West Wind ZCW-28 The Pinkertons #2

Lately, I've been trying to post photos of complete West Wind packs to give folks an idea what comes in them. I think I mentioned this before, but I sold off many of the mounted versions of these figures. All that remains are the on-foot versions. The mounted versions are fantastic, but I was not going to be able to paint them properly. That's why I sold them years ago on TMP. Sigh. Not one of my best ideas.

Keeping with the blast from the painting box past and the Western theme from the other day, these are the figures from West Wind's "The Pinkerton's #2" pack in their Cowboy Wars line, complete with finished bases. While the pack says Pinkertons, these guys can be anything you like. There really is nothing shouting "Pinkerton" to me here.

Love-Hate Relationship
These are among some of the first figures I completed when I began painting five years ago, when this blog was new. My wife says that often I can be a bit too critical, which is probably the writing teacher coming out in my everyday life, but this pack is really 50-50 for me. The top figure just is not sculpted as well as it could be or should be. For example, the face is a bit deformed, causing me no end of headaches to paint when I was still trying to figure out techniques. The shoes and pants are quite crude. Some other bits that bothered me as well, causing me literally to push the half-painted figure to the back of my painting box for about four years. Then one day last year I forced myself to finish him. In the end, when the figure is on the table and the shooting starts, all those niggling bits fade away when we see the figure from 3'+ away. He winds up looking okay. Not a hero figure, but a henchman that dies quickly in order to make the hero look good. Then he goes back into the box. :-)

Get Shorty!
I really love this figure and enjoy bringing him out of the box. He has been on the blog before. Again, he was an early paint job before I ever tried wet blending or glazing, the latter being my preferred method now when I can pull it off. But he works well on the table. Why the nickname "Shorty"? Well, he is shorter than many of the other West Wind figures I have. So my nickname for him stuck as his permanent name. (There is quite a bit of height variety in the Cowboy Wars figures, but I like that. Looks more real.) Shorty is firing a Colt revolving rifle, which seems to be a favorite Cowboy Wars' weapon even though the weapon was rare. BTW just don't call him Shorty if you want to live.

Watching "The Magnificent Seven" Tonight
At 8pm this evening, my son and I are going to watch "The Magnificent Seven" in glorious High Definition. I keep forgetting that he has never watched this movie, even though his hobby is watching classic movies from the silent era though the early 1960s, though he best loves the 1930s through 1940s. He also collects classic movie memorabilia, like posters and other tidbits, as well as books on the subject. Plus he has a big autograph collection of old movie stars; he writes a nice letter to them and they sign things for him. (He hates how modern movie stars charge big money for autographs, especially those tied to science fiction properties like Star Trek.) He also loves classic black and white foreign films, especially the Japanese director Ozu. Jeremy's walls in his room are literally covered with framed memorabilia and autographs. (We often troll Central Florida thrift shops looking for old DVDs and VHS tapes.)

Anyway, he is not a big fan of Westerns. Can you believe that? But this one intrigues him. So we are going to have a good time watching it together while his mommy is away on business. Of course, I can't help but get ideas for painting figures, building scenery, and planning games as I watch. This is the curse of being a miniature gamer!

BMM513 Old Glory Army Cowboy Set

Another blast from the painting table past are three of the free monthly Blue Moon 28mm figures that Old Glory used to send to those in their Army discount program. They now sell these figures as a set (BMM513) for those who missed out on them a few years ago. The figures are a bit taller than my West Wind, but no one has noticed that on the table. Even though they have integral bases, I still mounted them on fender washers to blend in with my other figures.

This is my favorite figure in the set. I like the "son, you messed with the bull so now you're going to get the horns" pose.

Pete Yoder from the Amish Cowboys.

No face to paint? I can dig that!

West Wind's Cowboy Wars Women: Part 2

Following up on the previous post, here are some more women from West Wind's Cowboy Wars range plus some thoughts on basing figures.

