Western Town Layout and Board

[Vagabond]

I think that's the first time I've ever seen transparent bases work.
Normally you see this big shiny thing with thick edges which looks much worse (IMO) than a normal base.
But your bases really do blend in to the terrain. Very nice.

Yes, I also remain unconvinced by the current trend of using clear bases. But I must say yours look awfully nice!

Thanks, I think maybe because I have a textured surface on the board under the base it is acting a bit like a mat varnish which is a rougher finish than gloss varnish so that it breaks up the reflected light, as well as the pvc being worn and scratched, unlike the high gloss acrylic bases commercially available.
The other point is it costs nothing. I was amused the other day reading about MDF penny sized bases that cost five pence. Why not use pennies?

I am in the process of building some fencing and I intend to base it on pvc the same as the bases to try and blend it into the base board better than my usual basing method seen in the pictures. If it works I'll post it here, if not forget I mentioned it.

Wow, this is great! Lovely board, I will steal some inspiration for my sci-fi colony!

Thanks for the compliment, I'm quite pleased with where I've got to but I don't think I've resolved my original question of how to blend the buildings into the base board without fixing them into place and I didn't want to do that without resolving the other question which is what town layout will give me the best tactical games if I have a fixed town.
So this is an experiment and once I have played a number of games I will have a better idea of what works best and may return to it. However I feel an adobe town is called for with Mexicans in sombreros, señoritas in flowing dresses and maybe the magnificent seven
Cheers

[dinohunterpoa]

Vagabond, watch the new superb series GODLESS on Netflix, and then check out if your saloon has enough space to have a couple of mounted gunslingers wrecking havoc inside! 

 

[rebelyell2006]

Marshall McKluskie views his cabbage patch. What veg grows in New Mexico around Las Vegas?

A lot, and not much.  Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Southwest, agriculture was driven around the "Three Sisters" of corn, beans, and squash (along with game, fish, and piñon).  For the most part, small vegetable gardens behind a house could grow just about anything that could be sustained in dry areas, including onions and chiles.  However, it was almost always sustenance farming only.  Farms did not export vegetables until after the turn of the century, and mostly just along the Rio Grande.  They tried wide-scale truck farming in the plains after 1915, but that required an expensive dam and irrigation canal system that collapsed during a multi-year drought.  Anybody with a source of water and water buckets (and a peon or a child to carry those buckets) could grow anything if they had the desire and the seeds.  The agricultural driving force was cattle and sheep, not vegetables.  A cabbage patch is perfect for the area.

That is mostly around the plains, the high desert areas, and other scrubby lands.  The various valleys in the mountains and mesas had spring-fed rivers and streams that, when routed with acequias, provided sufficient water for other crops, including vineyards.  Some of those valleys held large cereal farms, which fed into various grinding mills.  The grain was sold throughout the territory, and was the primary food source for the army outposts.  Not all rivers were necessarily conducive to farming: the Navajo at the Bosque Redondo concentration camp discovered that the Pecos River was too alkaline, and could not grow plants (thus contributing to their starvation).

The easiest way to find out what the soil can support is to find a traditional cookbook.  Farmers at the land grants traded their wool and excess cattle for manufactured goods from back east, not for other food.  Food also did not survive the Santa Fe Trail and other trails as well as non-food; changes in diet occurred when the railroad made food transportation economical.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I'm a bit late to this thread but I have to say, your town is looking bloody lovely, well done sir!   

[Vagabond]

A lot, and not much.  Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Southwest, agriculture was driven around the "Three Sisters" of corn, beans, and squash (along with game, fish, and piñon).  For the most part, small vegetable gardens behind a house could grow just about anything that could be sustained in dry areas, including onions and chiles.  However, it was almost always sustenance farming only.  Farms did not export vegetables until after the turn of the century, and mostly just along the Rio Grande.  They tried wide-scale truck farming in the plains after 1915, but that required an expensive dam and irrigation canal system that collapsed during a multi-year drought.  Anybody with a source of water and water buckets (and a peon or a child to carry those buckets) could grow anything if they had the desire and the seeds.  The agricultural driving force was cattle and sheep, not vegetables.  A cabbage patch is perfect for the area.

That is mostly around the plains, the high desert areas, and other scrubby lands.  The various valleys in the mountains and mesas had spring-fed rivers and streams that, when routed with acequias, provided sufficient water for other crops, including vineyards.  Some of those valleys held large cereal farms, which fed into various grinding mills.  The grain was sold throughout the territory, and was the primary food source for the army outposts.  Not all rivers were necessarily conducive to farming: the Navajo at the Bosque Redondo concentration camp discovered that the Pecos River was too alkaline, and could not grow plants (thus contributing to their starvation).

