Adding the walls and test fitting....

 Greetings once again dear readers!

Okay so this morning, (while binge watching ST DS9 on Pluto TV going on in the background), I worked on the walls and test fitting the entire setup.

(A test fitting to get a basic idea of what it will look like once it comes together.)

(Looking down to get a good pic of what the floor plan will be. Plenty of room for some jailhouse action...)

(Another shot focusing on the walls.)

(The size of the brass rods I am using for the cell bars.)

Currently I am short the brass rods, and have some on order. That is going to be the next (and hardest part) of this project is assembling the jail cell bars.

But I do have a plan....

Thanks for reading this short update and rest assured that more is to come!

Building a Western Town: Redoing the Sheriff's Office...again....

Howdy once again dear reader!

As the month of January continues, I am also continuing to push to completion (once again) some very long and overdue projects. I've been on a roll working on my long overdue Western Town.

This months update is on the new workings on that building that has plagued me; The Sheriff's Office and Jail.

Back in June of 2017, I had started working on the Sheriff's Office and Jail for my town. The building was one of the old TCL kits that Knuckleduster had offered before bringing up their own line of buildings. I will admit that I do like these kits from TCL as they are so easy to modify.

I didn't like the original jail idea though, (one big cell in the back), and so I decided to modify it by making two cells. The picture shows the process and you can see the idea I had.

Unfortunately that didn't work either.

So I set the building on the back-burner and there is has remained for the last five years.

Until this past week.

While on my binge of "finishing up long delayer projects", (Mostly buildings, and of them, mostly Western buildings), my wife suggested for me to do an "extension of the building.

"Hmmm.." sez I.

So with idea in my head, and wood, pencil, and trusty Dremel tool, I've sat down and started slowly working it.

The building will be an L shape, with two small cells and one larger "Drunk tank" at the end. It's a slow process to make sure that everything measures up, but so far so good.

The jail cell bars are going to be 1/16" brass rods. These are easy to work with.

I'll keep you informed as to how the progress is going.

The pics below show the building in it's original format, the planned changed of two cells, and then latest modifications.

(Click on the pic for larger versions)

(This was the stock TCL kit in building form)...

(With the jail cell wall which made one big jail cell....sigh...)

(A back shot of the building showing the cell, and the "wood/stone" work on the outer walls...)

(A close up of the actual jail cell bars and door...)

(This is the first modification that I tried. Two small cells with a cell door and wall. The cells were too small and could barely hold a 28mm based figure...hmmm...need to go back to the drawing board....)

(I will admit that it does look kinda nice but just didn't do what I needed it to do for me....)

(So here we are five years later...LATER! And I am once again at work here. The new idea is to simple take out the cells, dividing wall, and one part of the back wall, and scratch build and extension of sorts to the existing building making an L shape.)

(The wall is cut for the entrance to the new section.)

(3/32" basswood is being used for the walls. Each one a little over 2" in height.)

(The walls, cell doors, floor, and roof sections to the jail. The brickwork was done in pencil and then scribed with my trust Dremel.)

(A close up showing the brickwork, and the floor settings for the bars.)

Hang onto your hats folks, because there is more to come as this project moves forward!

Thanks for reading!

Building a Western Town: The Herald-Gazette....

 It's amazing what a person can do once they are motivated.

So I am pushing on completing two buildings this week for my Western town of Rimfire (Arizona Territory), and with the assistance of some "Saloon Piano Music", and some Western Movies, to keep me "inspired", I have been pushing hard on completing the projects.

The first one is done.

This is another TCL building that used to be in the Knuckleduster line before he switched over to the Gunfighters Ball stuff.  This is the TCL "Small Store".

I decided that every up and coming town needs a newspaper. So, Rimfire now has a newspaper building.

(The Rimfire Herald-Gazette.)

(Another shot of the Herald-Gazette, showing some of the weathering to the building. These kits paint up and weather quite nicely.)

(Rear and side shots of the building. The harsh environments in the West, played hell with wood and paint very quickly.)

Construction was pretty standard per the instructions. The only modifications I did was to add the signboard, and a different back door, and window "glass". After that, the hardest part was waiting for the glue to dry.

(As you can see the inside is pretty bare and standard, but it does allow for placement of figures, and other items.)

And now, (as usual), there is a backstory....

The Rimfire Herald-Gazette is the product of Mr. Horace Randolph Draper, and his nosey wife Eugenia, who upon arriving in Rimfire from Philadelphia, (rumor has it that they were run out of the city due to Eugenia's meddling in the affairs of some of the town's blue bloods), realized that the town was desperately needing a newspaper to tell them of all the events going on in the town of Rimfire, (for a fair price of course). Unable to settle on a proper name, Horace (who likes to go by "H.R."), and his wife compromised and thus the Herald-Gazette was born. 

