Building Whitewash City

 I had been working on getting The Rules With No Name ready to play at conventions many years ago. I had found some 1/35 sized figures, and had made bases and painted many of them but had not decided on a color for the bases. I had looking into some papercraft buildings that would need to be upsized, and even picked up a couple of larger plastic fronts at Dollarama.

There was a set of buildings from a western town made by Eric Hotz, who is also on BGG. This was the Whitewash City. They are purportedly at 1/60 scale or 30mm but, things were built small back then and, with most figures being on bases, this makes the buildings look a bit on the wee side.

I had started some tests on upsizing the files. The size of the buildings to store was always a detriment, though, and I did not get around to finishing.

Several years later, I have come across Dracula’s America and am revisiting the scale. With the time now allotted from being quarantined, I have been busy painting up some 25mm figures. Now that I have a few posses done, I have revisited the terrain.

He had a sample building – The Imperial Saloon. This is nice to try to see if the scale will work with your figures. Plus it gives you an idea of how hard the assembly will be, and how durable the buildings are.

I had also bought the 10 pack about a decade ago. I was able to get it from him directly on CD, which I finally reprinted and built. This does fill a table nicely with a good amount of buildings, especially for a skirmish game.

 

I had checked back and planned to get the Motherload set with all the buildings. But when I finally was ready in March to order, the website was down. In speaking with Eric, it seems his old computer had stopped working and his new one doesn’t come with a CD drive.

I can still get the files from Drivethrugames. But it will now be a bit more expensive. If you need Western Scenery, I would recommend trying the sample first, and if that will work for you, think hard on going right up to the Motherload if you think you will ever need more than just the starter.

Man in your Pocket

When you are making terrain or scenery, it is always a good idea to keep a figure or two of the scale in which you are working nearby. This allows you to check often to ensure that buildings, vehicles, and blockades will look proper and that figures can actually fit where you want them. This also ensures that figures can see over hills or hedges and that doorways and windows look like they could actually be used.

In addition to having the figures handy when at home, it is also a good idea to carry a figure around with you when you are out and about. When I first started into 40K, I carried an unpainted plastic beakie marine around with me for about a year. After that I had a good idea of the size needed. Plus I found that, in a pinch, if I bend my pinkie, the middle joint is close to the size of a marine (being a bit over an inch long).

With starting to make scenery for my western figures, in roughly 1/32 to 1/35 scale, I should really start carrying around a cowboy in my pocket. This would really help in trying to find horses and cattle – both of which can come in random scales and can often look tiny. This will also come in handy in finding wood I can use for scale log cabins.
I was in Dollarama recently and noticed a nice folding bamboo fence that might be a great size. I didn't pick it up yet but may pop back with a little buddy. Otherwise, I was thinking about looking at those disposable chopsticks to see if they are cheap in bulk.

Terrain sites

I’ve had to refer some people to terrain building sites lately and have given them the classics.

Major General Tremorden Rederring’s Colonial-era Wargames Page.
This is one that I used to check in with all the time. Since it hasn’t been updated since June of 2006, it’s probably unlikely to change anytime soon. Which is a real shame as the General has a lot of good ideas. He’s mostly doing colonials but has some great information about ships, landships, and scenery. Of notable interest to the new True-Line-of-Site 40K is the Tabletop viewer and the Tall Grass section.
I just spent a bit of time going through it recently. I’m a bit sad about the lack of updates as it means that I probably won’t get to see the rules for the VictorianTech – a War of the Worlds-esque Battletech-type game.


From the Major General’s site I found the Terragenesis site – which is sadly no more. It has been replaced by the new Terragenesis site which has most of the old content on it. The Articles Index has a lot of good ideas and the forum is nice to visit. They do seem to be heavily into the contests lately, which is partly why I don’t frequent it as much as I used to. But I still recommend it to anyone about terrain projects.


A newer site that is also updated occasionally is the Hirst Arts tips section. Even though it mainly deals with using the Hirst Arts brick sets, there are a lot of useful info – like making a fence from epoxy glue, using water effects, and sci-fi ideas. I don't use any of the HirstArts products but they keep giving me ideas.


Another good site for inspiriation is the Necromundicon.
He's done a bunch of 40K and Mordheim stuff and has a good gothic feel to them. In addition, he has put up some rules for some games he made and terrain and bits for them. The Star Wars rules for the Galactic Heroes and the terrain to go with it are worth checking out.

