Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army



An Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army in 28mm Scale





But first, deep thoughts 
on hobbies, stress, and living a Good Life

Years ago, I set an informal personal goal of painting a different miniature wargames army each year.  As I have gotten older, I have gotten away from that, but I think it was a good goal, and I will try to get back to it. Not too small, it's a real hobby. Not too big, it is an achievable goal and a fun one.

If a hobby goal is too big, it's not achievable, and if it's not achievable it becomes frustrating and a source of stress.  And that's not the goal of a hobby. In fact, its the direct opposite of what a hobby should do. Hobbies are to destress, not increase stress, and while I, for one, have lots of unpainted figures collected over the years for several reasons, I also have a very sedentary job. Painting wargame figures does not help people, it does not make the world a better place, it does not really help me achieve my dreams (save for the small dreams involving owning nicely painted figures,), and should only paint figures when it relaxes me.

And in today's internet, social media, highly connected world, it's easy to find yourself unconsciously setting hobby goals that climb higher and higher as you try to impress your social media contacts on the other side of the world with your hobby related accomplishments or at least keep up with them. Little social media voices from strangers continuously joke about things like "You can never have too many miniatures" and the (alleged) importance of painting, painting, painting all those figures and doing so to the increasingly higher (yet admittedly wonderful and impressive) standards that we see in magazines like "Miniature Wargames" and the internet. In such cases, one needs to catch yourself, recenter, recalibrate your perspective, and remember why are doing this in the first place --to have fun and relax. 

My advice, remember that. And when you forget, as I surely will from time to time, try to catch yourself and remember why you are here.

Which brings me to photos my latest project, The Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army. 

The Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army




Figures


Figures come from a variety of sources. 

The undead or zombies come from Foundry, Reaper, Artizan (Dracula's America range), Great Escape Games, and the old 1990s Deadlands range (those are the noticably tall ones). Several are conversions made from some extra Artizan dismounted Seventh Cavalry that I had acquired but wasn't sure what to do with. Conversions often consisted of drilling holes in them with a mini-drill and adding wounds with an exacto knife. A couple undead figures from fantasy ranges were painted appropriately and slid in.

The Grim Reaper and the Cowboy Vampires on Foot were from Pontoonier but purchased through Badger Games (Many of the zombie figures were also purchased from Badger Games.)  

The Vampire on the Haunted Bicycle from Eureka's Pax Limpopo range and is sold as "French Lady on Penny Farthing." Making her a vampire was done with a carefully chosen paint job and a little bit of green stuff ectoplasm adding to the one and a half inch washer I used for her base. 

The gray coated necromancer leading the zombies is a simple conversion from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range "Mad Baron" figure. (The historical "Mad Baron" was a crazed warlord with very strange and bloodthirsty beliefs who led an army in Central Asia during the mid-war period. He may be best known for leading his army to burn Ulan Bator, the Capital of Mongolia. See: War History On-Line.  ) The figure was modifed by adding a sword to the foot figure so that he would match the mounted figure and adding gree stuff flames to the bases of both the foot and the mounted figure.

Note that both the Grim Reaper and the Mad Baron figure came in sets of a matching mounted and dismounted figures for the same character. This is how I prefer to buy figures for skirmish gaming when availability and the budget allow.








Rules


As for rules, there are a quite a lot of Old West Gunfight Rules out there. Most of them are quite good and produce good games. Several have rules for supernatural creatures, but not all do. 

I have recently started using Gunfighter's Ball rules. They produce a good game, but they are designed for smaller actions than I'd like. Although well researched, they are intended for fun but historically sound games and do not include rules for supernatural creatures. 

I have written my own rules to add the things I want to these games, but I haven't playtested them yet. Therefore, I am not ready to discuss or share them. Perhaps in the future. 














 

And please don't forget to check out the Hamchuck Writers Collective Website.




The 1950s and the Contactee Phase of Modern UFOlogy

First, updates and news. Follow my writing at this blog, my other blog - www.peterhuston.blogspot.com and the Hamchuck Writers' Collective Website, www.hamchuckwc.com    

And you can also try my Goodreads page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/339311.Peter_Huston Or my Amazon.com page at https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Huston/e/B000APT3YY?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1646105078&sr=8-1


I have pieces scheduled to appear, most likely within the next year in the following edited volumes. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brickcommajason/there-i-waswhen-nothing-happened?fbclid=IwAR2OgupQaj1Jzn-fBATT5hgS-DUFQadggCcu_BIi_LHZ57JCaatjk0Ne-38

There I was and . . . Nothing Happened, edited by Jason Brick. 

