Heisler

I'm going to resurrect this thread a bit because 4Ground now offers a line of western buildings. For some side by side comparison shots go here: http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/08/28mm-laser-cut-western-buildings-side.html For some idea of how they go together check this link for my construction photos for the Side Street Building: http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/08/building-4ground-dead-mans-hand-side.html And here for a 2 Story Main Street Building: http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/08/building-4ground-dead-mans-hand-main.html Brigade Games sells them in the US: http://www.brigadegames.com/Western_c_482.html Or Great Escape Games in the UK (these were designed for their Dead Man's Hand Wild West Games) and they have some package deals: http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/deadmanshand.html Or directly from 4Ground (also in the UK): http://www.4ground.co.uk/

Let's see if I can shorten up the process a bit. 1) Prime the building white. I have tried this process on an unprimed building but the MDF just soaks up the inks and dyes. 2) For a really grey wood affect I use black fabric dye. I don't like the RIT brand as their black is very purple. I'm not at home so I don't remember the brand off the top of my head but go to Joanne's and look it there. I think its called Scribbles. Dilute this with water about 1:1 and apply liberally over the entire building. Even if you are going to paint over it. For newer wood I use liquitex inks mostly raw sienna, a little burnt sienna and occasionally burnt umber and raw umber. Again I thin these way down about 1:1 with water. Its better to build up to the color you want than to start to dark. Let this dry. 3)If you just want to leave bare wood you are done. If you want to paint some of the wood and show the peeling paint affect then you need to buy some rubber cement. Dab the rubber cement on kind of randomly, mostly in locations that are very exposed to the elements. 4) Apply your paint, I'm usually using my airbrush at this point but brush painting is just. Finish your painting including highlights and shading if you are doing any. 5) Using a pencil eraser rub it across the surface. Any place you have paint it will tend to pull up the rubber cement revealing the "weathered" wood underneath and giving a nice peeling paint affect. 6) Seal with your favorite matte sealer. You can skip this part if you want the paint jobs are pretty sturdy.

Here is a finished (or mostly finished) Aetherworks single story brick building

Here are three buildings showing off step 1 in my painting process. Two are Sarissa Precision and the other is by Gamecraft.

Here is a pair of the Sarissa Precision buildings with a Gamecraft Miniatures building. I think the Gamecraft would be a good fit as well. This is stage one of my painting process; the undercoat.

Looks awesome! Definitely a good match for Malifaux, which means Battle Flag will look just about right and Sarissa might be a bit small, but not noticeably once the action has started. Aetherworks does have a deal right now on international shipping. If your shipping total is over $50AU, then they will include a post office building (flat roof) with your order.

As far as I can tell Aetherworks doens't make any interior or exterior furniture. Gamecraft miniatures makes a nice set of furniture and exterior and interior stairs. Your other option for furniture is Frontline Wargaming http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/ Here is a shot of the single Aetherworks building that I have. I would like some more.

Of the buildings that I have only the Knuckleduster/Tri-City Laser start to look a little small as far as doors and windows are concerned. Sarissa is a good match and has good prices. Battle Flag is probably the best. Gamecraft is good, and US based, but there are no interiors. You can add optional floors and some bracing for to hold the 2nd story in a 2 story building. Gamecraft has a lot of other very cool stuff to go along with their buildings. If you go to my blog (which was linked above) there are reviews of different buildings going all the way back to October 2012, including one for Aetherworks. I do like the Aetherworks buildings but the shipping is really expensive.

The big building in the back is the Battle Flag Hotel I believe.

Odds are against you finding anything for S Scale in even a dedicated model train store. Its just not a popular scale and there isn't very much available in it. I'm still sorting through the different manufacturers that are out there. The track I used is from Tomalco. The engine and cars are from the American Flyer Frontiersman set from 1959/60. That you are likely to only find on eBay (and there is stuff out there right now). Other options are checking out the narrow gauge for O scale which will have smaller equipment and track more similar to the S scale track in size or possibly rebuilding an HO scale version although that would be a lot of work. So, there are the inherent problems with going with S Scale.

Okay, prone behind ballasted railroad track would normally provide substantial cover, you get that in some games and not in others. So I have a picture of a piece of S Scale track with a ruler underneath. With the ties it takes up about 1 1/2 inches across and maybe add a 1/4" of ballast to either side. I have some pictures of my trains on this track. Remember the track is definitely to scale with code 100 rail (very big) and you can see how the trains make the track look small. The visual would change if the track was raised up (probably about 1/4") and ballasted properly. I won't be doing that till I'm ready to start on the actual terrain boards some time down the road. There is also a picture with Battle Flags Undertaker building in the background. I think that one still looks pretty good.

4Ground doesn't make any western style buildings, their 17th Century European buildings are quite nice. I'm not sure that I would be that concerned with the scale. Pretty much all you are going to find on the market are buildings designed, more or less, for 28mm miniatures. Interiors are relative, no one really does interiors beyond an engraved floor, although the Knuckleduster/Tri-City Laser buildings do have some that come with interiors like their saloon and general store. I think being able to use the inside of the building is good enough for gaming purposes. I think your best bets are Sarissa and Battle Flag, although the Battle Flag buildings are more expensive. Battle Flag does some extra detailing that you won't find on most of the buildings from other Manufacturers. I have not seen anyone producing pre-painted western buildings.

Three inches seem like a lot to me. I'll know better though when I get that track, it might be spot on. It could definitely be treated as rough ground, it would also provide cover to anyone that going prone behind it, assuming that's something you can do in Malifaux (I don't play the game).

The track I want to use is on order, hopefully it will arrive quickly! Then I'll snap some pictures with the everything on the track. The distance between the rails has not changed since it was standardized at 4' 8 1/2. The Northern US settled on that gauge early since they were buying many trains from England, the Southern US used broad gauge, about 3" wider. There are two other common gauges in the US, both are considered narrow gauge and are typically used in mountainous regions (like Colorado) and by logging operations they are 3' and 2' between the rails. Equipment tends to be quite a bit smaller. The US completely standardized in 1886 when the South re-spiked all of the rails in a 3 day period. The North and the west had shifted to standard gauge before the Civil War. And yes, that means that S Scale track is less than an inch between the rails while O Gauge is going to be just over and inch between the rails. So in that context S Scale track is closer to our 1"=5' ground scale.

Mostly its a matter of where I want to spend my time. Personally I want to spend my time painting than scratchbuilding scenery. Now I have three buildings planned out that I will be building because no one makes something that's close. They will be signature buildings and those I want to make. Its just a matter of where you want to spend your time.