To me, one of the big attractions of old west era gaming (RPG or Wargame/Skirmish Game) is cheap minis like these.
http://www.amazon.com/Indians-Cowboys-Western-Figures-Plastic/dp/B003AGI6UW
130 pieces, including some basic "scenery", for about $24 delivered,
even your big Reaper Bones type deals can't beat that. Granted, they're
unpainted, and the sculpts are not as fancy as the proper gaming minis,
but if you're not picky and just want some cheap cowboys and indians to
play out your battles with, you can't go wrong.
Now, keep in mind, the average scale of these minis is 56mm, pretty much twice the size of your average gaming mini.
Using Coyote Trail rpg as an example:
Use a one inch "grid" (or have a inch scaled ruler or tape handy). Since the average man is about 6 feet tall, and the minis are about 2 inches tall, 1 inch is about 3 feet in scale. Since Coyote Trail uses yards for all weapon ranges and movement, that works out perfectly, 1 inch = 1 yard to scale, so a gun with an 8 yard range is effective up to 8 inches on the table top.
If you want to use the Whitewash City cardstock buildings that come with the expanded CT bundle, just take them to your local Kinkos or whatever and ask for them printed on heavy stock paper or cardstock at 200% scale, since the originals are meant for 28mm figures. The paper "disposable heroes" minis can be used as well, same with the paper animal minis, and you can print them at home on your printer at 200% scale with no trouble. If you experience a loss of quality on the artwork printing at that scale, you can always import the images into Photoshop/GIMP/whatever and retouch them a bit before printing.
Once you have your minis, my suggestion is to pick up a set of dirt cheap plastic poker chips and use them as bases, gluing the cowboy figures to the chips, since those plastic toy soldiers are often unstable, to say the least. From what I've seen, and plan to experiment with in the near future, the plastic cowboys will take a basic coat of model or mini paint as well, with little problem (just don't expect the detail of actual 15 or 28mm gaming minis, which have far more detailed sculpts).
Now, keep in mind, the average scale of these minis is 56mm, pretty much twice the size of your average gaming mini.
Using Coyote Trail rpg as an example:
Use a one inch "grid" (or have a inch scaled ruler or tape handy). Since the average man is about 6 feet tall, and the minis are about 2 inches tall, 1 inch is about 3 feet in scale. Since Coyote Trail uses yards for all weapon ranges and movement, that works out perfectly, 1 inch = 1 yard to scale, so a gun with an 8 yard range is effective up to 8 inches on the table top.
If you want to use the Whitewash City cardstock buildings that come with the expanded CT bundle, just take them to your local Kinkos or whatever and ask for them printed on heavy stock paper or cardstock at 200% scale, since the originals are meant for 28mm figures. The paper "disposable heroes" minis can be used as well, same with the paper animal minis, and you can print them at home on your printer at 200% scale with no trouble. If you experience a loss of quality on the artwork printing at that scale, you can always import the images into Photoshop/GIMP/whatever and retouch them a bit before printing.
Once you have your minis, my suggestion is to pick up a set of dirt cheap plastic poker chips and use them as bases, gluing the cowboy figures to the chips, since those plastic toy soldiers are often unstable, to say the least. From what I've seen, and plan to experiment with in the near future, the plastic cowboys will take a basic coat of model or mini paint as well, with little problem (just don't expect the detail of actual 15 or 28mm gaming minis, which have far more detailed sculpts).
I wargame with 54mm. Most of these Western figures are copies of Airfix and Britains Detail, that were well detailed, The copies vary greatly in quality. I suggest undercoating with a coat of plastic primer spray, intended for car use, followed by a white, brown or black spray undercoat (depending on prominent final colors)I use GW sprays and paints as well as other makes. I overcoat with PVA with a drop of dishwashing detergent. Don't let it pool too much or figures will look like they are spat on. After that I spray with artist's fixative. See my blog, Quantrill's Toy Soldiers. The cacti anc assorted rocks I hot glue to old CDs and coasters and coat bases with PVA and beach sand before painting.
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