Here are the 'Best of the Wild West' mounted Indians I have been working on. Holes in hooves and some hollows on the inside of the legs were filled with putty. The Indians and horses have come close to a complete repaint although I didn't undercoat and left the original white and black of the horses but touched them up with spots and sashes of white or black. The Indians have some decoration now. I'd like to ad bows but haven't got a round to it. I'm wondering if the bow was carried next to the arrows in the same holder. Any thoughts?
I repainted the horses mains and painted some hand marks on the horse's rump, although blue was possibly not the usual colour. I also gave the Indians some war paint.
Inspired by these figures as I was I bought some more today, another wagon pulled by Indians. it is disappointing there is no seated figure, either white Eye or Indian. (Presumably the Injuns have captured the wagon).
There is one lonely cowboy; I think it might end badly for him and that his rope will be used to tie him to a tree or stake.
I didn't have these mounted Indians, one with bow and one throwing a spear.'
The foot figures I already have and have done conversion work on them. They readily lend themselves to conversion to other periods such as ancient or fantasy. I like the one with sword and shield. The one with a musket has a weapon that looks, by the butt, like a matchlock! The determined brave thrusting with spear would look good in a row of ancient barbarians. The central figure is the weirdest as I'm not sure if it is male or female; maybe it is something to do with the gender fluid movement. Has it got breasts or just a big chest?
As I said in the previous post, I love the faces on these figures which just cry out for some detailed painting.
The wire ties that held the figures in the box are about the right size for making reigns for other horses that lack them. I do prefer the black plastic coated ones as I don't need to paint them.
WHo would have known that there were super heroes in those days 'Super Cowboy' is printed on the wagon. Actually the wagon is very nice and with a good coat of paint would look effective alongside 'model' soldiers. If I wanted to be picky I'd say the barrel on the side is just half a barrel.
There they go ready for next Wednesday's wargame against the pale faces.
When I bought this set from the local toy shop the woman, who knew me, discounted the item from 14 to 10 dollars. The teenage girl who was helping her made some interesting comments about children's games at school. When she was at primary school 'Cowboys and Tepee' games were forbidden because, they were thought offensive. The older lady made comment about how when she and I and were kids the cowboys were the good guys and the Indians always the bad guys. I commented that now it is usually the reverse and the girls said the cowboys WERE the bad guys. I didn't reply in too much detail although I was tempted to talk about Apache, Comanche and plains Indians penchants for torturing prisoners, among other things although I only vaguely referred to it. Obviously she has been well and truly indoctrinated by the education system and the current 'correct' views that the white guys are horrible and the natives are swell.
Actually, I mentioned that in those old Westerns there were often 'good' and 'bad' Indians and cowboys who stirred up wars. The reality was an industrial and agricultural society expanding and a mostly hunter gatherer one standing in the way. The Indians were pretty good at driving rival tribes away too.
But if you look at the actual conduct of those Indian wars there was brutality on both sides. My qualification is that a number of Indian tribes (okay Native American if you like) had torture of captured enemies as an essential part of their culture. This tended to have an impact on the perception of settlers. Torturing prisoners, including 'hostiles' was not officially allowed by the white authorities. On the other hand taking scalps was done by both sides, the settlers influenced by the Indians habit.
I actually sneer at what I call the 'incense and crystal' view of native Americans that sees them as universally peaceful souls communing with nature. And I'm still calling them Indians.
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