Thinking About Basing
Think about. If everyone were to stand out from the crowd, would there even be a crowd anymore or would those people standing out from the crowd form a new crowd from which they would have to stand out? Think about how this applies to basing figures for armies and skirmishing.

You might notice that some of my Western bases have desert rocks on them or tall grass, while others are bare except for the railroad ballast I use as "rocky desert dirt." This is a hangover from painting model railroad freight cars many years ago. Young or new model railroaders tend to want to model the unique and interesting looking freight cars because they are exciting to paint, allowing the young or new modeler to flex his painting skills while amazing his friends. If you watch a real train, however, most of the cars are quite boring looking and common place. Because of this, those unique cars really stand out from the crowd when we see them, drawing our attention as they should. If a fellow's entire train layout were nothing but those unique cars, it would look rather silly, with all those exciting and unique cars blending together into one big garish, jarring, and unrealistic crowded mess.

A few years ago when I began basing my first figures, I found myself thinking about my old model railroad freight cars. In real life, I figured, most people will not be standing next to a big rock or big flowering bush! They will be standing in boring grass they can easily walk though or in open dirt they won't be tripping over with every step. In a real Western shootout, for example, they probably would be standing in the middle of a dirt street if the shootout were set in a town.

So this is why I like the majority of my bases to be"boring," where not much is going on aside from some grass or ground cover, with some more visually interesting bases tossed into the mix for variety and excitement. I think this mix of bases makes our collection of figures a bit more interesting to look at and draws the viewer's eyes to the figures that we really want to have stand out from the crowd.

You'll really see this on my Splintered Light figures from a few posts ago. Brightly colored flowers on a base really attract the eyes, so I didn't want to over do the flowers. You might also notice that of the few bases having flowers, only one maybe two have white flowers because white is an extremely powerful color compared to the red, yellow, and orange flowers in the Woodland Scenics pack of flowers. And if you want to use purple flowers, remember that purple is the rarest color in nature, appearing only on the smallest of flowers in small quantities. So our little warriors should not be standing in fields of purple--unless the scenario calls for it, I guess.

Something to think about the next time you base those figures. Now, on to the ladies of the West!

ZCW-26 The Local Ladies #2
The Cowboys Wars rules-fluff for these two figures claims that they are different women, one being Mexican, but they look like nearly identical sculpts to me. While painting them, I began imagining a back story for them. I've mentioned this a long time ago, but I'll repeat it a bit here. In my mind, these gals are the twin Slaughter Sisters, Mary and Margaret.The prior year, a band of ruthless cattle rustlers gunned down their father, a kind and generous man who owned a large ranch outside town. Vowing vengeance and having been raised as expert shots, the sisters' sole purpose in life is to hunt down the villainous scum that killed their beloved daddy.

West Wind's Cowboy Wars Women: Part 1

Whoops! Way back in June, I photographed my entire collection of Western figures because I had finally finished their bases, after having many of them languish for years undone. I thought I had posted all the photos, but looks like I was wrong. I posted none of them! So over the next several posts I'm going to rectify that, gathering these photos all in one place for the first time even if some of the figures have been seen in a few older posts. I'll post them as I find time in the evening to mess with them. Now we just need to get a game going with them. It has been too long. BTW some of figures in these packs will work for Victorian/Colonial gaming as well.

ZCW-23 Women of the West #1:
The theme in this pack is homely (the upper figure) or rugged (the lower figure) women wearing buckskin. Years ago, the homely figure's face was difficult for me to paint because her features are so odd and pudgy. After repainting her face a few times, I just gave up and was happy with what I could do. The lower figure has been in my painting cue for four years now for no real reason, only partially painted. I posted a place-holder photo of her figure just to remind myself what pack she comes from.

ZCW-24 Women of the West #2:

This is a pack where I liked one figure, but didn't care for the other, which I sold off. Again, the photo of the missing figure is just a placeholder to remind me what is in this pack. I was experimenting with wet blending pink craft paint but came to the conclusion that pink craft paint really wasn't made for wet blending!

