Mitchell: "Dang that Internet!"
Mike Mitchell experiences Internet problems
Aug. 27, 2008

Just a note to let ya'll know that Mike Mitchell's home Internet connection is acting up right now. The service man won't be here until Friday, and even then there's no guarantee things will be fixed.

"Sometimes it works fine, and then other times it just drops completely for 30 minute at a time," Mitchell said. "So, if you send me an e-mail, or drop by the Hawgleg Website, don't be alarmed if I don't respond for a while. It's just the connection problem. I'll get back to you when I can."

By the way, this doesn't actually affect the Web or e-mail servers, just Mitchell's ability to access them. Fortunately, both Murphy and Paul will be available, "So don't you fret none, pardners," Mitchell said.

Hawgleg heads for Transylvania!
Hawgleg releases new 'Deadwood' product at UCON
July 31, 2008 -- Houston, Texas

BOOT HILL BADDIES! Be the first in your cemetary to own our Undead Cowboy miniatures and a six-pack of resin graves.

Hawgleg is hittin’ the trail and hunting cowboy zombies in Transylvania this weekend. Or, more specifically, Gutshot co-creator Mike Mitchell will be attending UCon at the Little Church from Transylvania in Houston, Texas, and he’ll have a whole passel of stuff on hand from the upcoming game, Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood.

The convention is an all-day event: Saturday, Aug. 2, 2008 at the Northwest Community Unitarian Universalist Church (NWCUUC), 5920 Hwy 6 North Houston, TX 77084. This is in Northwest Houston near HWY 6 and West Little York. The convention is billed as a “Pop-Culture” event and, in addition to gaming, will feature comic books, science fiction, movies, anime, manga, and possibly even goth.

Hawgleg releases Zombies & Graves at UCon

In addition to the playtest, Mitchell will also unveil a few items from the Night of the Living Deadwood product line. Specifically, he will be selling miniatures and resin graves.

“We’ve had the miniatures ready to go for about a year now, and I think the graves have been ready even longer than that,” Mitchell revealed. “Our original plan was to hold these back and release everything with the rule book. But, after talking it over amongst ourselves, we’ve decided to just put it all out there right now.”

The miniatures pack includes four, unpainted 25mm undead cowboys and one “dead zombie” marker, for a total of five different figures.  This pack will sell for $10 at the convention, or until supplies run out. Since these were cast before the recent increases in metal prices, the price will be slightly higher when they are recast in the future.

The “Six Pack of Graves” contains six assorted 25mm-30mm grave mounds with a marker (some markers appear to be wooden while others appear to be stone).  There are actually nine sculpts scattered throughout the six packs. So, although there are no duplicates in a single bag, if you buy two bags you will get some duplicates. The graves are cast in bright white resin, are unpainted and sell for $5.

As a convention special, Hawgleg will pay the sales tax on all items.

“Truth be told, I don’t like messing with loose change,” Mitchell said. “So our bookkeeper figured out the tax for each item and juggled the numbers so we can charge even numbers for everything at our booth.”

Convention Deals Items for sale: Gutshot Core Rule Book: $25 Six-Pack of Graves: $5 Five Undead Cowboys: $10 Two-Pack: Gutshot Chick & La Vaquera: $5 UCon Special: Everything for $40 Although these items are being released at the convention first, they are not exclusive to it. In other words, we’ll put these items up on the Hawgleg Website sometime next week.

Undead cowboys and graves are just the first two items that will be released to support the forthcoming game, Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood.

“Just keep in mind that some of these items are in low quantities right now, so it may take us a week or two to restock them in the event that we sell out at UCon,” Mitchell said. “But rest assured, we’ll make these available to the public just as soon as we can.”

The (very) quick and the (very) dead

“This convention is a first for us in many ways,” Mitchell said. “This is the first time I’ll be running the Hawgleg booth at a convention that isn’t specifically focused on gaming. To be honest, I’ve no idea how receptive the crowd will be to miniatures gaming.”

Of course, it’s miniatures gaming with a twist. At 2 p.m. on Saturday Mitchell will run a special playtest game of Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood. This playtest will feature the first public test of the “fast zombies.” Right now he’s thinking of calling the game, “The (very) quick and the (very) dead.”

