Since the Dawn of the 'Spaghetti Western' movie-genre, it seems that Gatling- and machine guns have been present in several of them. Someone (with better time than me) have counted the presence and use of such weapons in about 95 Western-movies. Most of them are 'Spaghetti Westerns' and someone even took the time to counting kills and estimating type of guns. In some of the Spaghetti Western movies the Gatling- or machine guns are not stationary, but even carried and operated by a single person in 'Rambo style'. The first time I saw this in a western movie was in "Django" (where he kept his freelanced machine gun in a coffin).
Realistic or not, this is something I've been wanting to replicate and capture in model when doing cinematic Old West wargames, and it would give much more firepower to a single figure. The only 19th century Gatling gun I own, is an ACW Union (firing) Gatling from Britains. This is a large crew-served weapon and not exactly what I was looking for.
Many of the Gatling- or machine guns in western movies are not exact replications of the real thing, and many of them looks like 'fantasy guns'. Therefore it was not important to me to make an exact model of such a weapon, just more like a resemblance. At Thingeverse I found a 28mm scale "Gatling-Machine gun". It's actually neither as it has the same rotating barrels as a Gatling gun (looking like a Colt) but at the same time has the trigger system of a 'Maxim Machine gun'. I liked the magazine. I think this will look good in the hands of a Cowboy.
Now I needed to find a suitable figure. Last year I re-armed one of my inexpensive Airfix Cowboy knock-offs with a shotgun. I like this hip-firing pose, and thinks that would be a good starting-point for a 'Rambo-looking mitrailleuse firing Cowboy'.
I also wanted this cowboy to look a little different than the 2 other figures I have in the same pose, so I decided to add a coat to him made with 'Green Stuff'.
Then he was finally ready for some priming, painting and sealing. I was inspired by Franco Nero's first appearance as 'Django' when I painted this miniature. Even if he looks all black, I've tried to capture the very dark blue from the movie:
How to use this miniature in games?
No any (free) 'Old West' wargame- or RPG rules I know include rules for machine guns, so some improvisation is necessary to use this miniature in a game. I simply suggest to use this as same stats as a 'rifle-shooter' but with 3 rounds each time instead of one, making it more likely to hit one target or to make multiple damage in a cluster of targets.
Alternatively if using other rules than specific 'Old West' ones, just treat it as a LMG if the rules include such weapon.
It looks like he is ready for going rouge in future games...
Earlier this year I played a simplified verison of Donald Featherstone's/ Gerard Du Gre's 'Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust dueling game. The game it self is very fast to learn and easy to play, and was further simplified by Kaptain Kobold by using D6s instead of cards. This game is originally designed as a skirmish hand to hand combat and (sword) dueling game, but I wanted to see if it could be adopted to ranged battle as well?
The Rules
The way Kaptain Kobold simplified the original rules by resolving the battle with a single d6 instead of cards, it looks direct transferable to ranged battle. -At least for a simple, pretty static, gunfight between a couple of combatants. I feels it automatically gives it itself as a 'hit' is a 'hit'.
Number of Combat Points (CP) can be modified by giving extra CPs for body armour, long range, being in cover, (and perhaps even extra CP for a hard cover), and extra CP can be added as 'Hero Points'.
The Scenario
I needed to create a plausible scenario for this game which included the elements of 2 combatants with firearms fighting each other with multiple shots in a pretty static 'duel'. A classic Old West shoot out came to my mind. Since the firefight was to be very static and last for several shots I envisioned a kind of 'Ambush' situation. Perhaps like the classic 'Western scene' where one Cowboy gets into a 'fortified' position in a rocky high ground fighting off any followers coming from the terrain below him. After giving this loosely 'scenario' a closer thought, I think most such scenes I've seen in western movies includes a number of gunfighters on both sides, not only one vs. one. -Well, except for one, but there 'the follower' in the lowlands are hit and killed immediately. -But what if the shooter hit the horse instead of the rider? Even if the shooter is very accurate, it's a long range shot...
Maybe some of you already have recognised and figured out what scene I had in mind? I've played 'scenes' from this movie before. In the intro to 'For a Few Dollars More' the opening scene shows a long, quiet shot of a vast, empty desert, punctuated only by the sound of wind. Suddenly, a distant figure appears on horseback, seemingly wandering alone. Without warning, a gunshot rings out, and the rider falls dead:
There has been many speculations and theories about who the shooter or rider is, and who does the humming. A lot could be written about this opening sequence, but Sergio Leone deliberately keeps the identities of both the shooter and the rider a mystery. Rather than identifying the individuals, Leone is making a broader statement: in this world, nameless men die without warning, and killers remain unseen. It’s not about who they are—it’s about what they represent. It immediately tells the audience that this is not a standard Hollywood Western (like they were at the time) - it's a gritty, violent, ruthless and unpredictable world where death is a constant companion.
But just what if; the shooter initially hit the horse instead of the rider? The resulting engagement would likely turn into a long-range, relatively static potshot exchange or duel:
Forces:
The Shooter (Attacker): In the movie you can clearly hear the shooter loads a repeater rifle, so he'll be armed with a Winchester. He's in hard cover so he'll get a CP of 6.
The Rider (Defender): We don't know much about him, but if the rider should have any chance to return fire on such a long range he'll need to use a rifle as well. He's in the open, but seeks cover behind his dead horse and will have a CP of 5.
