Setting the scene

Christmas has come and gone, and hopefully you are also now the proud owner of many more exquisitely cast miniatures! The next few months will be busy with preparing, painting and basing miniatures (according to your favourite rule set) and hunting for suitable fellow wargamers with compatible troops. Faced with doing just this with a selection of "old west" miniatures, I suddenly realised that I had no suitable buildings around which I could base a gunfight/skirmish game. How can you fight the shoot-out at the OK Corral without the corral?

Ready made miniature architecture

It is possible to buy cast-resin buildings for just about any era - a quick flick through the Essex Miniatures "Wargaming Accessories" catalogue gives an idea of the choice available - in this case a large range of Hovels' 25 mm American Civil War structures which include a "Wild West General Store", a "Saloon/Hotel", a "Sheriff's Office" and a "Livery stable with corral". Hovels buildings are usually of excellent quality and the four listed above range in price from around £6.50 to £15.00.

Unfortunately, unless you live close to a retailer or manufacturer, the cost of postage can be a major problem. There may also be heavy import taxes and a poor exchange rate to worry about if ordering from overseas. So, although the ready cast buildings are magnificent to look at and very hardwearing, they are not always an ideal solution.

Do it yourself

The obvious alternative to purchasing ready-made buildings is to make some of your own. There are two simple routes to go:

The first is to use balsa/foam-core board and a variety of bits-and-pieces such as doweling, breakfast cereal boxes, plastic or metal tubing, contact adhesive, polystyrene, etc. and make the structure from scratch (hence the term scratch built). There is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from this method and although it is very time consuming (and you need a fair amount of space and patience to produce the goods) the final result is always a joy to see and use - especially when your fellow wargamers are wildly enthusiastic.

There are two excellent online articles, written by Gary Chalk (for Foundry), which describe the process. The first is A Fistful of Balsa and covers a range of buildings for a classic western town. The article even includes a range of colour signs and a set of wanted posters (although they are a bit over-sized) to adorn your finished buildings. The second is Adobe Architecture and covers a range of central American, Spanish-style buildings. These can easily be adapted to represent the architecture of New Mexico and surrounding states. As innovative as ever, Gary Chalk has a brilliant and quick method for modelling roof tiles - use an old pair of corduroy trousers! Seeing is believing.

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