Hotel, Law Office & Jail, and Dry Goods

Another productive streak. My father was a carpenter at one time, and I must have inherited the genes unknowingly. I've completed three more buildings for the town of Assumption.


Here we have the new hotel. I threw some curtains in the windows. A touch of class for the weary traveller.

The back view. I imagine that it looks in on the Hotel Owner's private room.


Assumption County Law Office and Jail. Although both buildings share a common front...


...I've constructed them as two separate buildings; a wooden office and a brick jailhouse.

Another view of the jail.

I think this will be a Dry Goods or a Hardware Store.

Nothing too fancy on the back.

So the old town is really starting to grow. I have the pieces cut out to build a restaurant with an attached kitchen. I've also built a small vegetable garden (or kitchen garden) which I forgot to photograph.

What's next you ask. Here's a list in no particular order:

• a couple of small, fenced back yards
• a gallows or more likely a "hangin tree"
• a couple of piles of fire wood or lumber (or both)
• barrels, piles of crates, and other clutter
• a few small bases of rocks and small boulders

I may stop there for now and get everything painted. Ideally, I would like to build a few more buildings in the near future - another couple of merchants, and a few simple homes that could be used in other non-town scenarios (i.e. ranches, farmsteads, work camps, etc...)

Thanks for reading,
JET

The Saloon

This has certainly been my most ambitious building attempt yet. It was initially going to be a hotel, but as I designed the front, the plan started to take a different direction. I settled on a saloon in the end, and I was quite pleased with the final result.


A Foundry model for scale. What's a saloon without swinging doors!

The covered porch was also a new endeavor for me. It was actually quite simple. The best part - I'm now at a point where I don't need plans anymore. I can just use the force!


The back view. Again, for those who plan on making their own buildings, it's the details (doors/windows/porches) and not the actual size of the building that takes extra time to do.


A simple stove pipe made from a plastic pen and some green stuff. Since we will be playing to the north a little, I've been pondering the chimney issue for some time. I'll have to go back and stick a few on some of the earlier buildings.


Here's the collection so far (L to R): (1) Blacksmith or Workshop, (2) Residence of the Mayor or local Justice of the Peace, (3) Saloon, (4) Bank, (5) Livery Stable, (6) Merchant Building.


Next up: The a Hotel and the Sheriff's Office/Jail.

Thanks for reading,
JET

My Cardboard Bank

I'm experiencing another productive period. This is the second Wild West building in two days. I think this one will be the bank. We need a good objective for the outlaws to hit and the lawmen to protect, and I thought a bank provided a great movie-esque backdrop.

You'll see that I threw in a couple of Foundry miniatures for scale. Also, I tried something new on this building. The sides and back have been scored to imitate brick. I'm going to use thin card to hide the seems on the two back edges. With the right coat of paint, it should look like a very convincing brick wall.


The other side.


And back to the front.


Here's the last building (from yesterday). It's nice to know that they fit together nicely, in case I want to create a tightly-packed front street. (And if I keep building at this rate, I just might have enough in a couple of months)


Thanks for reading,
JET

Western Building: first one with a false front

With only one Cygnar model left to paint for the upcoming 1000-point game, I've started thinking about the Old West again. For those who have kept track, I've built a workshop, a livery stable, and a two-storey house, but no buildings with false fronts a la main street. Last night I gave it a spin, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.


As you can see, I forgot to add a door handle. I tried a few new little things on this building. To speed up construction of a slatted porch step, I simply scored a piece of thick card with a knife and mounted it on a slightly smaller piece of card.


I also shingled the roof using pieces of thin card cut in irregular shapes and glued them on in a haphazard pattern.


Here's a view of the back...


...and a view from the front (i.e. the pretty side that will attract customers)

I will add a sign when I figure out what it's going to be. I'm pondering a secondary building - so not a law office, jail, saloon, or hotel. Maybe a gunsmith, undertaker, post office... Quite frankly, I'm open to suggestions. Leave a comment if you have any brainstorms.


Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: A Tour Around the Geek Room

Well, not so much a tour of the room itself, but more of a tour of my active projects and thoughts as of late. To use the cliche... "I've got good news, and I've got bad news." The good news, we bought a new digital camera (second hand from my brother) which is far superior to our little dinky one. I can take pics whenever I want now.

The bad news - varnish disaster! The past week has been geek hell for me. After finishing painting my Cygnar Journeyman, I sprayed it with Testor's glosscote as usual. The next day, I sprayed with a new can of dullcote. It never dulled. At all. I tried 3 or 4 days later. Still no luck. At the end of it all, the model was globbed up so badly that I stripped it. See for yourself.

I eventually resolved the gloss issue using a can of GW Purity Seal I had forgotten about. Even though it looks quite glossy in the picture, this Gun Mage Captain Adept (who was suffering from the same perma-gloss condition) is quite matte in real life. Go figure.




The important thing is I'm back on the painting train. Having to repaint a model I just finished around a week ago is somewhat disheartening, but I'm so close to finishing my Cygnar collection, I just have to keep going until it's complete.

As for the fences I alluded to in the last post... here they are, construction complete. These are so fast and cheap, I'll likely make more for Old West gaming.


And speaking of Old West gaming, I based up my new Western models. I'll be playing a Lawmen posse in Legends of the Old West and these Pinkerton models will be used as my Vigilantes. The three in the back are Artizan, while the front two are from the Foundry's "The Shootists" pack.


The remaining four will be used for my Sheriff and Deputies, at least for now. I want to pick up another Foundry pack of armed townsfolk to field as Upstanding Citizens, but there's no rush on that.


As to what I'm painting now (tonight in fact)... Epic Haley for my Cygnar force. As you can see, I'm in the enthralling (*yawn*) stages of basecoating. The model is great and I"m hoping Haley (and the journeyman?) will be finished for this weekend so we can play 1000 points.


And what do we have over on this end of the table. My goodness! Are those the bits and pieces of Peace River forces for Heavy Gear Blitz? Why yes they are! This won't happen until later (maybe even after Xmas), but I had to haul them out of the boxes and have a look. As you can see from the photo, I'm playing with the idea of mounting these on washers instead of the small hex bases that come with the models. No decision on this yet - I'll continue reflecting.


Those who bought the 5th or 6th edition(?) of Warhammer Fantasy Battle should recognize this little number. It's one of three card buildings that came along with all those wonderful plastic Lizardmen and Bretonnians. I'm going to fix the minor damage and mount it up for stability. I think it will work great for Warmachine, and it makes me feel a little nostalgic ta boot.


So, that's what's going on in my geek zone right now. I'm posting primarily for our geeks abroad, in the hopes that my many aspirations will inspire and amuse.

Thanks for reading,
JET