9 replies to this topic

[Heisler]

A post here sparked my interest in the Wild West again, so I started pulling out miniatures to see what was sitting around and what would be interesting to add. Well, all those little bits of metal are going to need a place to come to grips so I pulled out my old Deadland notes and started looking around to build it up. The other post mentioned buildings from Aetherworks but the price plus the shipping from Australia is tough to swallow. I did find some alternatives; Gamecraft Miniatures in the US, Sarissa Precision and Battle Flag out of the UK. So I figured I would get some of each and see which ones I liked the best. The three buildings from Battle Flag arrived this week and I assembled all three of them this week. I have some extra detailing to do to them and then I'll start getting them painted. I have already discovered that my favorite weathering technique doesn't work well on MDF, it just makes the walls fuzzy instead of creating deep grooves for exposed wood grain. Anyway here are some pictures of the buildings in a "finished" state and if you want to read the running commentary with more pictures you can find them in my blog:
Old West Photographer's Studio and House http://wargamesandra...western_25.html
Old West General Store http://wargamesandra...mm-western.html
Old West Saloon http://wargamesandra...western_24.html
The General Store
The Saloon

The Photographer's Studio

[GreyHorde]

These look great! Will be watching with interest for painting & weathering. I tried the quick start of Savage Worlds / Deadlands: Reloaded a couple of years ago, liked it, and recently got back into it with core books & a few minis. Buildings like these would really set the scene for players.

[Heisler]

Work has been proceeding somewhat slowly on my town of Calamity. I thought a little update would be in order though. I have been waiting to paint until I had gotten my hands on a good chunk of buildings. Well, I have reached that stage where its time to start experimenting. My first thought was to try some of the aging materials that model railroaders use. While this work okay on the buildings from Knuckleduster which are plywood, it didn't work very well on MDF that the other companies use. Next up will be the RIT Dye method which I have high hopes for. To that end I have primed my current batch of smaller buildings white and I hope to be getting some weathering work done this week.

 

Here are a few shots of some of the Calamity buildings lined up on my workbench.

These pictures are a little old at this point. Most of the roofs have been finished and a few details have been added. On top of that there are a number of buildings that have been added that aren't in these photos. None of the Sarissa Precission buildings or the Gamecraft Miniatures buildings are present.

If you are interested in how these get built here are some direct links back to my blog:

http://wargamesandra...mm-western.html

http://wargamesandra...western_15.html

http://wargamesandra...mm-western.html

http://wargamesandra...western_17.html

http://wargamesandra...tures-28mm.html

http://wargamesandra...tures-28mm.html

http://wargamesandra...d-old-west.html

http://wargamesandra...rge-option.html

 

And a look at some of the detailing that has gone on:

http://wargamesandra...ng-details.html

http://wargamesandra...ng-attempt.html

http://wargamesandra...pt-part-ii.html

Edited by Heisler, 01 January 2013 - 11:40 AM.

[Striker2054]

 

Wow.

[Heisler]

Its gotten a little out of hand. Its not going to fit on the original 6'x4' board that I had planned.

[Jordan Peacock]

A little out of hand?  I'd think!  :D  Is this for home use, or are you using this to fill up a battle table at a game store?  I don't think I could ever justify an undertaking that big: I keep switching genres all the time in between campaigns.  Those buildings are impressive!

[chaosscorpion]

Bah time for a full sheet of plywood...4'x8'.

[Heisler]

This is primarily designed for home use but it will be built in sections so that it can be taken to conventions as well. The concept here is to very much build a display board. The buildings will be removable for transport and just to switch out with new buildings. Each building will be mounted on its own foundation piece of foam and there will be a blank piece of foam for each location as well so you can completely remove a building and be able to just drop in the empty lot in its place. There are some definitely some obstacles to overcome.

[ttuckerman]

You might use brown felt for the road with a strip that detaches.  Then the board could be folded in half for easier transport but still not show a seam when together.  Just a thought.

[Heisler]

I won't be using to many traditional game materials for this board. Felt is right out. I'll use more model railroad techniques modified for gaming. For transport each board will get its own cover to protect it help keep the dust off it as well when its being stored.