“The fast zombies have been one of the hardest things we’ve done in the Deadwood rules,” said Gutshot battle master Paul Mauer. “These creatures are very powerful and we have worked very hard to keep them from throwing the game out of balance.”

The Hawgleg Posse has been working on them privately for a long time now, and this is the first time they will be tested in public.

“This is the last major feature in Deadwood that we need to playtest,” Mauer explained. “After this Mitchell is going to start focusing on getting the final book ready for next year. We hope.”

Pop goes the culture

Mitchell said that it seemed “fitting” that the Deadwood merchandise would be released at “The Little Church from Transylvania.” The church, by the way, is called that because “Transylvania really was the site of the first Unitarian church,” said convention organizer Trey Wickman.

The convention will run from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m., and includes a healthy mix of board games, card games, RPGs, and more.

"I'm looking forward to this convention," Mitchell said. "When I was knee-high to a six-sider back in El Paso, we didn't have different conventions for comics, sci-fi, and RPGs. We just mashed them all together and had a great time. I'm kind of hoping this will be kinda like that, and give me a chance to meet some people who don't normally hang out in the Houston miniatures gaming community."

Mitchell also wanted to give thanks to Kerry Harrison for letting him know about the convention.

"Kerry is very active in the Houston gaming community, and I really appreciate him pushing me to get off my duff and make it to U-Con," Mitchell said. "With all the summer heat right now, it's very easy to sit at home under the AC and sip muh whiskey while watching old Westerns on TV. I reckon this con will be a lot more fun than that!"

Hawgleg Publishing acquires
Arnica Montana resin buildings
April 28, 2008 -- Houston, Texas

Hawgleg Publishing is pleased – and proud – to announce that it has acquired the rights to the Arnica Montana Real Estate 25mm resin buildings.  The deal includes the name, Website, and worldwide distribution rights to about 30 buildings and accessories for gaming in the Wild West.

Within the week, ownership of the Arnica Website, www.arnicarealestate.com, will be transferred to Hawgleg. When that happens, a new Website will be launched and sales will be suspended for 1-2 months while the molds, masters, and other materials are shipped to Texas and Hawgleg completes setting up its casting facilities.

"We've been talking about this for a while, now, working out details that would make this an easy transition for us and for the many fans of the Arnica Montana products" said Hawgleg co-founder Mike Mitchell. "Now that it's finally happening, we're ready to bust out whoopin' and hollerin' with excitement."

Arnica creator Mike McGraw is in the last stages of packaging and shipping all outstanding orders. The deal does not include transferring any customer lists or sales information – this will be a straight-up change of ownership, with Hawgleg taking full charge and being responsible for casting and shipping all future orders.

A few words from Arnica Creator, Mike McGraw I’ve been the proprietor of Arnica Real Estate for a little over three years. The business has come to a point where it is taking more time than I have available to give it its due. With increased responsibilities at my daytime place of employment, it gets harder and harder to devote the time and attention required keep things at Arnica, Montana running smoothly. While the quality of the models has not suffered it has become difficult to get orders out in a timely fashion. After much thought as to a solution (preferably one that did not end with Arnica’s demise) I had a vigorous exchange of correspondence with Mike Mitchell of Hawgleg Publishing. After the haranguin’ and hollerin’ that is apparently required by Texas state law we hammered out a solution that would benefit all concerned. Hawgleg Publishing will be taking over ownership of Arnica, Montana and all that goes with it. As part of our arrangement I will still be making new building designs from time to time to be added to the product line. I have full faith in “The Mike’s” and Paul at Hawgleg. I believe them to be fully capable of continuing to produce the quality of product I like to think my customers have become accustomed to. Arnica Real Estate is in the best possible hands and will thrive and prosper in their care. There will be a transition period while new molds are being made and website material is transferred. During that time I will not be taking any new orders. Orders that I have in the shop now have been cast, finished and will be delivered shortly. Once everything has been moved over to the new site sales will begin again.

