I've always been interested in the tales of the American old west. Over the years I've built up a collection of second-hand books on the subject. In the mid-to-late 80's I played a role playing game by TSR called Boot Hill. My friends and I had lots of fun using the rules to stage gunfights. We didn't have any miniatures but instead used cardboard counters to represent our characters and fought across a map of a town which came with the game.
I discovered miniatures about ten years ago. My plan was to find some good skirmish rules so that several players could run small groups of gunfighters against each other. This time instead of cardboard counters I'd have painted miniatures to play with. Instead of a paper map I'd have actual buildings my miniatures could use for cover.
Here is my first attempt at a western building. I found some pictures of western buildings in a wargames magazine and off I went. They are constructed from a base of 3mm thick cardboard which I've then overlaid with thin planks of balsa wood which were coloured using a wood stain. Everything was glued using white, or wood, glue. The roof tiles were cut from cereal packets. I made the roof removable in case I ever needed to put miniatures inside the building for any reason. I'm considering changing the sign to read 'Undertaker' rather than 'Funeral Services' to give it a more western feel.
The miniature is a 25mm gunfighter from Old Glory that I painted using acrylic colours. He's the first 25mm scale gunfighter I painted. In fact, he's the first (and only) 25mm scale miniature I've ever painted! Prior to this particular miniature I'd only ever painted in 15mm scale. I was reasonably happy with the result but I still have a lot more to learn about painting in this scale.
All photos are clickable for a closer view.
No comments:
Post a Comment