Daylight Robber

  

During the American Civil War, Archie Clement was a member of one of the notorious Confederate Guerrilla bands, also commonly called "Bushwhackers". Standing just over 5 feet tall he was nicknamed "Little Arch" and was an expert shot with a pistol. 

Riding initially with the group led by "Bloody Bill Anderson" (who would scalp the heads of his victims and hang them from the bridle of his horse), Archie took part in a number of Raids behind the Front Lines including the infamous Centralia Massacre. Archie then commanded the group until the end of the War after Anderson's death in 1864.

However, it was after the end of the War that Archie gained his particular place in American History when on February 13th 1866, Archie led a gang to the Clay County Savings Association Bank in Liberty, Missouri and carried out the first daylight Bank Robbery in American History making off with $60,000 in cash and bonds.

Archie's career as a Robber continued for several months but like so many Wild West Outlaws, he met a violent end, when in Lexington on December 13th 1866 he was shot down from his horse while trying to escape from the Law.

Although mortally wounded, as his attackers approached him, Archie was seen trying to cock his revolver with his teeth. When asked what he was trying to do, Archie replied -

"I've done what I always said I would do ... die before I'd surrender."

The figure is by Artizan Designs and with thanks to Wikipedia  and Biographican for the background info.

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo - Part 3

Eli Wallach has appeared in over 160 movies and TV shows over a career that has spanned more than 55 years, playing a whole host of character parts and with a style that means his presence on screen is always remembered.


For most people though, he will be most remembered for his performances in 2 films, his portrayal of Calvera in "The Magnificent Seven" and the role of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".

The Artizan Designs model of "Il Brutto" again, has too large a moustache for Tuco but overall I was pretty happy with figure, definitely my favourite of the 3. One of the distinguishing features of Tuco's costume in the film was the lanyard that he used to hang one of his Colt Revolvers round his neck. This required a quick visit to Mrs Kingsleypark's sewing box for a bit of suitably coloured thread.

 

"Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo"

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo - Part 2

My dad always told me that you can always tell the baddies in Cowboy films because they always wore a black hat. And so it was in Leone's film, with the character of Angel Eyes, brilliantly played by the late, great Lee Van Cleef.

In the trailer that was released for the American market, the narrative has Angel Eyes described as "The Ugly" but this was due to an error, in that the Italian title of the film actually translates as "The Good, The Ugly and The Bad" but this wasn't picked up in the translation.

According to the IMDb trivia page for the film apparently Charles Bronson was considered for the part of Angel Eyes (and Tuco for that matter) but turned them both down. To be honest, though, I don't think anyone could have matched Van Cleef's performance in the role.

The figure by Aritzan Designs has too full a moustache for the Angel Eyes character and the jaw a wee bit too square, Van Cleef had quite an angular face. Also, I don't remember him wearing a neck scarf but hopefully the figure is close enough to be recognised.

Next post, the character who stole every scene that he was in - il Brutto.

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo - Part 1

A few years back, I played some games using the "Legends Of The Old West" rules by Warhammer Historical. I really enjoyed the games, the rules mechanism was pretty simple to get a handle on and I liked the roleplaying elements in the game in that you were able to increase the skills of the members of your "Posse", depending on whether they had survived the scenario and how well they had done. So much so that as Christmas was coming up I put a request into Santa and lo and behold under the Christmas Tree that year

Also hiding amongst the piles of Christmas paper were some 28mm figures from the Wild West range by Artizan Designs. A mix of Cowboys, Lawman and Desperadoes, there were enough figures to put together a couple of Posses.

I was all set, started painting up the figures and then in true Kingsleypark fashion stopped after a wee while and started on some other project so the rules have remained on the shelf and about a third of the figures painted.

One of the packs of figures received though was entitled "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" and were clearly meant to depict the 3 main characters from that great Spaghetti Western by Sergio Leone, the English title being "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly" (the character names of the "The Bad" and "The Ugly" were swapped round when the film trailer was transferred into English from Italian).

So here is Il buono

Although, he is the most recent figure of the 3 that I painted (just last week end, in matter of fact) I have used Static Grass on the base to tie in with the other 2 figures which I had painted much earlier before I discovered the joys of Silfor Grass Tufts.

Next post up will be "il Cattivo"