Western Town Layout and Board

[Smokeyrone]

I decided against the dedicated town layout board because I really don't have room to store something like that.  I use a roll-up mat for the ground and just set the buildings on the mat, but I always lay it down in the same way because I like the town that way and can get maximum buildings and terrain on it that way.  I currently only break this out for conventions.



This is kind of the end state of what Zenda looks like.  Once i get my game room re-assembled and can start up a full on campaign, my plan is to go back to the roots, and start with a little 3x3 set up of just a couple of buildings, and through the campaign watch the town grow.  Add a building each game, as people invest in the business in town.  Then continue to grow the town until through the campaign it looks like the above. 

Nice.   Remember, you can sprinkle, pour and position all sorts of loose ballast rock, course and fine flocking, and various ground like clay, dust, dirt, etc.   Easy to even "blend in" buildings and such into the board.      When you take up the mat, just pour it all back into containers.

Its a GREAT way to make a mat or generic table tob come alive. 

[Vagabond]

For me scratchbuilding is always the way to go! 

Looking forward to see your western town! Have you already got its name?

The only thing I know for my WIP town is the name of the saloon/whorehouse: "THE HORNY JACKALOPE" 
[/quote

I thought of Little Whisky turning into Big Whiskey as it grew but wasn't that the name of the town in pale rider?

I like the sound of your whore house might mosey on down that way when it's built.


Smokey one your idea does work well, recently I have seen a couple of games on a Hessian cloth with various grades of sand and pebble and I thought it looked the part.]

[dinohunterpoa]

Vagabond, you're always welcome in The Horny Jackalope Saloon! 

Incidentally, the lovely shotgun-totting 50057 Reaper Miss Scarlet Wild West Madam was the very first Old West figure I've bought for this project:

[rebelyell2006]

Nice.   Remember, you can sprinkle, pour and position all sorts of loose ballast rock, course and fine flocking, and various ground like clay, dust, dirt, etc.   Easy to even "blend in" buildings and such into the board.      When you take up the mat, just pour it all back into containers.

Its a GREAT way to make a mat or generic table tob come alive. 

Definitely.  Don't be afraid to use plenty of dust and dirt.  While at Fort Stanton yesterday, the wind started picking up.  For a few minutes, there was no visibility because of the dust flying, and when it was over, everything had a thin film of dust.  Mother Nature is quite willing to sandblast painted surfaces.

[dinohunterpoa]

Definitely.  Don't be afraid to use plenty of dust and dirt.  While at Fort Stanton yesterday, the wind started picking up.  For a few minutes, there was no visibility because of the dust flying, and when it was over, everything had a thin film of dust.  Mother Nature is quite willing to sandblast painted surfaces.

Someone has suggested to spray a mist of Tamiya TS46 Light Sand Color Spray over the finished town just to get that "sandblasted" effect!  

[Vagabond]

Someone has suggested to spray a mist of Tamiya TS46 Light Sand Color Spray over the finished town just to get that "sandblasted" effect! 

  Dino  do you think you could try this out and let me know how you go on with it. It could go either way.

[dinohunterpoa]

Dino  do you think you could try this out and let me know how you go on with it. It could go either way.

I tried the Tamiya spray on both a MDF building and on a coffee-stirred planked one (none of the buildings were previously varnished, just painted with acrylics) in an angle of about 40 degrees; works just perfect IMHO, it only takes the care of reaching the proper distance to not overdo it!  

A picture from where I took the idea:



]http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/forum/21-dioramas/[url][/url]


  

[Vagabond]

I managed to get a little work done on this project over the summer but didn't have time to post.

I still haven't decided, how I want it to end up but reasoned that some progress is better than sitting on my hands, so have gone down the route of a textured board and individual unbased buildings, using sand to cover the join between buildings as best I can.

So to start here is the base board along with what I consider it's success and failure.


This is the board covered with a mixture of fine yellow sand mixed with premixed wallpaper paste from B and Q. I thought when I bought the paste it was PVA but I don't think it is. It has set rock hard and I am happy with it, the board has warped badly, it is only 9mm MDF. I think I should have followed some advice I was given to only cover a part of the board let it set and then do some more.
As usual I was in a rush


I used a wallpaper scrapper to spread the mix, and then sprinkled more sand on top and pressed it down, expecting this to remove any tool marks.
When the mix was dry there were a number of 'holes in the texture' so I filled them and it dried a different colour.


Plan A had always been to paint it but I think if it had dried a consistent colour I might not have bothered.

[Vagabond]

Sorry pressed the wrong button.

Previous picture is obviously the 1st coat of paint.


2nd or 3rd coat, still looking ok. These are the colour swatches I used. Jeff965 gave me the information from his post and I just copied it. Sorry Jeff no time to provide a link to your post.


Final dry brush and I managed to highlight all the tool marks that I had been at pains to hide. Duhh


Final board, you can see the distortion. This is ok for me because I am not going to join it to another board but is worth thinking about if you do plan a multi board layout.


The bad


The good


And part of the reason for the thread, I have decided to go for a central road down the board and limit myself to a ribbon town, because I think that the waggon tracks bring some thing to the board, that will be a greater benefit visually than it's limiting scope for town layout.

Next up the buildings I refurbished.

[dinohunterpoa]

Looking good! 

[Vagabond]

Looking good! 

You've changed again. Like the beard - have you been playing Saga to get the advantage from it?

The refurbished buildings.


The Westmoreland Grocery Company on the ground floor.


Round the back and up the stairs is Blonde Ednas Saloon and Brothel.


This is the building before the refurb. 1970's style.


Marshall McKluskie just received his sawn off shotgun from Rob Tilney the Gunsmith




The Bank Manager and Sheriff English Bob just emerge from their respective offices.




The Wells Fargo Office has just been robbed.




A very old balsa wood building with a puzzled looking Blacksmith outside. Just had a repaint and posters posted. The Smithy not the Smith.




Gunfight - This is my relatively recent build and is foam core rather than Balsa, a much more sturdy construction I think.



Next up - the board laid out with the bits and pieces so far.

[Doug ex-em4]

Nice, John - looking forward to your next post.

So, could this appear at DevLAM18?

Doug

[dinohunterpoa]

Vagabond, I liked the minis and buildings very much, and they match the board as expected, CONGRATULATIONS!  

Looking forward to see pictures of the whole setting!  

The avatar picture is from an 1/6 action figure that has been given to me as a lovely gift from the girls of my game group... actually it's a bribe to join them in their new "Modern SpecOps" game project... and because it seems to look very much like myself in my PMC days another life ago!  

[jon_1066]

Great modelling.  The clear bases work particularly well I think.

[hentzau]

Yeah, those bases are great.  I had to go back and look a second time, because I didn't notice them the first time through.  That really says something.  Who made them?