Davestown, building a western table!

[matakishi]

Now that looks pretty good.
And, with the addition of the different colours with the buildings, the hillsides don't look so out of place to me now.

Good job  

[grubman]

That's looking brilliant. Nice find on the buildings too.  

Like I said before, I'd like to thank the creator...but there is no link to do so.  However, when this site was down...that site was also down?  Not sure if that means anything?

[Mr. White]

Here's another cheap idea for terrain.

When out and about pop in to your local PetSmart or PetCo. A lot of times you can find an end cap with aquarium dressing for sale.

I've picked up a lot of cheap rock formations, 'alien' fauna, etc. at pet stores, and it's already painted!

[grubman]

Fleshing out Davestown

Well, Davestown is just about ready for my first battle.  I got the rules last night, so I’m going to start reading that now, build a couple posses and paint them up (but, that’s another thread ).  I just wanted to add a few more bits to the town before I call it quits on this project and move on to the next step.  Perhaps once I read the rules I’ll see a few more things I need to add.

While I was shopping yesterday I had pretty good luck.  I wanted to find some longhorn steer, but didn’t, but I did find a $1.99 “horse lover” plastic container full of cheap horses.  These look to be just a tad big, but beggars can’t be choosers, and they are close enough that one wouldn’t notice unless they really analyzed the table.  The horses meant I would be able to do some hitching posts, and a corral (even though I wanted to put attle in the stable, horses would look good too.

The only other thing I needed was something to base them up on.  I went to grandmas craft store again and picked up a strip of 1/8” x 3” x 24” Bass Wood for $3.  I never heard of Bass wood before, but it was cheaper than Balsa Wood, seemed about as light and easy to use, and was sturdier and cheaper.



The first project was the hitching posts.  I simply cut some bases out of the basswood (using my utility knife) and cut a few of the hobby sticks I had to make the post, and glued the horses in front of them, all using Elmer’s Glue.  Against one post I leaned an old wheel from a set of plastic cowboy’s wagon.  The wagon itself was way too big, but the wheel was serviceable.  That’s another tip; look around the house for junk!

I glued some sand to the base (since I wanted it to match the street) and primed it all.



Next I gave it a quick paint job.  I’m no eavy metal painter, and I take even less time on scenery and terrain bits, but these came out pretty nice.  I used grays to make the wood look old and dry.  Finally, I added a bit of moss and grass and flocked the very edge (again, to match the street).



I learned something interesting about Basswood…It warps!  As I was doing this project, the base started to warp from either the glue or the paint, and warp BAD!  I was starting to worry, then I remembered an old trick from when I used to water color paint about paper absorbing water and warping…so I painted the other side of the Basswood generously with water and allowed it to soak in.  After a while the wood warped in the other direction, and by the end of the night it was laying almost flat.  Whew!

Next I started on the corral.  I cut a bunch of fence bits out of those hobby sticks and glued them together.  Elmer’s glue dries to wood pretty well and fast, but this was still a bitch.  I did the sections separately, and then propped them up with bottles of paint.  Every time I accidentally bumped something, the whole thing fell apart.  Finally I dot it done though.

At first I glued 3 horses in the corral, but it just looked dumb, so I took one out, and then the second.  I think the lone horse in this small fenced area looks a lot better, and more “realistic”.

I glued sand to the base (which was 2 pieces of the basswood 3” x 6” masking taped together to form a square 6” x 6”) and also glued a bit of kitty litter in areas for added texture and to look like smaller stones in the coral.  I went a lot lighter with the glue, and the Basswood didn’t warp this time.



I painted the whole thing up, flocked the edges of the fence, and added a bit of moss and grass.  I took a little more time on this horse, to see if it would look any better than the other 3.  I like how it came out.



The final thing I did was dig out a few wood barrels I had stashed away that I picked up long ago at some granny’s hobby store.  I had ink washed them brown already and painted the bands silver.  Perhaps I’ll repaint hem and paint boards and all that, but for now they are functional as is, and they were free.  I added them to strategic locations to look cool and provide places for additional cover and/or obstacles.

Cost for this step:  $5
Total Cost of Davestown:  $48.50

So there you have it, Davestown is ready for adventure for under $50.  Not bad if I say so myself.  I’m sure I’ll add a lot of stuff as I go, but at least I have a good foundation to start with.  Thanks for reading, commenting, and keeping me motivated.  If you are interested I’ll be posting some other threads about putting together posses and painting up those figures once I get going and read the rules.