ZCW-48 The Russian Hunting Party #2:
The official Cowboy Wars fluff says that this pack contains the Princess Ludmilla Gregorski, who is the widow of Prince Ivanovich, and her faithful servant, Sergei Millosovich of the Guards Don Cossacks. It also contains the prince's wolfhound, Rasputin, though I don't have him pictured. I tend now to follow the CW fluff, but it the rulebook does describe all the CW figures, which is helpful for trying to figure out what figures the packs without photos contain. The painting guides are pretty nice as well, though I haven't followed those either. I might follow them for the Russian officer packs.

I don't have a photo of his partially-painted on-foot version, so
I figured I'd post a photo of his primed mounted version to give
you an idea what he looks like.

ZCW-28 The Pinkertons #2 & More

As promised last week, here are the two foot figures from West Wind's The Pinkertons #2 pack. I really like the buckskin-clad fellow and painted him a while ago. He is shorter than most of the other WW figures, so I nicknamed him "Shorty." Just don't call him that to his face, otherwise you'll get a taste of his Model 1855 Colt Repeating Carbine. (What other miniature company has shooters wielding this weapon? Such a nice change of pace from Winchesters and Shotguns!)

 

The photo of ZCW-28 from the Old Glory website.

You can see how Shorty is shorter than other WW figures, which is more realistic to me as long as the weapons don't shrink as well. The John Wayne figure is from ZCW-10 US Marshalls & Deputies #2. The bandito is from ZCW-16 Mexican Rancheria & Vaqueroe #2. The gaunt fellow on the right is from ZCW-22 Western Town Characters; he is my undertaker painted using P3 Coal Black.

West Wind Pinkertons #2

This afternoon, I shot some photos of my latest figures I finished painting last week and this week since I've rediscovered my "mojo." I was actually painting these figures at night--during mid-week no less--something I haven't done in a couple years! I guess we all get a bit frustrated at times. But I still am planning to do more smaller-scale painting.

To Base or Not to Base
By the way, I realize that I have a tendency to take photos of my figures before I take them off their bottle caps or before I finish their bases, but I get so excited when I finish them that I want to get photos posted right away. Plus, I know how long it can take me to finish bases. I really hate getting my fingers in the putty and ballast, especially when the skin on my fingers is going through its monthly peeling like they are now. (Typing isn't much fun today either! Just a bit painful.) So there is my "non-apology apology" for taking pics of un-based figures! LOL! Okay, let's get to some photos.

A Pinkerton Always Gets His Man
Today's figure is from West Wind's pack ZCW-28 The Pinkertons #2. I began this figure way back in the summer of 2008. For the past four years it has been sitting in my painting drawer, nothing but black primer and painted flesh. He's not the most exciting figure in my collection, and his face is not the best sculpted, causing me to shove him to the back of the drawer. He's okay, but I had so many other "cooler" Western figures I wanted to paint before him.

I decided to paint this fellow charcoal grey, allowing him to go good guy or bad guy as players desire. The brown trousers was a custom mix that I can't remember and his vest is a simple red. A fancier paint job using stripes or plaids might have made him a bit more exciting, but I chose to play it safe with solid colors. In the end, I've come to like him. He's definitely not a hero figure, more like an "extra" to fill out a posse, someone that dies easily and quickly. So I guess that "plain" sometimes can be good!

My Glorious Plans for the Future!
Starting tomorrow or this weekend, depending on my schedule, we'll go from this rather basic Western fellow back to my crazy, bloody-knife-wielding and sledgehammer-wielding Victorians. And maybe some more Western fellows. And a few interesting odds-and-ends we've found in the local thrift shops. Due to our schedules, we probably won't be getting in any games until later in March. But I hope to have some surprises in store within several weeks. Trust me, we all have been wanting to get our miniatures on the table and have been working toward that goal. (Hopefully, Agent Abel is listening!)