Buy this, or get it from the many public libraries that have expressed interest and made plans to acquire a copy (has yours? If not, why not?), and you can treat yourself to the story of how one night I almost got my face slashed to ribbons in a dive bar in Shanghai. Due out within the next year. Please enjoy the read. 

Second piece is scheduled to appear here: 

 
The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, edited by  VICENTE-JUAN BALLESTER OLMOS

For this one, I also drew on past events, and wrote about my experiences meeting Betty Hill, Richard Price, and many other UFO Abductees, of the late 1990s / early 21st century. Read it, and you can learn why I remain skeptical of their stories.

Having done extensive research into UFO claims, I decided it was time to turn my knowledge and views into a book and am working on it now. What follows is one excerpt. 


The Contactee Phase of Modern UFOlogy

 


The so-called “Contactee Phase” of UFOlogy began in the mid 1950s, less than ten years after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting. It would only make sense that if people were seeing piloted objects of unknown origin zipping around in the skey, that sooner or later someone would claim to have met their pilots. And so, it happened.

Although during this period, there were a few people who claimed such contact, George Adamski was the first and most famous. Although Adamski made his name spreading the philosophical teachings of the benevolent saucer beings who had allegedly spoken to him, prior to his claims of contact with saucer beings, Adamski had been spreading the messages of other enlightened beings and had created his own order, the Brotherhood of Tibet. In addition to this,  he ran a hamburger stand near the famous Hale Telescope and lectured on Eastern philosophy. 

The teachings of this organization, like those of Adamski’s later flying saucer related organization, were heavily influenced by Theosophy and similar organizations. Theosophy was an American religious or philosophical organization based on the teachings and ideas that Russian immigrant Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had allegedly received from Ascended Masters reported to be living in exotic places such as Tibet or Egypt. These teachings consisted of several Asian religious or mystical concepts that at that time were largely unknown or unfamiliar to Americans (such as “karma” and”reincarnation”), mixed in with reworked versions of more familiar Western fringe concepts such as the stories of Atlantis, Mu, and Lemuria, mixed in with the ideas of the spiritualists of those days such as astral projection and telepathic communication.  Although little known today, Theosophy had a lasting impact and influence on the Western intellectual landscape and many of today’s popular fringe, esoteric, “New Age,” and other pop-spiritual beliefs and ideas.  

While Adamski had limited formal schooling, he lectured regularly on such subjects using the title “Professor.” He also took advantage of prohibition and his special standing as a religious order to manufacture wine, something very much in demand when prohibition made the sale and purchase of alcohol against the law, against the law, of course, except for special religious orders.

Adamski seems to have realized that by using the public interest in flying saucers to add to his mix and attributing the messages he spread to enlightened beings from Venus, Mars, and the Moon he could better capture the public imagination, spread these messages and teachings, and get attention and profit for his organization. 

Although he and a ghost writer had together written a novel describing contact with aliens and a voyage through the solar system on a flying saucer in 1949, it was in 1950 that he gave his first lecture on “flying saucers” in which he shared the story of how the US Naval Laboratory had asked him for assistance with using the observatory to take pictures of flying saucers. Alas, the Navy denied it although the fact was that two members of their laboratory personnel had, indeed, visited his hamburger stand and bought lunch one day and they had chatted with him while doing so.

According to Adamski’s reports, it was November 20, 1952, when he made his own personal first contact with a saucer being named Orthon who came from Venus and shared important messages about how we should all be nice to each other. Ultimately, he wrote two more books on his contact with the saucer beings and lectured and travelled widely speaking on the subject. Although most flying saucer enthusiasts of the time were skeptical of the truth of Adamski’s cl;aims, nevertheless he became a regular speaker and panelist at UFO and flying saucer related gatherings for the next few decades.

