Great Escape Games - The Quick & the Lead

 After reading about this mini-game in Wargames Illustrated a couple of month's ago, I thought this game might be a good way to entice grand-children into the murky world of miniature wargaming.

A quick trip down to Firestorm Games and I had the boxed set in my hands for the discounted price of £27.

The box contains the 8 character's figure cast in white metal, with a 25mm mdf base for each. There is also a small zip-locked bag with 8 character playing card sized data cards and a double folded A3 sheet containing the rules.

You'll need at least one D20 to play, but none was included.

The figures are nicely sculpted with lots of character! The cleaned up easily and I mounted them onto their mdf base and textured this, before priming.

I painted them close to the colour schemes depicted on the box art, using exclusively speed paints from many different manufacturers.

When finished they were sprayed with ultra-matt varnish and had some grass tufts added.

The rules are simple and easily followed.....in fact I realised after I'd read them that they were already in the original DMH rule book!

This got me thinking as to how good a value for money this really was? If it had included at least 1xD20 and a pack of cheap playing cards, you could argue that all you needed to get started in Cowboy wargaming was in the box, for £30 rrp.

However you could also say that £30 for 8 figures and a couple of bits of paper was a little steep?

I'll let you decide.

28mm Foundry Cowboys

Before I sat down and started to think about what I want to say I've achieved through the lockdown period, I painted up some 28mm western figures from Foundry.

Drunks!

I bought these second hand as a job lot (in an old GW figure case) a year or so ago.

Good-Time girl and gentleman (he has a handgun behind his back!)

When I got them home I counted the figures up and to my surprise,  found I had 95 Foundry and 5 Dixon Wild West figures!

Shop/Bar keepers

The Foundry figures are exquisite. Sculpted by the Perry Twins some time ago, they are on the small size for 28mm figures and anatomically, correctly proportioned.

Bare-Knuckle Fighters

There was a big mix of figure types. As you are probably aware, Foundry tend to sell figures in groups of 8 for £12.

Doctor & Newspaper Reporter

Groups in the lot included Mexican bandits, Mexican Infantry, Civilians, Posse, Gunfighters and Cowboys.

Hen-pecked Mexican and his wife

To amuse myself I chose 26 figures that I thought would enhance my Dead Man's Hand set when on the table; - shop-keepers, drunks, dance girl, Sheriff & his Posse etc.

Sheriff & deputy

These were based on 20mm dia. bases (mixture of mdf & pennies) and painted using Citadel Contrast Paints.

Posse members

They are easy to paint as the detail is good and can be quickly finished to a good tabletop standard.

Cowhand eating beans with his wife & child

I enjoyed these very much and was keen to get on and do more. But then I asked myself....why would I need 100+ more Wild West figures when an average game of DMH needs perhaps 10-12?

Funeral director and hanged man (I have a model Gallows with no victim, so he will be added to this as soon as I finish)

Oh dear......

Old-timers - miners or prospectors  perhaps?

Fiddler

Surrendering gentleman and local labourer

Peace Officer and Train Conductor

Final two buildings from the Troll Trader

Finally assembled and painted the two last buildings from my bargain set.

The bank and the saloon. Once again these are simple mdf boxes, but once painted up they really look the part.

The bank has a slightly different design to the signage which is attached to the flat roof. This takes the form of a shelf over the top edge. Once again I used my printed planking paper to form the floor and sprayed all the parts white to start off with.

This was the only building that presented a slight issue. This was due to the building having an inner wall forming a strong room with the bank teller windows. As the wall had two tabs that must locate in the roof , it is important to glue the wall in place and then dry fit the roof until the glue I'd dry. This will ensure the tabs always line up. To populate the strong room the kit includes a large safe that can be assembled with the door open or closed.

Finally I came to the saloon. This was simply a box to assemble, so posed no issues at all. I opted to leave the saloon doors fixed shut as this is so characteristic of the Wild West I know and love from cowboy movies.

This kit came with a few bits and bobs to bring it to life. These included the bar, a rather curious "square" beer barrel (that looks better than it sounds!) a single round table a six "bottles" to scatter around the place.

These five models are quite simply excellent. They cannot be beaten for price at £30 delivered for five items. I've enjoyed building and customising them through decorating each individually.

I love my 4Ground buildings very much - they are in a different league - but to get you started or to boost your Wild West town (as I did) these are just the ticket.

Next mission, to paint up the cactii and chickens I bought from Great Escape Games at Crusade, in Penarth. And the three packs of Frontline furniture sets to populate those 4Ground buildings.

More 28mm mdf Wild West Buildings completed

The next kits I have had a go at are the gallows and the sheriff's office.

The gallows are a simple, quick to build kit. Ok the hatch doesn't work for real like some kits, but you've got the choice to leave it open or closed.

The noose was made from some fine string, soaked in PVA. Once dry, it was painted and highlighted and glued to the cross beam. To finish the gallows I just washed any "Virgin" areas of mdf with sepia wash. The surface areas singed by the laser look fine as they are.

The sheriff's office differs from the rest of the group as it has a small lean-to cell added to the rear. This has a lift-off roof with detail of shingled engraved.