West Wind Long Riders & Others

Today's pic is four West Wind Cowboys Wars figures. Looks like it's time for me to do some more work on the bases and finally finish them. As you can see, I'm a huge fan of the West Wind figures.

On the same note, I did some more painting this afternoon on my 28s. I got my mojo back pretty good and am trying to clear out these figure. I finished two of the Victorians and one more West Wind cowboy. I just need to varnish them and then take some pics. A short post today. More stuff coming. :-)

From left to right, the figures come from the following packs.
1) ZCW-29 The Long Riders #1
2) ZCW-22 Western Town Characters #2
3) ZCW-10 US Marshalls and Deputies #2
4) ZCW-29 The Long Riders #1

Pistol Packing Something Something

For the past couple days, life here has been turned upside down. My wife was robbed at Walmart. The thieves, a young Asian woman and man, stole her handbag right out from under her. No one was hurt, but they got away. So after the police, we got out ahead of the game and began locking down all our accounts and putting our fraud alerts. The bank helped a lot yesterday. It's been crazy and stressful. I don't feel like going into all the details. Thank goodness for ant-anxiety meds! So be careful out there!!!

To relax a bit tonight, here's a shot of some Western figures from Old Glory and West Wind. When I took these photos in October, I should have organized them by pack to make life easier. Sorry about that. I was in just too much of a rush to take the photos

Figures Left to Right:
 1 & 4) MW-105 - Tombstone 10 Figure Bag (Old Glory)
This bag actually has some nice figures I think. They are for the Gunfight at the OK Corral. They look much better painted than on their website. The figure on the far left I call Doc Hartley because he looks like my neurologist of the same name. The figure on the far right my son named Lon, though he looks nothing like my best friend of the same name back in PA. People really like Lon because I was able to get the blending just right on him. Sometime we all get lucky, eh?

2) ZCW-12 The Cattle Barron and Boys #2 (West Wind)
Welcome to the Gun Show! One of the few Western figures in a fistacuffs pose. Right away, I saw him as Seamus McFly from Back the the Future III! So he had to have read hair and talk in a really bad brogue.




3) ZCW-16 Mexican Rancheria and Vaqueros #2
The man in black. I really like this figure, along with his bandito partner I'll post in a bit. The pose is fun and it was easy to paint. His shirt is an off white craft paint.

West Wind's Women of the West

For a while, I've been posting photos of either Victorians getting crazy or WWII Soviets. So let's change things up a bit. At the end of October, I took photos of my entire collection of miniatures and models. Having a bit of free time this past Friday afternoon, I ran the photos through the old photo editor and loaded up the blog with several posts featuring them. Since I only began painting miniatures when this first came online, you can really see how I've been experimenting over the years. You can also see when I was getting lazy and didn't feel like blending or doing much else! (I think we all have those days...or months...or years as the case may be! LOL!)

While a few of these figures have been seen before on the blog, most only have been seen from afar in large group photos, in-progress photos, or badly edited photos. (Yeah, I'm still working on some of their bases.)

Women of the West -- And More
Up fist are five female gunfighters from various packs in West Wind's Cowboy Wars line. I purchased all these figures years ago from Old Glory during the only sale they've had for Army members. I love West Wind's horror and Western figures. Some of the sculpts can be a bit off, but overall they are very nice. Across the web, West Wind doesn't seem to get the love I think they deserve. They have some unusual (and interesting) figures that no one else has, like the European and Russian hunting parties along with the cast from Bonanza.

So here is today's group of figures, along with their pack info and some of my recollections. Sorry the photo's thumbnail is so small, but clicking on it will blow it up real good.

Figures From Left to Right:

1) ZCW-23 Women of the West #1
She is a homely looking lady, but not everyone in the Old West was good looking. Trying to paint her fat, pudgy face was a real bear for my novice skills years ago. I think it took me three or four attempts until it look decent enough.

