Modeling Calamity

[Heisler]

Oh, I remember the Flying Tricycle kits! I built up some of their stuff for Mordheim. No fun at all but way ahead of their time.

I'm firmly in the gamer friendly building crowd. Its one of the reasons I'm so picky about instructions being included with these kits. I realize that many of them are pretty simple and I have put together enough of them that I can put them together without much reference to the instructions. But I worry about a newbie trying to put together their first kit and choosing the Knuckleduster/Tri-City laser Hotel kit. That was a tough build and I knew what I was doing (at least I think I did).

I want something that's relatively easy, goes together in an hour or less and I can put on the table before I have really done anything to it paint wise.

[Elbows]

^Yep, that's why I really like the basic nature of the Sarissa kits, and they choose excellent MDF which looks quite good even sans paint.  I hate plywood kits normally...because the grain is very apparent, doesn't look good until you paint them, and seem more prone to warping.  I had a small Tri-City kit that Lee sent me as a test kit a while back.  It was too warped to really assemble by the time I sat down to build it.

As we've discussed...4Ground will probably knock it out of the park if they do the Dead Man's Hand stuff.  Their kits are more time intensive, but the designs are more genius.  I have a bunch of their ECW buildings and they're simply head and shoulders above everything else.  Here's hopin'!

[Heisler]

While working on some stuff for ReaperCon I have been messing around with my Old West town of Calamity. I was trying to figure a better placement of the railroad tracks in town. Placing it on the edge made it feel like an after thought. Well of course one thing let to another and I discovered that the model was as versatile as I hoped it would be. So here is a before shot and an after shot and, of course, there are a lot more pictures of the sequence on my blog at http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/03/modeling-calamity-things-are-changing.html

The original road layout:

The new road layout:

[pocoloco]

That's indeed a good placement for the track, makes it much more interesting that way. And I also like the placement of the hotel now, in the earlier option it was kind of facing wrong way, IMHO.

[Heisler]

It really helped making a mirror image model of the hotel, I was getting frustrated trying it out in a couple of different places and not being able to get in the position I wanted. It was a well spent 30 minutes. Running the tracks through town definitely helps make the railroad more integrated with the town and not an after thought anymore.

[Elbows]

Yeah, that's easily 10x more interesting than the original layout.  Really great layout actually.  Once I have all the components, I may try a similar thing for some train-related scenarios.  Can't wait to see the full process.

[Heisler]

I'm contemplating having a road run off the west edge again, right by the livery stable. If you come into town from that road you would be heading straight for the railroad station.

[Elbows]

A small footpath would fit nicely.  I see a lot of potential for your town layout just like that.

[Heisler]

Those extra little alleyways and footpaths were exactly what I wanted to fit in there. There will be a couple of small "bridges" across the stream as well. Essentially I'm using the mining town of Silver Plume in Colorado to provide most of my inspiration although there are bits of Idaho Springs and Georgetown as well.

[Elbows]

Not to complicate things further...but a water-wheel driven shop would be pretty darn cool

[Heisler]

That's a good idea! I'm sure I can work something like that in. Although I would rather buy a water wheel than build it myself. The building would be relatively easy and there are actually lots of flour mills in the area. Let me ruminate on that a bit.

[Elbows]

   Just thought one would look decent in the middle of town along the creek/river.  Assuming your creek is assumed to be more than a muddy puddle etc.

[Heisler]

Oh yes, definitely more than a mud puddle, fast moving mountain stream! Quite hazardous to try and cross anywhere but on a bridge.