Boomville 2.0After selling my unfinished wild west town “Boomville” I left the wild west theme.
But when I got my hands on “Dead Man’s Hand” rule set and some gorgeous “Black Scorpion” miniatures I started building on “Boomville 2.0”
The Store:First straight forward building (looks quite like a shoebox).
The idea is to build houses where you can move your figures in/out/around and over.
For better access I lowered the inner walls as well as the doors.
I used Balsa wood and Styrodur. A thin strip of styrodur is coverd with balsa sheets on both sides.
In this way I get walls of about 6 mm thick that are solid enough to work with.
The floors / roof are thin sheets of styrodur and the roof is covered with paper napkins that are brushed on using a mixture of water and wood glue.
Not sure if and how to paint the building but I am open for ideas.
Not sure if I should use acrylic paints or inks on this building. If you have a good suggestion please let me know.
The Jail:Boomville is a violent place so we have to lock the bad guys up. Let’s build a jail!
For the stone section on this building I used Styrodur. Cut from a single block of foam and textured it with a pencil.
In this project toothpicks come in handy when it comes to iron bars.
I try to make the buildings a-symmetrical what prevent them from looking dull.
Aiming for an interesting layout with a good level of playability.
Again I used the cut down walls for the interior.
All doors operate. It’s nothing more than a Toothpick that is glued on to the door and that sticks into the floor and into a small block of wood just above the door.
Working with balsa & foam is quite easy, fast and fun. So now I got the hang of it lets scale up and go for a slightly larger building.......
The Hotel:Now all these outlaws need some place to stay so its obvious that we have a "Hotel" in "Boomville".
A slightly larger project although it is still a small hotel.
While building the Hotel I still focus on playability. In this case the hotel is more than a hotel.
You can move around the building in several ways so there is always a way out when things get too dangerous.
The water tank on the roof is a toilet paper roll and you could hide a miniature underneath.
Come to think of it, need to make one with a door in it!
Added 2 ladders on the roof, they might come in handy.
The stairway to the roof is split in 2 levels.
Like to make stairs this way so miniatures can actually stand on the stairs and just peek over the edge of the roof.
Another new feature is the hatch. It actually opens and is also a great way to create possible movement in a building.
The building split up in three layers.
The ground floor has a reception with rooms on both sides.
Both rooms have a back door and behind the reception they are linked with double doors.
The counter gives good cover.
There are three rooms on the second floor, each with a door to the balkony and all the rooms are connected by doors as well.
In the room on the left is a ladder that goes to the hatch on the roof.
The Hotel is slightly larger than the jail.
Town Hall:
I started with the idea of making a “Bank” but I ended up with a “Town Hall”.
I wanted to make a larger wood construction on a stone base with a more classic look.
Working with higher ceilings and windows and a nice stairway up front.
Although the building is actually a big square box, I tried to make it more interesting with the walls
on both sides and rear sticking out a bit (the middle section) and by adding irregular structures at roof section.
All the parts of the Town Hall.
The ground floor has a big massive entrance and a large hall with oversized staircase.
Since the walls in this project are higher than normal buildings I added small windows over the doorways. Looks quite elegant I think.
The curved balcony makes the interior look more classy. The room at the back has again a lowered wall for better access.
I could not do this on the ground floor due to the large stairway.
The stairway that goes to the second floor is again split in 2 sections.
The top floor is a single room. From this floor you can look all the way down.
Since I like the idea of looking down from the first floor to the entrance I decided to connect the top floor with the lower levels as well.
For this I added a kind of glass roof or dome at the center of the room.
You can actually see the front door and stairway when you look through there and it makes the inside much lighter.
A little ladder leads up to the hatch/roof.
Building the roof section was a lot of fun.
The triangular shape of the façade was an obvious decision and adding another glass roof was already on my mind at the moment I made the one at the lower level.
I also added the hatch which I intend to use more often in future buildings.
The roof of the stairway is a natural stairs to the roof itself. I decided to make a kind of rectangular grid on the slope instead of an actual stairway.
After building the lower water tower the project was finished but when I looked at it from the front I missed the “Oh Yeah” effect.
I decided to make a second water tower on an elevated area. Once I got the idea I immediately knew where to place it and how to build it.
An elevation that goes over the walkway that leads up to the roof in a way that you can walk underneath.
And yes we have a ladder so you can climb even higher.
The final update will be one that is again bigger. Not a bit bigger, a lot bigger!
The first picture I took from that project is the one below. You may guess what it will be….
The final building of this first series is the Casino.
Since I am still building this idiotic big building I want to annoy you with some pictures of the work I’ve done so far.
I'm working on the roof section at the moment and this takes a lot longer than expected.
How does a casino/theatre look like?
For me it must have a big open area inside surrounded by a balcony or walkway with a big bar and some rooms for the ladies and their customers.
Maybe a stage, a storage room and some rooms for gambling.
Most important it has to be accessible, playable and extremely diverse with lots of movement options. With this in mind I started this project.
Now the floor plan is there I can start building walls. Inspired by wall structure of the Atlantic Cable Mine I made my first wall test piece.
http://www.wildwestmodels.com/Atlantic-Cable-Mine.html 
The wall is made of a thin strip of Styrodur with balsa sheets glued on both sides.
This makes the wall solid enough to build with. Another great advantage is that I can stick toothpicks in the wall so I can lock the elements in position.