The Final view of Davestown…







Yeeehaaaaaaw!

[Lowtardog]

Lovely stuff Grubman, read through the scenarios in the book, the main things to add would be

Cattle raid (some cattle but you could use horses just as easily)

A gallows - which with your talent shouldnt be hard to build

YOu might want to scratch build a bank to rob too

[matakishi]

That's quite exceptionally good considering the money and time investment.

I particularly like how you've identified exactly what you need to make a western town that feels right for you and then set about making it happen. No side tracking or extraneous bits that take up time and money and often allow a project to peter out before completion, just proper, focused hobbying!   ::

You're a man after my own heart. I'm really looking forward to seeing your approach to assembling your posses.

Roll on the big game...

[Vanvlak]

Wow - grand, and very fast too, Nice sepia pic

[grubman]

Lovely stuff Grubman, read through the scenarios in the book, the main things to add would be

Cattle raid (some cattle but you could use horses just as easily)

A gallows - which with your talent shouldnt be hard to build

YOu might want to scratch build a bank to rob too

Flipping ahead I see that I will have a lot of fun building stuff .  I'm assuming that the High Noon is the blog standard pitched battle?  I'm probably oing to want to play some plain old shoot em ups before diving into the scenerios.

That's quite exceptionally good considering the money and time investment.

I particularly like how you've identified exactly what you need to make a western town that feels right for you and then set about making it happen. No side tracking or extraneous bits that take up time and money and often allow a project to peter out before completion, just proper, focused hobbying!   ::

You're a man after my own heart. I'm really looking forward to seeing your approach to assembling your posses.

Roll on the big game...

I'm surprisingly pleased with how it came together.  In the past I've had a lot of hits and misses with scenery...guess all that old trial and error paid off in making this easier.  Guess it's like riding a bike...

Wow - grand, and very fast too, Nice sepia pic

 :mrgreen: Thanks.  The old west pic was just a click away on a photo program, but I think it's kind of cool

[Gluteus Maximus]

That's quite exceptionally good considering the money and time investment.

I particularly like how you've identified exactly what you need to make a western town that feels right for you and then set about making it happen. No side tracking or extraneous bits that take up time and money and often allow a project to peter out before completion, just proper, focused hobbying!   ::

You're a man after my own heart. I'm really looking forward to seeing your approach to assembling your posses.

Roll on the big game...

Too true! You don't have German ancestry, do you? I don't think I've seen an example of Teutonic Efficiency that matches the way you've planned & executed your project  ::

Please post pics of your games - like the way Grimm has done with his Mao Li  game on the "Back of Beyond" board.

You should write this up as a magazine article & submit it to one of the "glossies".

[Mr. White]

Grubman,

Where'd you finally get the rulebook from?

[grubman]

Grubman,

Where'd you finally get the rulebook from?

From a local game store about an hour away.  I knew they had a copy, but I already had it on order and didn't have the time to run all the way over there.  In the end, I cancelled the online order and made the trip.

Right now I'm painting up my first (Outlaw) posse and am taking plenty of pics...but my motherboard on my computer went out, so I'll be offline untill it's fixed (using a friends right now).  Hopefully I'll be back online in a few days...and I'll have an assload of pics by then (I'm a fast painter...not eavy metal, but, fast...and that counts for something ).

[Evilcartoonist]

Grubman, Fantastic from the start. I'm eager to see your painted posses.  

Someone mentioned you should submit your work as an article. I second that motion. If magazines don't take ya, might I suggest the online (and free) magazine Wargames Painting and Modelling   http://www.thecourtjestersstudio.com/WPM/home.html
They're usually looking for submissions   (Court Jester has limited Interent access right now, so may take time gettin' back to ya if you go that way.)

Keep the updates coming!!  
P.S. Good to see some fellow Midwest efficiency (as if I could ever do something as good, as fast and as cost effective as you have.)  

[The_Wisecrack]

GREAT WORK HERE.  :love:          kep it up. i especially like the horse stands. no one can be boetherd to do them but i recon they could tie in interestingly with some kind of scenario. like a stampede because of some dinamite or something. maybe you should think about that and create a few stampede bases with your spare horses.

[R A Norton]

Top notch!  I agree with the comments about those horse stands.  Wonderful idea!

[Skunkape]

Great looking town board! Been watching you work on it from the beginning and you really did a fantastic job! I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun games on it.