In  his memoir, “Shockingly Close to the Truth –Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist,” James Moseley describes Adamski as “charming,” clearly enjoyed interacting with him, but points out several discrepancies between Adamski’s claims about the events described and the people who witnessed them. Similarly, a French biographer of Adamski, Marc Hallet, while reportedly beginning his biography of Adamski as a believer, came to a very different conclusion by the time he finished. His conclusions were summarized in the very bluntly titled, nine page document, “Why I can say Adamski is a liar.” For reasons such as those offered by these two men, as well as what astronomers have since learned about conditions on Venus, Mars, and the Moon that make it difficult to believe that they are or ever were home to the societies and peoples that Adamski described, it’s safe to say very few historians consider George Adamski’s claim of contact with enlighted beings as having taken place and being historically important events.

Nevertheless, soon there were others claiming similar experiences, telling similar stories, spreading similar teachings, and writing similar books. These included Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci, and Howard Menger.  

To put this in historical context, although all the prominent contactees began to share their stories in the 1950s, Adamski, the first, begin in 1953, they all claimed to have been interacting with the enlightened space beings for several years. Nevertheless, most historians see them as a mid-1950s cultural development.

Gordon J. Melton, scholar of new religious movements, has made a few generalizations about these contactees and their stories. In order, he offered the following. As can be seen, these points make it clear how in many ways the contactees and their stories were doing and offering a distinctly different message, experience, and approach to the issue of alleged extraterrestrial visitation than the later UFO abduction proponents.

First, and this is unlike later beliefs held in ufological circles about on-going extraterrestrial visitation to our planet, the visitors came from within our solar system. Originally, they were beings from Mars, Venus, and the Moon. Later they came from a little further, places like Jupiter and Saturn. In 1953, one contactee, Truman Bethurum began telling stories of being visited and taken on flying saucer trips by the inhabitants of the mysterious Planet Clarion, but as he also reported that this unknown world was directly opposite the Earth on the other side of the sun (and thus impossible for us to see), it was still located in the solar system. Although flying saucers from other worlds were visiting, they were not presented or said to be interstellar craft.

Second, according to Melton, “the flying saucer remains the only new element in the contactee story.” The other elements of the Contactees’ stories, argues Melton, had all been seen before in other stories, in other tales which reported the teachings of enlightened beings and otherworldly teachers. The difference was that they met their enlightened, mystical teachers through astral travel or other means, not by travel in flying saucer.        

In the reports of the Contactees, interactions with the alien saucer pilots were surprisingly easy. Communication was either done in English or through non-verbal telepathy. (As a teacher of English as a Second or Other Language, I confess that I have never understood how this could possibly happen as so much of human thought is, indeed, based in language.)

Bottom line is, however, that very little in these reports was terribly groundbreaking or eye opening.

Third, what the Contactees did share tended to be ethical and religious teachings. Very little time and focus was spent on describing the anthropological details of the alien societies or the intricacies of their technologies. In other words, the Aliens and the Contactees who had met them were much more interested in spreading messages that warned the people of Earth about the dangers of atomic weapons testing or pollution and advocating for world peace than they were interested in telling us about themselves or sharing their advanced technologies or teaching us how to make our own flying saucers.  

Fourth, the Contactees operated in a religious context. Many came from a religious or occult background or a background where the two overlapped such as Theosophy. As Peebles wrote in his excellent history,  Many founded churches or organizations devoted to spreading religious or philosophical teachings. (It needs to be mentioned, that under US law, there are many advantages to structuring an entity as a church, a fact that no doubt affected the way many contactees structured their organizations.) 

In summary, the picture presented by the contactees was that highly advanced space brothers lived in the other worlds of our solar system, and, if one was lucky enough, they would take you on a trip around the solar system on one of their flying saucers. Since their societies were free of war and disease, they had a lot to teach us and one thing in particular that they hope we would do was stop atomic testing. They offered us a message of peace and brotherhood and since they either spoke good English or else communicated through telepathy, the message was not just simple but also easy to understand. 

The whole thing was in some ways delightful. Optimistic.

Although the world was in trouble and humanity imperiled, fear                 not. There were beings out there who knew more about this than we did, and they were here to offer guidance. All we had to do was listen and believe and all would be well.

Unlike the later grays and other extraterrestrials of later decades, rather than presenting a mystery and leaving us with disturbing questions as to who were the aliens and what were they hoping to ultimately accomplish, the contactees of this era claimed to have answers for us instead.  And they were more than willing to share the answers they had obtained through lectures, radio appearances, and books.

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