Whitewash City

After admiring it for quite some time, I finally ordered the Whitewash City from HotzArtWorks. I had downloaded the free sample saloon before and finally ordered the Pioneer (starter) set. The value on this is unbelievably good. For $15.99 you can get it sent as PDFs by email or mailed on CD. It included a Bank, Sheriff’s Office & Jail, Saloon, two hotels, and 6 other buildings. With the extra free saloon this is more than enough to flesh out a small town.

He has many other buildings on his site which enables you to build quite a substantial western town. The files include both the colored and black and white versions of the buildings so you can reuse the same buildings without being as noticeable.

They are scaled to 30mm (1/60) so are a bit big for 1/75 scale plastic figures but are perfect for most 25mm figures. I’m looking to upsize them to 1/35 to be able to use with the cowboy figures I’ve been working at painting.

hello - gamer

"It all comes back to gaming for you, doesn't it?"

Yes. Yes, it does.


One of my friends is over in Belgium right now. She had sent back some photos of the canals. I had commented on how much they reminded me of terrain which is why she sent back the quote.



It does look beautiful but it reminds me that I need to build some terrain for Mordheim. Sometime after the addition, when I’ll have the space to keep it. After I finish putting together and painting my warbands. Of course, I’ll have to reread the rules again at that time.

I've got the power

When it comes to electricity and computers, I’m certainly not at the top of the class. While I do understand how the components work together (from 2 years of Comp Sci at university), I couldn’t currently trace the pathways and check the chip sets to see where the problem lies.
That said, I am able to crack open the case and swap out some basic components. If they don’t work though, I am back to relying on percussive maintenance. Besides the basics like keyboards and changing out the nasty mouse for a trackball, I have added a video card, dvd drive, and changed out the power supply.

That’s what I had to do last night. The home computer had been freezing up occasionally and finally wouldn’t start at all this week. Since the wife confirms that this isn’t really something that can wait, I went out to get a new one.
We got the last one at Computer Avenue but, from the website, I figured I’d give Computer Boulevard a try this time. Like most computer parts, power supplies seem to range from about $40 up to about $200. Since this computer will likely be replaced in the new year, I didn’t need anything too fancy. I found a nice one that looked basically similar to the old one and that also happened to be on sale for about $30.

At home, I cracked open the case and blew out much of the dust that had collected inside the bowels of our tower. We should probably do that more often. I took out the old power supply and put in the new one. I carefully removed each set of the old wires and quickly replaced them with the new ones before I could forget where they went.
I had to power it up three times before it finally caught and loaded into the system. This caused be a bit of concern at first but everything seems fine now.

Of course, I have to keep the old supply. It goes on the pile with its predecessor waiting to one day be opened and gutted for parts for scenery.

ebay goodness

My second day and I'm still at this. Last night I got two packages from ebay - Heroclix maps and Horrorclix LEs.

I got the Heroclix maps for The Junkyard (Collateral Damage) and The Lab (Armor Wars). I've been into Heroclix from the beginning and was even a Judge for a while but, due to time, dropped out for a while around the time of Ultimates/Mutant Mayhem. I'm slowly trying to fill in the gaps in my collection. I now have all the maps except the 2007 Convention map.

I got into Horrorclix from the start - it's actually got me back into Heroclix. I don't have anyone to play it with yet but remain hopefull. Plus, it's getting me back into making terrain. I'm missing the LEs from the first set but now have the LEs from the Lab. I need 17 REVs and 2 Unique (1 on way) from the 1st set and 42 REVs and 8 Uniques from the Lab.

From Heroclix, I have completed the sets for Xplosion and Cosmic Justice. I'm close on Infinity Challenge (5+0), Hypertime (1+1), Clobbering Time (1+2), Indy (2(+6)+4), Critical Mass (1+1), and Unleashed (2+1). I'm finishing my Icons (25+0) and Supernova (28+5) sets and filling in Ultimates (74+10) and Mutant Mayhem (61+13) sets. I dont't have much in the way for Legacy, Fantastic Forces, Armor Wars, Collateral Damage, Sinister, or Origin.

I have a few more packages en route. I'll let you know how I'm doing from time to time.

David