2) ZCW-24 Women of the West #2
I really like this figure. I painted her skirt using pink craft paints. I was seeing if I could handle blending, which is hard to do using pink craft paints--just not enough pigment. In the end, the figure looks pretty good on the table. Our eyes tend to blur the colors together more than does an old digital camera close-up. It's like looking at an Impressionist painting close-up and then from farther away.

3) ZCW-47 The Russian Royal Hunting Party #1
She is the Lady Romanov from this pask. Her husband is the other figure in the pack. A great pack if you like Western or Colonial gaming. Her husband's figure is in the que, primed and partially painted.

4 & 5) ZCW-26 The Local Ladies #2
I love the women in this pack. Yes, they are pretty much the same sculpt. So guess what? I made them twins, and created a complete backstory for them. Meet Mary and Margret Slaughter, the Slaughter Sisters, the most feared Winchester marksmen in the West. They inherited their father's ranch when he was murdered. Now they seek revenge for his  death, not settling until the entire pack of outlaws is brought to justice---at the end of their twin Winchesters.

Priming Miniatures: Gesso Update

This is an update to my earlier post on priming miniatures using gesso. In that post, I discuss the pros and cons of using gesso, along with my recent problems using Liquitex gesso and my decision to switch to Golden gesso. You can read the full post by clicking on this link.

This afternoon, I finally got around to priming some miniatures using the Golden black gesso I had bought a couple months ago. These are the Old Glory/Blue Moon Zorro freebie set and some OK Corral figures. They are pretty simple figures without too many doodads, a style I appreciate.

Minutes after glopping on the gesso.

So far I'm pleased with the Golden black gesso, though the real test will come in a couple days when it thoroughly dries. That's when I'll see how durable it really is, unlike my last batch of Liquitex.

The Golden black gesso is quite a bit thicker than the Liquitex. Whether that's a good sign or not, I can only hope. It seems to apply like any other gesso would, and has all the pros and con of gesso, like leaving some bare spots when it dries. However, those have been few and far between so far!

I have noticed that the wet Golden black gesso seems to adhere to everything better than the Liquitex. In fact, it takes some effort to get the stuff off my fingers! It really stains fast, unlike Liquitex. I got some on my painting lamp (don't ask!), and really had to work to get it off, eventually using Windex instead of plain wet paper towels. So be careful using this stuff! Don't be a klutz like me!

About 1.5 hours of drying time. You can see the gesso shrinking. Looks okay so far!

My only real complaint is the wide-mouth jar. Yes, I realize it's so artists can dip in their wide brushes they use when priming their canvases, but the wide lid makes things a bit messier for me. I didn't want to keep the lid off for over an hour, fearing the gesso might skim over like paints do, so I poured it into a small medicine cup I had been saving. I always did this with the Liquitex. This time was a bit messy, but ok. I really miss Liquitex's squirt bottles! If I can remember, I'll see if the art store has a better, less-messy bottle for the Golden gesso.

So there you have it. It's like the guy who jumped off the 50-story building said every time he passed by a new floor: "So far, so good!" I'll see what happens when we hit the ground later this week. :-)

West Wind Cowboy Test Photos

I've been wanting to set up a small studio in the game room, but all the big box hardware stores don't have the type of light bulb I need for my lamps. As a result, I'll have to go to the Light Bulbs Unlimited store downtown. I've been wanting to go there for weeks now, but we know how those things go, especially with me!

Anyway, the weather has been nice, so I took the camera outside. I set up a make-shift "studio" on a card table in the driveway, using God's own light bulb. At least this time no neighbors stopped by to see what I was doing. (That happens a lot in our neighborhood, which I like, but this time I just wanted to snap photos as quickly as possible without getting into the entire history of our hobby!)