The cell is separated from the main building by a finely laser-cut set of iron bar doors. A bit small for a lengthy stay (I don't think a 28mm villain could actually lie down!) but ok to leave a drunk to sober up!

The interior comes with a gun cabinet and a (somewhat random!) large crate! These provide some interest and potential cover, so I'm not moaning.

I glued the front doors open and finished the interior off with some "wanted" posters printed off the web (from the Foundry Rules with no name). Once again, I'm seriously please with these.

Only two left to do, the bank and the saloon.

Bargain 28mm Wild West Buildings

Last week looking on eBay I found a set of five mdf buildings for just £29.95 delivered from a trader in Newquay Cornwall, called "the Troll Trader"!

The set comprised five items;

1. Bank

2. Saloon

3. General Store

4. Sheriff's Office

5. Gallows

All are simple models made in a similar style to those supplied by Battle Flag and Arcane Scenery. They come  un assembled and un painted but are quick and easy to put together and decorate.

A nice touch are the fixtures and fittings that come with every building! For example, the General store comes with a counter, three sets of shelves and some packing bases to stack on the shelves.

To finish the general store I firstly sprayed the walls (both sides) with white primer and the roof in black primer. The floor was finished by gluing "planked flooring" that I'd found the internet and printed out.

Then after assembling the building, I painted the walls, door and window frames, and sign with acrylics.

All in all I think these models present really excellent value for money with each item costing just £6 each! Give them a go!

Dead Man's Hand - more buildings

My daughter bought me one of the excellent 4Ground DMH buildings for Xmas.

Finished assembling this in 2 hours this morning and it's ready to go on the tabletop straight away.

I think I've enough buildings to be getting on with now.

Three in total. Two side street buildings and a Sheriffs office.

Only seven figures left to paint up........

DMH - Artizan Miniatures reinforcements arrive?

I bought these figures from an Ebay shop a couple of weeks ago. The casting quality was very good as was the design and sculpting.

This group were titled "the Posse" - I just love the long coats and rather Hillbilly look of two of the figures. Easy to clean up and a pleasure to paint, they are a good match with the DMH figures from Great Escape Games.

This group were simply irresistible to a fan of the Good the Bad and the Ugly! Lovely miniature character studies of the three main characters. Even gave me an excuse to watch it again for painting references!

I was tempted into another 4Ground building whilst at Firestorm Games Cardiff. Again a pleasure to assemble. All the initial range of buildings are the same footprint even the two story ones. I guess if you were so inclined you could mix and match to create custom buildings! This one also included a base that raises the building slightly and a length of boardwalk. 

They come without signs but there are a selection of colour PDFs available to download free on the DMH website. Printed out as they come - don't increase or decrease size - they are perfect. I laminated it before I cut it out and sprayed it with matt varnish. This then allowed me to glue it in place with just a few blobs of multipurpose glue avoiding any wrinkling (like I'd get just sticking paper with PVA).

Very good, looking just the part......

Dead Man's Hand - Painted Outlaws

As predicted, these figures too a while to clean up with file, knife and side cutters. Once done I super glued them to 20mm Renedra bases and blended the bases to the figures with Vallejo coarse pumice. I spray prime with Matt White.

The figures were painted with Vallejo Acrylics, shaded with Vallejo and GW washes and varnished firstly with Purity Seal and followed with Army Painter Matt Coat.

They were a pleasure to paint with sufficient sculpted detail to take the shading and highlights. Height wise they are a good match to Artizan Cowboys and certainly look the part.

Next.....some Artizan figures I've bought to boost the numbers.

Dead Man's Hand - 28mm Great Escape Games Figure Review

At first glance I was impressed with the look of the Great Escapes' DMH figure packs.

Each Gang (1 of 4) comes in a plastic quadruple DVD box. They look really professional and classy.

The box art details the gang and what's in the box.

Now on opening, I must say I was a little underwhelmed. The box contains a gang of 7 white metal miniatures, 7 laser cut mdf 25mm diameter bases, and a single printed card with some gang related rules. That's it.......for £20! 

Interesting that there is only seven figures per pack as reading the rules I suspect you'll need more than 7 in your gang to play some of the scenes?

My disappointment went further when I saw the level of finish of the figures. When you think these little fellas have cost you nearly £3 a piece, the last thing I'd expect was to be spending several evenings with a craft knife, file and side cutters removing all the flash and runners.

Worse still this figure suffered from misaligned mould halves and is gonna take a lot of work with a file to put right. All in all pretty rubbish quality control if you ask me. 

I'd rather thought the idea behind the rather extravagant packaging was you could store your gangs in them after painting? Well if you fit the 25mm bases provided, you won't! You can see here they're too wide to allow the box to shut.

What I might try as an alternative is the 20mm Renedra bases that came with the Perry Eighth Army. These should fit ok.

All in all, I've been left feeling a little bit taken for a ride. 

The whole DMH range is priced as a premium product. However these figures, whilst lovely sculpts, are let down by poor quality finish and over-pricing.

I don't think I shall be getting anymore. I think there are plenty of other ranges offering much better quality and better value for money, i.e. Artizan.

I guess you pay your money and take your choice.