Sunday, September 6, 2015

YEE HA! Howdy partner!


Hi to all of my very special guests.
Today we embark on a new period (well not so new as I have been collecting and painting these for over 20 years now), the Wild West. I have been a lifelong fan of all things John Wayne and most other westerns. My Mother, God rest her soul, loved westerns of all types and my brothers and I grew up on the westerns of the 50's and 60's. Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Cheyenne, Bonanza, The Rifleman and all the others. My Grandmother even took us to see The Alamo with John Wayne when it came out.
Well with the advent of laser cutting and all of the wonderful companies who have been making outstanding western buildings, I have begun to complete my collection. In addition to the town I have assembled I also have cavalry and wild redskins which will be seen at a later date.
So without any more ado, here is the town of Cheyenne Gulch Texas.

Above is a shot of the main street so far. All of the buildings are from Tri City Laser available from Knuckleduster Miniatures withe the exception of the Wells Fargo building which is from Gamecraft.
I was very impressed with the precision and detail of each of these pieces and strongly recommend that you check them out. Figures are a mix of Knuckleduster, Dixon, Old Glory and Frontier.



So far I have the livery barn, Barber Shop, Sheriffs Office, General Store, Hotel, Bank, Wells Fargo Office, a Millinery Shop and Saloon.



Even though these turned out a bit fuzzy you can see the detail offered by this line of buildings. The top picture is the interior of the General Store. The kit comes with the shelving and counter pieces. Other details are barrels from the craft store along with tiny baskets filled with seeds some resin crates and the feed bags are from an old (55 years) Britain's farm set.
Below in the second picture is the Sheriffs Office and Jail. This is how the kit comes and you can see that it is split into the jail cell, office and front section. Very cool for gaming!


The top picture is the Barber shop. I cannot for the life of me find anyone who makes a Barbers Chair in 25mm!!! Come on guys. How many westerns have you seen where the guy getting a shave has a six gun under the sheet just waiting to surprise his adversary? Clint Eastwood is not happy about this.
I have used scrap booking paper for my wallpaper and with a little patience and imagination you can create some decent Victorian walls and effects.
The bottom is the Livery Barn. The bales of hay are from railroad accessories. This is one of the plainest of the kits but has 3 roofs that come off to allow access to the interior.

Her is the front of the Sheriffs Office and General Store. The signs are all laser cut and a joy to paint. The General Store sign is a custom made sign that I ordered from Tri City Laser. Wonderful people to deal with and the price was not out of line. My Grandfather who came from Italy in the 20's started a Mom and Pop grocery store in Chicago and so my General Store has him as the proprietor.

The Livery and Barber Shop. What I really enjoy about these buildings is that they are made of wood not MDF. This allows you to stain them. Most of the exposed wood has been stained in this town and the Livery is completely done in a wood stain..

Here is the Hotel. Again another custom sign from Tri City Laser. The picture does not do it justice. This building has 2 stories and each level is accessible by taking off the roof and the second floor as seen in the two pictures below.



Next we have the Millinery Store and the Saloon.

The Millinery Shop is in tribute to my Mother-in-law who rest her soul was a remarkable seamstress. For our wedding she not only made the Bridal Gown but she made the dresses fr the maids of honor and my Father-in-laws suit! All were wonderful pieces of work. In the Millinery store is a counter from 4Ground miniatures. Excellent detail and went together in a matter of minutes. And now for my favorite, the Saloon.
The Saloon kit comes with the bar and the two round tables. I have added the Knuckleduster piano player and the pool table vignette. The bartender is from Dixon. The front of the Saloon has another custom sign with Quincannon as the owner. This is in tribute to Sergeant Major Quincannon from the John Ford western trilogy.


Too bad this picture of the stagecoach did not come out well but you can see much of the detail. The coach is from Frontier (will we ever see these again) and the horses are from Dixon. The team that came from Frontier was standing still and I wanted something showing more action. Eventually this will be used in a game playing out the big chase scene from Stagecoach with the redskins trying to catch the fleeing stage and the passengers trying to fend them off.

Well enough for now. Soon to be displayed will be cavalry and Indian warriors. Hopefully I will be able to show some of the terrain and other details from this work in progress. Thanks again for taking the time to look this over and please feel free to add any comments. If you have questions feel free to ask but I confess it may take a little time for me to get back.
Thanks pardners!


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