Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Old West => Topic started by: Bullshott on 06 April 2010, 09:24:48 PM
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I'm looking at putting together a large mining camp with ambitions of turning into a boom town. Can anyone help with suggestions for suitable buildings (both pictures and sources of where I can pick up parts/kits, as I have less time to build things nowadays).
So far my list comprises:
Tents (ACW timber-walled 'winter' tents with smokestacks)
Shacks and outside 'thunderbox' (various resin models I picked-up ages ago)
Hotel (I'll be using an old scratchbuild of mine, currently under under major refurbishment)
Other buildings that I am considering, but need help with finding inspiration and suitable models or 'donor parts':
Mining company office
Mining company store/trading post
Large stable/forge building (this will double as a steam engineer's workshop for Deadlands/Malifaux type games)
Bar/cantina (some sort of large temporary construction)
Anything else I should consider?
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A few places to get you started.
Assay office This can be a rather small building but will uses a small kiln and should feature a chimney or large stove pipe.
Dance Hall/theater
Fraternal Hall
Dry Goods store
Butcher Starts with just a tent and wild meat hanging from poles.
Sluices and rockers In the initial placer period of a town gold is found by dumping gravel in a long box and running water down it.
Stamp Mill This is where ore is crushed prior to shipping to a smelter. Not necessary until you move beyond placer mining. (here's mine)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/adwyn/th_StampMill006-1.jpg) (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/adwyn/?action=view¤t=StampMill006-1.jpg)
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Renendra have announced a sprue of various shaped tents, which would nice. They will be at Salute this year too.
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Here's a good resource for mining pics in AZ:
http://sharlot.org/img/browsing_htmls/m1.html
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Renendra have announced a sprue of various shaped tents, which would nice. They will be at Salute this year too.
Some more details...
TMP Link (http://theminiaturespage.com/news/33358/)
(http://theminiaturespage.com/news/pics/2010/apr/33358a.jpg)
(http://theminiaturespage.com/news/pics/2010/apr/33358b.jpg)
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Must look out for the tent sprue - it will have lots of uses, not just for this project.
However, what I really need is advice on who makes (affordable) good parts/models for the small er buildings I will be populating the camp/town with. Does anyone sell just frontages?
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What scale are you going for?
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What scale are you going for?
28mm
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If you dont mind gluing coffe stir sticks together
http://armoredink.blogspot.com/2009/02/store-underconstruction.html
http://armoredink.blogspot.com/2009/02/next-western-building.html
Signs of "real" prosperity would be wooden sidewalks, skip brick buildings unless the town has been around for about a year or more. Lumber Mill is typically one of the first Non-Tent building built nearby or on the edge of a boom town, leading to more wooden buildings. Tents on top of wood walls are also typical of nearing true wood buildings.
Next or probably the first wooden building would be a 2 story Inn, stage stop along with the livery stable. My source of pictures and write up for what I have built is based on "Images of America" "Mining Camps of Placer County" by Carmel Barry-Schweyer and Alycia S.Alvarez
Topics covered in the book are:
Geting There
Mines
Hydraulic Mines
Mining Camps
Mining Towns
Settling Down
Entertainment
Faces
The Chinese
Cant say how much this book has fille me in on ideas, tons of pictures and commentary.
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Renendra have announced a sprue of various shaped tents, which would nice. They will be at Salute this year too.
what scale are these? Is there a web site?
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what scale are these? Is there a web site?
They are 28mm.
http://renedra.co.uk/
This is their website but it looks like there is nowt on there at the moment. The tents will be available at the end of April.
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thanks. I will have to look out for them at salute
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Some good inspiration for the mines you can find in an earlier LAF thread:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=7443.0
For some paraphernalia you can check at Frontline Wargaming!
http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/
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Here is some of the Frontline stuff... Its under their 25mm range, you just have to scroll down...
www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/photos/25/25WF1.html
www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/photos/25/25WF20.html
www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/photos/25/25WB7.html
I really like their items.
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Does anyone sell just frontages?
http://www.moondragons.com/html/old_wild_west.html
fronts from just £5 unpainted....
backs from £8
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I have a different approach to this:
- what is mined?
large quantities? (Coal, Copper, Silver etc)
small quantities? gold etc
- a hillside where one or more tunnels (adit) come out, with a narrow track and mule-drawn mine-carts
- heaps of overburden, a stamp mill
- what happens with the ore next?
railway transport
animal transport
smelting
- the people who work in the mine need to eat and sleep
tents/shacks, a canteen
a laundry!!
- entertainement
bar
brothel
community hall
- Mining infrastructure
office, shed for tools
- Settlement infrastructure
Butcher
store
jail/courthouse
this is a dynamic approach, so You will need to decide at what stage the settlement is
tents in the beginning, houses in the end
as to the materials
check out US railway modelling manufacturers, they have whole ranges of Old West stuff
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I've seen a few modern 'westerns' lately that have frontier/mining towns in them where the building was just a frontage with a big tent behind it. Seems like a good idea to me.
I'm sure I posted this before but it doesn't seem to have shown up.
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http://www.moondragons.com/html/old_wild_west.html
fronts from just £5 unpainted....
backs from £8
Wow! You could recreate the decoy Rock Ridge from Blazing Saddles. Might need to scratch-build a toll-booth though lol lol
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http://www.moondragons.com/html/old_wild_west.html
fronts from just £5 unpainted....
backs from £8
I thought the Moondragon kits were no longer available... If they are available again I'm there in a shot!
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Drop Kerry a line and ask.. its the only way to be sure.
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Drop Kerry a line and ask.. its the only way to be sure.
Just about to do that. Will let you know the response I get.
