The Blog of Michael T. Murphy and his lifelong obsession with "little army men" and their imaginary glory, miniature wargaming, and other things...

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Building a Western Town: Seriously late update...

 Howdy everyone.

So far this summer and for the past year pretty much I have mostly been involved with getting some of my umpteen thousands of fantasy figures painted up for running my D&D game.  This has put a serious pinch on most of my historical painting, (with the exception of some pirates I did), and even more so on finishing up some buildings. However with us currently taking a bit of a summer gaming recess, (thanks to the heat, real life, and the price of gas), I am refocusing some efforts back onto a previous project that I slouched off in waaaay back in 2017 and that is "Building a Western Town."

Back then I had started the town of "Rimfire", (originally known as Crabtree for the amazing and talented 19th Century personality Miss Lotta Crabtree but went back to Rimfire), Arizona, Territory.

From the period of Feb 2016 - June 2017, I cranked out a series of buildings:

1: Some outhouses.

2: Miss Melodie's Ladies Emporium.

3: General Store, (H. Thinglum Prptr.).

4: The Paradise Saloon.

5: Barber Joes Barber Shop.

6: An adobe warehouse.

I had also purchased some tents to use.

At the same time I had a series of buildings being worked on:

1: The Bank.

2: The Sheriffs Office and Jail.

3: A Cafe.

4: The Newspaper Office.


Somewhere around June of 2017, I got busy with life and work and ran out of steam. Then 2018 came, and the hellish years of 2019-2020. It was only after being able to move and finally set up that I was able to get back into building it. 

Once back here and set up, I slowly restarted it. 

I finished the bank. 

The building is one of the first line of  TCL buildings sold by Knuckleduster. Sad to say they are no longer available from either Knuckleduster or TCL: (Click on the photos for larger views.)

(Finally getting the fancy trim all painted up for the sucker....errr...."Customers" to deposit their hard earned cash in.)



(The final layout and setup of the bank.)

(Annnnnd the walls are in!)


(An oblique shot of the bank front showing the "glass" in the windows and the size of it.)


(One-Eyed Jack Carlson stands outside the bank waiting for it to open so he can go inside and make an early morning .44 caliber cash withdrawal....)



(Col. Belvedere, (Confederate Army, retired), stands outside of bank waiting on it to open to discuss "Why they do not accept Confederate money....")


The bank went along nicely.
The sheriffs office didn't.

I didn't like the original setup of the jail cell, so I have had to do some modifications. With this modification came a lot of headaches, and believe it or not, I am STILL working it out. I'm hoping to have it done, and have some pics posted, "soon".

However to keep things going, I am still going ahead with other buildings. This is to include the following:

1: The Imperial Hotel, (Resin Arnica Montana structure).

2: Mrs. Morley's Mockingbird Cafe. (A TCL building).

3: The "Weekly Gazette" Newspaper and Printing Press. (A TCL building).

4: Two more adobe warehouses, (Old Glory Foam Buildings).

5: "Hung-Lo's Chinese Laundry", (Another Arnica resin structure).


(Buildings in progress from L to R: "Hung-Lo's Chinese Laundry", The Imperial Hotel, and "The Weekly Gazette" Newspaper and Printing Press.)

I've got quite a lot to still build, but it is good to get back to seeing progress on these kits.

More to come as it happens!

3 comments:

Mike Bunkermeister Creek said...

Excellent work as always.
Bunkermeister

Jason said...

They look good. It is always satisfying to pick an old project back up.

Terrement said...

You may be behind, but you're ahead of me!

Lookin' good in the hood!!