The easiest way to find out what the soil can support is to find a traditional cookbook.  Farmers at the land grants traded their wool and excess cattle for manufactured goods from back east, not for other food.  Food also did not survive the Santa Fe Trail and other trails as well as non-food; changes in diet occurred when the railroad made food transportation economical.

I was hoping you would chime in, thanks a lot, so it seems that the Three Sisters was universal in the US, I've read about them in the NE and Canada but not in the SW I do remember a couple of posts talking about modelling them, I think it might have been Malamute and Mikedemana, I'll have to look them out.

Do you think I am anywhere close with the board colour for around Las Vegas and if not what would you suggest?

I'm a bit late to this thread but I have to say, your town is looking bloody lovely, well done sir!   

Cheers, the building do sort of look better on a dusty board than they did in the Mabel Street Mob game, maybe I should do a western game next DevLAM as I enjoyed yours so much, even if I was just target practice for you and Doug.

[rebelyell2006]

Do you think I am anywhere close with the board colour for around Las Vegas and if not what would you suggest?

The color is not bad, considering how dry and sandy the ground can get.  With that said, I think th ground is perhaps a little too dry, and could use more grass.  "Las Vegas" is Spanish for The Meadows, and the area is right where the Great Plains meets the Sangre de Cristos Mountains.  The (lack of) ground cover is fine for Lincoln County and areas closer to the mesas.

[Vagabond]

The color is not bad, considering how dry and sandy the ground can get.  With that said, I think th ground is perhaps a little too dry, and could use more grass.  "Las Vegas" is Spanish for The Meadows, and the area is right where the Great Plains meets the Sangre de Cristos Mountains.  The (lack of) ground cover is fine for Lincoln County and areas closer to the mesas.

My original intention was to have grass patches but I sort of bottled out because I was quite pleased with the result I had got and didn't want to bugger it up.

I am thinking of doing a similar thing on the other side of this board but not having the waggon tracks down the centre to try and make it a bit more generic and also in the hope that it will warp in the opposite direction and pull the thing a bit flatter than it is. If and when I do that, if it looks any good I'll put it on here to see what you think.

Thanks for the advice.
Cheers

[dinohunterpoa]

Vagabond, I think that in this arid environment you need some vultures and the remains of a cow (or buffalo):


From here: www.secretweaponminiatures.com


From here: http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=10390

 

 

[Vagabond]

At the end of Nov I said I was building some fences with clear bases and if they worked ok'ish I would post them up here. Well it took longer than I thought but here they are, what do you think to the idea.


The fences on the right are about 4" long and have a piece of PVC blister material at either end to make them stand up.

There are also 4 new s**t houses built using a core of balsa and fire lighting splints for the wood planking, idea from Silent Invader.

 
In this picture there are 17 pieces of PVC supporting the fence.

Note the set of stuff behind the nearest buildings, The cube pack and barrels are commercial but the other packs and sacks are DAS, dead easy to do and a fraction of the cost.


If you look carefully you can see some of the PVC pieces on this photo. You can also compare toilets, mine are the larger ones and the one on the right is a commercial product.
A slightly better view of my DAS work, it's not spectacular but it does the job.


Just a close up to show the pvc better. the pailing fence on the right was my test piece and I thought the pailings were too big so cut them in half for the rest of the fences. In the background are some rail fences again stood on PVC.


A better view of the rail fences and 2 other toilets my builds.


A close up, the horses are also on clear bases.


The hitchin post is also on a clear base, the water trough is placed on the top of part of the base which is why it stands proud of the board.


At the other end of town the hitchin post on the left doesn't have a trough on it and you can see the pvc more clearly.




Final view of the DAS work.

The construction of the fences is a bit crude but I just wanted to show the practicality of clear bases.

[Elk101]

Nice layout and amazingly effective clear bases.

[Mason]

Those bases work really well.
I have to admit to being surprised just how well!
 

Lovely town set-up too.
 

[Michi]

Excellent idea to put the fences on those clear bases too. Almost invisible, I hadn´t noticed if you would have not told me.

[Elbows]

Yep, very slick.  Nice work.

[Hu Rhu]

Oh my that is a fantastic layout.  Great idea about the clear plastic bases. 

[Dr DeAth]

What a great table.  Plastic bases work for me, which isn't helping my own decision making about using clear bases for my western figures or going with more traditional ones so they match all my other figures