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@ everyone - thanks for the ideas
@ former user - your post got me thinking:
Initially the setltement is going to be used for our Atlantis VSF games where, to add some colour and interest to US military forces, I have worked into the story a mining company set on exploiting this new land. The settlement is destined to be one of a number in a river valley that runs along a geological fault line at the edge of a mountain range.
I have a different approach to this:
- what is mined?
large quantities? (Coal, Copper, Silver etc)
small quantities? gold etc
Not sure what the campaign moderator will offer me in minerals, but it will probably be either large quantities of metal ore or smaller quantities of harder to mine but more valuable stuff.
UPDATE - Initially I will have a silver mine in the campaign (hence a small scale boom town), but elsewhere I have also found coal (ultimately leading to a much bigger enterprise).
- a hillside where one or more tunnels (adit) come out, with a narrow track and mule-drawn mine-carts
- heaps of overburden, a stamp mill
will certainly need these
- what happens with the ore next?
railway transport
animal transport
smelting
-transported down river to port for processing in th US (at least for the beginning of the campaign)
- the people who work in the mine need to eat and sleep
tents/shacks, a canteen
a laundry!!
tents for sleeping
good idea for the canteen
I will also use my Chinese laundry with a new building or tents
- entertainement
bar
brothel
community hall
Hotel/brothel (already built, just needs some minor repairs, a new roof and a repaint), plus a bar of some sorts
- Mining infrastructure
office, shed for tools
definately an office, plus a large workshop building/store (this will be somewhat Deadlands/malifaux/VSF inspired)
- Settlement infrastructure
Butcher
store
jail/courthouse
Store is a must
I like the idea of a butcher
No jail (at least to start) - any serious prisonners will be taken downstream
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Jails in gold rush towns: Flat metal strapping shapped into a box shape about 5 feet tall with a lockable door. Looks like a large cage is all, an its Riveted!!!, another town had a iron stake that was about 10' long pouned into the ground, all but the last foot of it, had a chain and manacle on it, no protection, none for the cage either... and lastly one town sherrief used a buffalo hide, had the prisoner lie down, covered him to the neck and pegged the edges to the ground. Cant find my pics of the strap cage jail from Colma Historical Musesum... drat. Covered jails cost money, brick ones even more.
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http://www.moondragons.com/html/old_wild_west.html
fronts from just £5 unpainted....
backs from £8
Dont think they are in operation any more
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I bought some fronts a few months ago, but I did hear they were going to stop making them.
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Another compnay would be TSS, they produce four different fronts and a selection of different backs, a barn and a couple of out-buildings. Mainly for the well established town I would think.
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Have a look at http://www.tigerminiatures.co.uk/page7.htm (http://www.tigerminiatures.co.uk/page7.htm) for some background figures.
Though not a 'fighting' figure a boom town would not be the same without one of these:
(http://www.tigerminiatures.co.uk/USERIMAGES/MP20.JPG)
floating in the background.
Andrew
www.blog.kings-sleep.me.uk (http://www.blog.kings-sleep.me.uk)
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Reaper do this one, which I really like...
http://www.miniature-heroes.co.uk/browse/reaper-miniatures/chronoscope/view/50119-reaper-crazy-pete-prospector.html
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Renendra have announced a sprue of various shaped tents, which would nice. They will be at Salute this year too.
They also do packs of four small bell tents or four large ridge tents - each for £5. I picked some up at Salute. These will be very useful for all sorts of games.
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Another compnay would be TSS, they produce four different fronts and a selection of different backs, a barn and a couple of out-buildings. Mainly for the well established town I would think.
Update on TSS :
Their resin building range was sold off to QRF last week(?). QRF are in the process of updaying their website (hopefully this week). They then need to run off some stock before this range is fully up and running. I got this information first hand from QRF at Salute.
QRF had a few building sets at the show , so I came away with a barn, a big 2-story stable/barn and a shop. I'm looking forward to making these up in the not too distant future. After which they will be getting an order for more of the shop fronts :)
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I tried to buy from Moondragon's about 2 months ago and I was told I could not get ANY of his stuff as he was no longer making his larger ranges.
I have the TSS range. Pretty decent. The board walks are pretty small tho.
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I tried to buy from Moondragon's about 2 months ago and I was told I could not get ANY of his stuff as he was no longer making his larger ranges.
I have the TSS range. Pretty decent. The board walks are pretty small tho.
who is TSS? never heard of them.
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Check the brief Info about Silver Mining
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_mining
for starters
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Silberbergwerk_Suggental_Josephistollen.jpg)
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TSS = Total Systems Scenic
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Announcement regarding QRF buy-out of TSS is here:
http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/catalog/index.php (http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/catalog/index.php)
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Can it really be over 4 years since I started this thread?
Anyway, the campaign for which I was looking at using the town folded and I moved on to other projects. However, I now seem to have rediscovered my building mojo and have started work on finishing the buildings I had acquired for this project. The new town won't be Wild West specific, as I intend many of the buildings to be usable to represent mid to late 19th century frontier towns around the world - South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to North America. There will even be a couple of buildings done to allow me to take the town into a Victorian Science Fiction setting ...
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well am still here and will be looking forward to hearing what you are up to. The generic 19th century approach sounds like a great idea.
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Dave,
I have a couple of buildings that I wont be using in my town that you may find useful in yours.
Gratis.
;)
I shall bring them to BLAM.
PM just beforehand to remind me.
:D
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Dave,
I have a couple of buildings that I wont be using in my town that you may find useful in yours.
Gratis.
;)
I shall bring them to BLAM.
PM just beforehand to remind me.
:D
Thanks. I'll try to remember to do that :)