McGraw will continue to work with Hawgleg as an advisor and consultant, especially as Hawgleg ramps up its casting operations. Additionally, he will now be free to create new building designs that can be added to the line in the future.  "Mike McGraw has done a great job with the line and we look forward to maintaining the tradition of quality that he established," added Hawgleg co-founder Mike Murphy. "This will be a great chance to keep a fine line going and even expanding in the future as demand grows and we release new kits." All members of the Hawgleg team expressed admiration for McGraw's work, and an appreciation for why he wanted to move on to other ventures (see sidebar for a copy of his full statement). “We like his work a lot,” said Hawgleg partner Paul Mauer. “That’s why we decided to buy Arnica. It’s good stuff and we think it will be a good fit for Gutshot and our other products.”

Arnica: Moving from Montana to Texas

From a hacienda to the little house out back, Arnica Real Estate has buildings of all sizes.

The trail from Montana to Texas has been an exciting one for the Hawgleg partners. “Mike McGraw approached us last year and wanted to know if we would be interested in buying Arnica from him… and we were all intrigued and a bit overwhelmed at the thought of the work this expansion would entail,” Mitchell said. Mitchell explained that, from the very beginning, the three of them had imagined eventually becoming a one-stop-shop for everything Western: miniatures rules, RPG rules, miniatures, buildings, terrain.  In their wildest dreams they even imagined a Gutshot video game. “It’s easy to dream,” Mitchell said. “But it takes a lot of hard work to make those dreams come true, which is why we’ve been careful and taken our time to develop quality products and focus on each item one step at a time.”

“We always wanted to do our own buildings. And the two Mikes have both spent the last year working on resin projects on the side. That way we would be ready when we decided to start on the buildings. But we didn’t think that would be for another three to five years,” Paul said.

Then McGraw approached them with an offer that was too good to refuse. He said that Arnica had become so successful that it was taking over all of his spare time. He didn’t have time for his family, or to design new buildings or do other gaming-related projects.

“In a way, he was a victim of his own success,” Mitchell said. “He made such a great product that he started getting more orders than he could handle in his spare time. He finally reached the point where he needed to do something: either close shop or see if someone else wanted to carry on with it. We’re very happy that he decided to give us a call.”

McGraw and Mitchell had communicated frequently over the past few years (Mitchell had bought several Arnica buildings over the year and McGraw was even one of the sponsors of Hawgleg’s Showdowns & Shootouts contest), and he later told Mitchell that Hawgleg was his first choice to take over the reins on Arnica Montana because “it seems like a good fit.”

The Two Mikes (as some folks call Mitchell and Murphy) and Paul couldn’t have agreed more.

“I've always admired the work that he put into Arnica buildings. Between the Whitewash City buildings and Arnica, Western game players have a wonderful choice of how to go with the setups on their table, and I find myself using both frequently,” Murphy said.

Still, deciding to expand their business into resin casting was a big decision. There were already a lot of irons in the fire and most of the discussions were not about the details of the transfer, but were about what Hawgleg would need to do to manufacture quality products that maintained the high standards of the originals, and about how to upgrade their shipping and fulfillment operations to handle these new products.

Finally, they decided they had worked out enough of the details and decided to move forward with the deal.

What’s next fer them Hawgleg boys

COMING SOON: It'll take a month or so for new construction to begin, but when it does the streets will ring with the sound of gunfire and varmints gettin' Gutshot in buildings made by Arnica Real Estate.

As stated previously, McGraw needs to pack up everything and ship it to Texas. Hawgleg needs to set up its resin casting facilities and make changes to its bookkeeping and inventory management systems to handle a more diverse product line. This means that Arnica products will not be available for sale for 1-2 months.

“We will not take any orders until everything is ready,” Paul said. “We’ll let everyone know when that is.”

Immediate plans call for getting all existing buildings into production. Future plans call for new buildings and more products.

“Naturally after my Kingwood adventures in the bath house a few years ago, I'll be needing to see if we can get a bath house released!” Murphy said with a grin. “That way I can do my funky Egyptian Victory Dance again!”

In the future, information about Arnica will be available at both the Hawgleg and Arnica Websites.