The Rimfire Herald-Gazette is a weekly paper put out every Friday morning no later than 9 o'clock in the morning. The paper cheerfully tells everyone that saw something what it was that they actually saw (as written by the editor), and then sold to them for a nickel. 

The Rimfire Gazette Weekly usually is 4-6 pages of town news, an editorial, (often derisively called "Drapers Rantings"), 2-3 recipes, some advertisements, a few Bible verses, and any announcements such as weddings, reunions, picnics, political rallies, etc. There is also a "Society page" written by HR's wife to appeal to the ladies of the town.

HR employs Leroy Lumpkins as general help in the Newspaper office.  

HR will also do custom printing for customers for a price, (inquire within). 

"Widow Morley's Bluebird Cafe and Bakery"....

 So I continue on my building spree to work on my Western buildings, and as luck would have it, I have completed another one. 

I actually started the idea for this building back in 2016, and during the 2017 Super bowl halftime show, I had a drawing of names of my female friends that volunteered. My friend Sarah Morley won "the honor" *ahem* of having a café and backstory.

Originally I had called it "The Mockingbird", but I didn't like how the sign looked, so I redid it, and changed it to "The Bluebird". Very little modification was done to the building, (one of the older TCL laser cut buildings that Knuckleduster used to carry back in the day), and just added "window glass", and a wooden frame around the sign. 

Coloring was also done by Apple barrel, and Folk-art Craft Paints, "(Victorian Blue), and weathered with Burnt Sienna and Antique White.

This building adds a bit of color to my town. It makes for two blue buildings, (this one and the barber shop), and now it will be back to the tired worn brown ones that are more common. 

Here are some pics of the completed building, (and some other pics also).

Please click on them for larger pics.

(A frontal view of The Bluebird. Good lunches and suppers, fresh pies, and hot coffee; All served by the charming Widow Morley. This one is showing the weathering and wear on the buildings and boardwalks. These buildings drybrush very nicely.)

(A side shot showing the weathering.)

(Rear Oblique pic showing the weathering and wear on the building. Paint was expensive in the Old West, and painted building were exposed to harsh elements, and weathered quite quickly.)

(A comparison of The Bluebird with the still under construction Newspaper and Printing Shop. Both kits are the same one by TCL. I just modified the windows of the Newspaper Office by making them two BIG glass windows. That way the Newspaper Editor can see what is going on, (just like everyone else), and then write about it in the paper and sell the paper to folks for a nickel each telling them exactly what it was they saw...)

(Playing around with some figures and stuff. Henry Plunkitt, Ollie Olaffson And Winston Sinclair, (with his hands behind his back), hold a casual conversation outside of The Bluebird Café before it opens for lunch...)

(The conversation continues and meanders between "What kind of pie will Widow Morley be serving today?" and "Do you think she is looking for a suitor?" )

(A comparison shot of The Bluebird, and Wun Hung Lo's Chinese Laundry. The laundry and boardwalks are from the Arnica Montana line, the fence, barrels, and barricade items are from Acheson. The figures are a mixture of Pulp Figures and Dixons.)

And now for the "Backstory"....

As promised....

For your viewing enjoyment is "Mrs. Morley's Bluebird Café and Bakery", also known simply as "The Bluebird".

It is owned by Mrs. Sarah Morley also known in quieter circles as "The Widow Morley".  

The story around these parts is that she came out west and opened it up to make a living after losing four husbands during the war.  

Husband #1 was Alvin and he died of fever right before First Manassas (Bull Run to you Yankees).

Husband #2 was James, and he was run over by a runaway supply wagon during the frenzied, chaotic, Union retreat from Second Manassas, and was mashed into a pulp in the Virginia mud. 

Husband #3: was named Robert and died of diarrhea during the battle of Gettysburg. 

The fourth (and final) Husband was Thomas, and he used the top of his skull to catch the business end of a double canister round, courtesy of R.E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia during The Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864.

After the war, Sarah didn't marry again, although she had various suitors and gentleman callers and at least three of them also mysteriously disappeared...

After the sudden disappearance of the last one, a series of ugly rumors started going around the town back East where she lived, and people were whispering that "foul things were going on", etc.. So in order to prevent a scandal, and/or arrest and trial for "murder most foul" (even though there was no direct proof, but rumors are nasty things aren't they?), and to protect her good name, she quickly headed out west and settled in Rimfire.

She is quite the accomplished cook, and along with her cook/helper ( a fellow named "John Smith", that is real quiet and keeps to himself), her small café provides delicious lunches, and suppers as well as fresh pies, and hot coffee for hungry paying cowboys and townsfolk alike. She is well known for her fresh, delicious pies and freshly made powdered sugar almond cookies that she cheerfully bakes for special customers.

The Bluebird is always clean, bright and cozy, and is freshly painted. It is closed on Sundays and Saturday nights supper is always beefsteak, beans, bacon, and biscuits night.  Buttermilk and fresh milk, as well as coffee is an option, and occasionally she will have fresh lemonade.  No smoking, liquor, or tobacco chewing (or spitting), is allowed in The Bluebird.