Before assembling the ground floor I decided to remake the base on which the walls are glued.
The reason of using a thicker base is that I want to add a lower floor area in the casino.
All the wall parts are pinned down on the sheet of styrodur. Once all the parts are done and approved I glue all the wall elements in one session on to the base.
Positioning the lower floor part requires some spatial awareness.
Since I do not work with a drawn out plan I need to determine its location thinking about how the interior on the higher levels will look like.
Around this lower floor part I picture walkways from which people can look down on the floor and on the stage.
Adding steps all around this lower floor makes it more interesting.
The casino starts to look like a real entertainment centre.
I actually manage to get a small stage in there as well.
Some of these elements are very important in a project because they determine how to build on from there.
They already help me to visualize the first floor an I even have some ideas about a future roof already.
Also started to add the walkways outside the building and all the windows at this level are done as well.
Now we are looking at the ground level of the casino with a large front door and 2 smaller exit doors at the back (need to make a row of outhouses behind those doors).
I imagine a big bar at the rear right with a small storage room top right. We have a back stage room as well at the right and at the left 2 large rooms for gambling.
Start of the first floor. I glued a wooden frame along the edges of the styrodur floor.
This prevents it from bending too much. Once all the wall elements are in place it is strong enough to handle.
Once the floor is in its place I started to draw the rooms on it. At the top right I will make a stairway up to the second level.
A little jump in time. Just for the record, at this stage the project is exactly 2 weeks on its way.
The walls and floors on the first floor are all in place. Between the 4 rooms on the left you'll see the lowered wall sections again.
A brought stairway is leading up to the first floor at the back and the first parts of the balcony (or outside walkway) are glued on as well as the first support beams underneath. There will be a whole series of them on the inside as well.
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Time for another update.
All the windows on the first floor are done and the walkway, it goes ¾ around the building, is done as well.
There are 33 support beams at this level and I have to repeat that going up. The stairs is separate so can be placed to your liking.
Ground and first floor assembled. At the left there is the back stage area. Here the roof already start at the first floor.
Once the building is finished you can remove the roof parts to look inside. I plan to do this also above the rear entrance.
At the front, the Casino needs to look high, tall, impressive an symmetrical (more or less).
At the rear I want the building to be more irregular with lots of interesting movement options.
The floor of the second floor is laid. Still have to cut out the center but first I plan all the in and outside walkways and again some small rooms.
A little jump in time. The floor plan of the second floor is cut and along the edges I glued wooden beams.
All the wall elements are roughly there and are temporarily stuck to the floor wit toothpicks.
Setting this level up means that I can check my ideas and plan what to do next.
Always thinking ahead because I can already roughly visualize the roof section on top.
Planning on working towards a smaller surface while going up I start adding sloped walls for future roof sections.
Front left, at the second floor, I have a surface wide enough to make another stairway that goes up to the roof.
(Start to love this side of the project more and more) ((strange, I actually start to like specific parts of the projects more then other parts.
Guess I sniffed too much glue.))
With the second floor fully assembled I can start adding the support beams on the first floor.
Hurrah! The rough guys are celebrating the new roof above the rear entrance of the casino.
This part (roof/stair section) can be removed so you can look inside.
On this building I will use the same technique when it comes to roofs. Paper napkins brushed on with water and wood glue.
The roof sections above the backstage area are done as well.
The roof section on top of the stairway at the right is getting shape as well.
That flat surface over there asks for being accessible.....
I do not have decent pictures from the inside at this point but in this picture you can see a small part of the support beams and railing.
Another feature that I did not point out yet is at the lower right in this picture.
At the right, underneath the stairway is the storage room.
Outside I made a ramp/slope to roll barrels up or down to the back door of the storage room just around the corner.
The final picture for now. All the walkways on the first and second floor are finished.
With the roof section roughly in place I can start adding the support beams at the inside of the second floor as well.
The big square opening will be a glass roof section.
It will be lifted up a bit first and around it I plan on making some kind of walkway.
At the left we have an open area that asks for some kind of structure still.
I am thinking of adding a small hut for the genetor up there and some water tanks.
I even think about some kind of wind mill on roof of this possible hut.
Since this is almost the point where I am at the moment, building this structure, you may feed me on ideas about the roof.
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The roof is a lot more work then expected. It's a challenge to build this part in a way that it fits wel without bending or warping.
This is why progress got slowed down quite a bit.
I dit however made progress and I hope to finish the Casino within the next 2 weeks tops.
While the roof is drying I made a bar. Just a test piece but it looks o.k. although I had another form in mind.
Might change this one for another model.
The roof is fully there. Need to decide if I want to add this little building on top still.
If so then this will be positioned at the right somewhere half over the sloped area of the roof.
Then I want at least one water tank up there as well and a hatch.
The big see-through roof part is also getting its basic shape.
In this next picture you can see a good deal of the interior.
All support beams and railings are there. (Glad I got that done)
Finally a picture of some stairs.
The openings between the individual steps are large enough to actually stick the base of the model in-between.
This weekend I will try to finish the open roof section, 2 big signs and I will make a start assembling all the doors.
After that I have to decide on what to add on the roof.
Until next update.....
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April 26, 2024, 12:28:16 AM
February 17, 2009, 09:43:50 PM