Mission:
For both; Take out the opponent.
Preparing the game
You don't need much to play this game. I already had a couple of 'Cowboys', which are 54mm-ish painted Airfix knock-offs, but to play the suggested scenario I needed a dead horse to set the scene and act as a 'cover' for the 'Rider'. As I didn't have any dead horse in model, I 3D-printed one:
The Game
Time: 10 minutes with taking photos etc. An average game takes about 3 minutes.
Turns: 8. Average about 11 turns.
Win: Like the movie I based this scenario upon; the attacker hiding among the cliffs.
Without warning, a gunshot rings out and the horse falls dead. The rider immediately seeks cover behind it and grabs his rifle from the saddle so he can return fire and defend himself:
The rider spots his attacker in high ground in cover behind some rocks:
Just killing the horse with his first shot, the attacker fires again:
...-and misses. The rider return fire...
...-And hits.
The gunmen exchanges fire for several minutes, slowly reducing each other's health:
The firefight goes on until the rider is critically low on health...
...and the attacker finally gives the rider 'The Coup De Grace':
To keep it in the spirit of Sergio Leone it's still mysterious who actually won the duel...
- was it a 'Good Guy' or was it a 'Bad Guy'?
Conclusion
I had a great time playing this very simple set up. To get the most out of it I put on the 'For a Few Dollars More' main title to create some background ambiance, and used a gun-sound app on my mobile when doing the shooting each turn. Prone or kneeling miniatures would have looked better in this static game, and I'd use it if had had some.
I think this adaption of the D6-version of 'Lunge Cut and Stop Thrust' Dueling game for ranged battle will work just great for a small shootouts if you're just looking for something quick to set up and play SOLO on the go.
If you want to add just a little more to the duel than these rules, I think my entry to the 2024 Wargame in a Matchbox Challenge might be an option, as they're still just a simple duel, but allows for some movement, covers and 'Hero points'.
Blog PostScript
This is what ChatGPT suggested when asked to make a playset based upon these rules. I'm not sure how much saleable such a set would be as popularity and political correctness has dropped on Cowboys & Indians Native Americans, and the market is nothing like it used to be back in the 70ies. Nice playset though.
When participating at garden railway running sessions at fellow MRC member's garden railways, I often bring my G-scale WW2 German Heeresfeldbahn military narrow gauge train and run it on unsecure lines and into 'unknown territories'. -unaware of any potential danger of saboteurs or partisan actions. It is a military train after all, so I decided to give it some light protection against ambushes or railway sabotage. It's only for a small narrow gauge train, so nothing big or complex, just perhaps a small armed wagon in front of the locomotive?
I haven't seen any periodic photos of small machine gun trolleys or armed railway cars used by the German Wehrmacht on their narrow gauge lines during WW2 (just standard gauge ones), so this is just some modeler's licence and a product by my imagination. Hopefully it's not too improbable.
I did't want a too large armed wagon in front of my small narrow gauge locomotive, as I think that would make the engine seems small, so I decided to try one of the smallest I got by LGB:
Even if the wagon was lightly weathered, I decided to give it a more heavy weathering depicting a surplus wagon that would be available for this kind of service:
For the German soldiers I sourced some free files at Thingiverse I could 3D-print. They were actually meant for 28mm Bolt Action, so by scaling them up to 1:19th scale they looked a bit more chunkier and 'over-sized' (like many wargaming miniatures often do). Even when 'down scaling' them a little bit more to the right height for sitting in this scale, they still looked oversized due to their larger 'wargame proportions'. Perhaps too much bier and würst? For instance the ammunition for the machine gun looks like it's 0.50 ammo for a M2 Browning machine gun instead of 7,92mm. I don't actually mind that much since I'm not into this scale because it's a 'fine scale'.
The 3D-file comes with multiple machine guns, but I went for the MG42, as I have a soft spot for this weapon after being a main instructor on the NATO equivalent; MG3.
After carefully removing the supports:
This is eventually what the equipage would look like (after some adjustments):
But first some imperfections and layer lines needed to be filled and smoothed on the 3D-printed figures with Miliput and modelling paste:
To make the surface even smoother they were given a couple of coats of car spray filler:
Then they were primed:
And painted:
Finally they were given a light brown- and black wash and lightly drybrushed:
I think they looks less 3D-printed now. I also think the soldiers looked a little bit unprotected on the flat wagon, so I decided to give them a couple of sandbags for protection too. The sandbags them selves were again sourced from a free file on Thingiverse, rescaled to 1:19th scale and 3D-printed. To remove the layerlines and replicate fabric I decided to drape them with tissue paper soaked in diluted white/wood glue:
Finally it was time to tie everything together and give the whole thing a coat of mat varnish. Despite being 3D-printed the surface of the soldiers was so smooth that it was really challenging to get it as flat as I wanted.
It seems like they're ready for some action. Coincidentally a member in our model railway club invited to a running-session in his garden instead of going to the club one afternoon/evening due to very nice weather, so I decided to take them for a day out:
It was a long and heavy rake of wagons the locomotive was hauling this afternoon, and about it limitations coming to the gradients:
All in all this has been a fun little project thus taking a little longer time than expected. Thank you for reading!