Rumor is out that "The Widow Morley" may be looking for a feller, sometime in the near future, so all available and eager bachelors should apply.... The lucky guy could be "Husband #5"!!!!

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!

June 2021 update...Middle of the Year already?!?!....

 It seems like the blink of an eye since May and suddenly we are at the high point of June. Solstice and the shortening of the days. So I guess it is time for me to get on with another update.

CLEAN UP THAT ROOM YOUNG MAN!!!!!

Okay, so in tried and true miniature gamer tradition, I trashed my work area. 

Projects came and went, repair jobs are waiting to be done. Old projects coming back to life, new projects trying to start, figures needing paint....AAAAAAHHH!!!! *runs screaming*....

Okay...*huff huff*...I am back now...*wheeze*

So the other day I came down into the paint room and realized just "what a mess" it had become.

YIKES! My mom would kill me!

So I sucked in a big ol' gulp of air, put on some music, and went to work cleaning up the area, and the paint/work table.

Trash was thrown away, old paint water drained, dropper bottles and paint pots, back into the rack, tools and brushes back into their respective containers, stuff picked up off the floor, etc.

Finally I got it looking decent once again....

Now I can sit down and start working without "Stuff" everywhere....

After getting all of this cleaned. I got to work.

Projects Galore...

So with my D&D game on hold for the month of June, I am currently on a "Western" kick. I've been busy getting back into building my old Western town of Rimfire, and with dogged determination, I am finally finishing up some of the TCL buildings I started back in Feb of 2016 and stopped working on in June of 2017. 

First up was to finished the TCL bank building.

This wasn't so hard as it was mostly just putting in the walls and trim, and adding "glass" to the windows and a door to the wall. 

The setup of the bank before I started the final assembly....

With the walls inserted, and a rubber band holding it together while it dries. 

The outer framework and golden filigree for the bank. I went with golden trimming to make it look "more attractive", (err..."robbable"), than normal. And the gold on green gives it a nice touch don't you think?

The interior walls of the bank. Installed and ready for tellers to smile at you as they take your money...

Another view of the inside of the bank.

A nice angular view of the bank, showing the interior...

With the front trimming on the building, the bank is essentially complete. 

A close up side view of the finished building. Here you can see the reflection of the clam shell blister plastic I used for "glass" for windows. 

A further away shot showing the size of the building... This is a standard TCL size long building...

With the building itself done, it was time to set up a couple of figures for scale and reference. They look pretty good next to it, if I do say so myself...

After this it was off to complete the Sheriff's Office and jail.

I finally got off my duff and started redoing that mess I created of making separate jail cells. I added some walls, and got more parts installed.  This one is about 95% done....

Aided by an ice cold Triple XXX Root Beer, I got to work on the Sheriff's Office and Jail, and started base-coating some Arnica Montana boardwalks.

A frontal comparison shot of a small store, the Sheriffs Office and Jail, and the bank.

Looking down you can see the size difference in buildings as well as two interiors.

ARNICA, MONTANA...

One of the other things I wanted to do while working on these buildings was to get onto to building my Arnica, Montana line of resin buildings that I had for a couple of years. 

The Arnica line was purchased a few years back by Hawgleg, and is currently in a semi-retired status as many of the molds are seriously worn. Due to the conditions of some of them, Hawgleg only produces kits per special request order at the moment. We are hoping to have this fixed soon...

So I decided to start off with the sidewalks/boardwalks.

For these (and other resin kits), it is HIGHLY SUGGESTED AND ENCOURAGED that you clean (wash), the resin pieces in warm (NOT HOT), water with a mild dish soap, (Ajax lemon or Dawn), and a scrub sponge. Once the pieces are washed, rinse them thoroughly in cold water, and set aside and let air dry for approx. 24 hours.

You can then prime them how you want them.

After doing this, I went with painting the boardwalks.

For a base coast, I am using Burnt Umber, and a darkened brown. 

For a little more variety, I did the middle one with a light coat of "Burnt Sienna".

After this I did a little adding additional colors....

"Lookin' a little worn there, Tex..."  The color mixture is nice....

After this I will use a drybrush of cinnamon and a lighter drybrush of off white for wear and tear on the wood and to show the middle being worn... 

More pics on this to come.

I've also started the wash and dry process with two Arnica buildings; (The Hotel and The Mercantile)...

I will be priming these in the next day or so, and getting them ready for assembly.

So I guess I am back to building my Western town...YEE-HAW!

And for Father's Day, my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), fixed me a German Apple Pancake and Bratwurst!

Hence the obligatory food pictures!!!!

Mmmmmmm......

And that's it for now. 

Actually there's more, but I think I will need to make another entry into the blog to catch up.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

More to come!