The Soviets Are Coming!
I shot photos of all 25 finished Soviets, along with this test photo of some of my Western figures. Over the next several days, I'll be posting the photos of the Soviets in chunks along with my paint lists. Plus a little tutorial about how I painted their gun barrels, which look much better in person than my little Lumix snappy does them justice. Lots to come. (Note: I'll be doing the bases as soon as my hands can handle it.)

West Wind Cowboys
The three figures in the photo are from West Wind's Cowboy Wars line, which is made by Old Glory. I make it no secret that I love this line of figures, though there are a few clinkers here and there. I grabbed three figures out of the box for a test shot.

The figure on the far left is from pack ZCW-10 US Marshalls. It comes with a very John Wayne-looking figure. I painted this fellow's face a long time ago when learning how to paint flesh, but only recently finished his outfit. His trousers are Americana Burnt Umber, and the coat is Americana Russet. Can't recall the hat's color.

The middle figure, which I just realized has been seen on the blog long ago, is from ZCW-29 The Long Riders. I finished him a couple years ago. You can see how my shading and highlighting are different now than back then. I have no clue about the paints I used!

The far right figure is from West Wind's Gothic Horror - Realms of Terror - Jekyell & Hyde series of figures. This is one of four figures from pack GHJ-5 London Gentlemen. I painted his face a long time ago, but painted eyes on him when I did my Soviets last year. Other than his skin, I totally painted him last Sunday afternoon. I'm quite excited because I painted stripes on his pants. I have a very difficult time painting straight stripes. I think I'm getting better at it. His trousers are Americana Graphite, and the stripes are Folk Art Neutral Grey. His overcoat is Americana Black Plumb. (That was an oops! I wanted to paint it dark maroon, but grabbed the wrong bottle. Didn't realize it until I started painting! Sometimes mistakes work out for the best.) For a shadow color, I used Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber with a touch of Black Plumb. For highlights, I used Black Plumb mixed with Polyscale French Light Blue because it was easy to reach, though any very light grey will do. For the top highlight, I added a dab of white to this mix. The hat is also Americana Graphite, highlighted with Folk Art Neutral Grey, and then Folk Art Steel Grey for top-highlight.

That's all for today.
Watch for the photos of the Soviets. And then next weekend is the AWI-ACW-WWII-Modern military reenactment. Plus, I'll be returning to some old projects, like my ACW fellows, who have been feeling might lonely far too long!

Blue Moon Cowboy of the Month

Though my teaching and committee schedule has been busy this semester, I actually took some time to sit down and get a bit of painting done last weekend and this. Inspired by Adventures in Lead's "Photography blues" recent blog post about just grabbing the old digital camera and quickly shooting a shot on the workbench, I snapped some photos of what I've been working on. I used a large yellow envelope as a background. Like I said, grab and shoot.

The first snap I'm posting is of Blue Moon's (Old Glory) June cowboy of the month freebie, CP-11. I got it a few years ago as a member of the Old Glory Army. It, along with several other figures, have been sitting in the drawer partially finished for the past two or three years. Getting sick of seeing this figure lingering about, I finished it off last Friday afternoon. Not the best of my work, but it looks good enough on the game table.

Vest Stripes
I think I posted a while back how painting stripes (and any kind of straight line) scares me to death because my hands shake something fierce when painting. Painting highlights on clothing is also challenging. How I envy painters with steady hands! On this figure, I bit the bullet and tried painting some ivory-colored stripes on his light-blue vest. Forgive me for tooting my own horn, but I actually like how they turned out. A first!

Holster
I found another nice color for painting holsters: Americana's Antique Maroon. It has a reddish leather look. I added some Ivory to it for the highlights, but Antique Rose turned out to be the same color. Go figure! After I painted the highlights, I recalled reading somewhere that adding orange to the red leather would make a good highlight. Not sure about that. I'll have to try it next time.

