finally, we can't have a cowboy game without some actual cowboys. These are based upon the characters from Open Range. Whereas our Purgatory games had the Cakey Kid, I decided that a sweet toothed alternative was needed here. Hence, the cowboys are lead by Boss Spearmint (Boss Spearman in Open Range - Robert Duvall's greying beard seemed appropriate as well - just saying!). These are possibly the most expensive figures in my collection, but if I was getting Spearman, I just had to have Charley Postlethwaite as well. The gang is completed with a Dead Man's Hand plastic figure, which I have named Shorty - being much smaller than the Empress Miniatures.

Boss Spearmint, Postlethwaite and Shorty. Empress Miniatures and DMH plastics.

Part of the expense of the Empress Miniatures is that they come as sets of mounted and dismounted characters. Lovely figures though.

Boss Spearmint and Postlethwaite. No horse for Shorty, he just gets to carry the saddlebags!

So that's it for the gangs but that's not the whole collection. I also have Native Americans lead by Smelly Parker and Johnny Tonto. Quanah Parker was a real life war leader of the Kwahadi (Antelope) band of the Comanche. His name is apparently from the Comanche kwana, smell or odour. Johnny Tonto is based on the Johnny Depp version of Tonto (itself modelled on a painting of a Native American entitled 'I am Crow'). I used a Celtic helmet crest from a Warlords Miniatures plastic set to add the crow.

Dead Man's Hand Renegades

Next up we have a band of Mexicans.

Mexicans by Artizan and Knuckleduster

I also have the Spaghetti Western characters that started off the whole project. These and the Empress Miniatures are easily my favourites.

Spaghetti Western characters. All Knuckleduster Miniatures.

That only leaves a few leftovers. which will serve as useful filler.

Miscellaneous Dead Man's Hand figures

So that's it for the 'fighting' figures but being me, I had to have some civilians as well. Admittedly, these are not all from cowboy ranges or even necessarily the same era but I think they work OK. I have half a dozen townsfolk, from the Dead Man's Hand range, to which I have added figures from my Sharp Practice collection and even my pirate collection.