Coat
The base color coat is Ceramcoat Charcoal, with black shadows and Ceramcoat Dolphin Grey highlights. Memo to myself: try using Rain Grey next time. Dolphin is a bit too harsh I think.

Trousers
I have no idea what color I painted these three years ago! Highlights and shadows are too subtle, as I suspected. Oh well. I don't feel like messing with this figure anymore! Memo: write down the colors for each miniature I paint and then don't lose the notes. That last bit is really important, Bob. Really really important.

Hair and Beard
I like the way the hair and beard turned out. (toot toot!) While looking in the mirror, I tried matching various shades of browns and tans to my own hair, holding the bottles next to what little hair I have left. An odd sight to behold. I painted Ceramcoat Espresso over the black primer. The paint is thin (even though it claims to be opaque) and allows black to show through quite a bit. No problem this time though. Espresso is the just shadow color. If Espresso is unavailable, any darkish brown will do. I just had Espresso handy and never get to use it. It's one of those "orphan" colors that never gets to play with all the other colors. Next I applied the base color, Ceramcoat Territorial Beige, one of the most useful browns made. The highlight is Ceramcoat Trail Tan, another useful color. With each new color, make sure to let the previous colors show a bit.

Well, that's it. Now that I posted my painting info, I will not lose it like I did most of my painting notes a couple weeks ago. Is there an emoticon for smacking myself in the head?

Need Buildings for 18mm Blue Moon Westerns, Gangsters, and More? Check These Out.

Wild West gamers always need a lot buildings to flesh out their boomtowns. Unfortunately, resin buildings can cost quite a bit of money or take quite a bit of time and talent to scratch-build. This evening while reading one of my model railroading magazines, I decided to pop over an advertiser's website--Alpine Division Scale Models.

What is Alpine Division Scale Models?
ADSM makes HO scale buildings that will fit perfectly with 18mm figures from Blue Moon. From their website: "Our product line is made from durable top quality laser-cut matboard and basswood; the same matboard that is used in the framing of your pictures and pieces of art. The ease of construction and overall fun that these kits provide make them an ideal project for new and old modelers alike. Wood glue is used in the assembly, and plastic doors and windows are provided with most kits. Using quality model paints will produce very fine looking models. Most of the kits have roof detail, some have signs and lighting, and some have interior detail."

Memories...
I haven't built any of kits yet, but I did build some way back in the 1970s and 1980s when they were originally sold by E. Suydam. I built the Modern Yard Control Tower, Purina Feed Mill, Packing House, and others I vaguely remember. These were easy to build, lightweight, looked good, and were very sturdy--all good qualities for gaming buildings. I assume these kits are even better now. I hope they eventually release the entire, large Suydam catalog.

Western "Old Town" Buildings
If you are interested in gaming Westerns using 18mm figures from Blue Moon, Alpine Division Scale Models makes over a dozen inexpensive ($12 or so for most of them) HO scale Western buildings under their "Old Town" section. Poke around their website for more buildings if you plan on gaming Blue Moon's upcoming 18mm gangsters or anything else set in 20th century America. I thought I'd pass along the suggestion.

Clever Models: PDF Model Train Kits For Gaming

This evening, I came across Clever Models. They sell craftsman card stock model railroad kits that you can download and print. They offer a wide variety of models in O (1:48), S (1:64), HO (1:87), and N (1:160) scale all done with photo-realism. The variety surprised me. They have buildings usable for Western gaming (I love the small train station!), pulp gaming, WWII gaming, and more. Nice industrial buildings as well. Prices are very inexpensive IMO.

Though made in model railroad scales, shrinking them to gaming scales should be no problem. The owner even mentions doing this at one point. I'd get the O scale kits for 25mm gaming. You can shrink them as you see fit or use them as is for a slightly larger building. Same goes for 1:72 gaming. The HO buildings will work fine as-is with the new Blue Moon 15mm (aka 18mm) figures, or shrink them a bit for regular 15mm. You get the point.

Below are just a few buildings I like: