Part Constructed Buildings

As Beaverlick Falls is an expanding town I'm planning to have a number of buildings that are still under construction.   They are reasonably quick to make, add interest to the table and provide less cover than complete buildings which helps with gameplay.

Having tried to build the frameworks out of basswood, I quickly realised that they would take as long as a solid building unless I found an alternative method.  There are MDF kit versions available but as my goal is to scratch build as much as possible I looked at 3D printing.

 Tinkercad is a free to use online CAD program from Autocad.  It's relatively easy to use (compared with other CAD programs) and a few hours spent 'tinkering' will get you a basic understanding. The advantage of using CAD is that once you've done the basic building, it can be amended and reused, either as a whole or in part.

I'm not going to go into details of how to model in Tinkercad or how to 3D print as there are plenty of forums and blogs out there that will tell you how to do both.  I will however recommend those interested in 3D printing take a look at this article Matakish's Tea House.

Plan view of components in Tinkercad.  This is my basic design for a small building that I've used to create a pair of houses under construction.  By printing it flat like this, rather than as a fully 3D assembled house I have avoided a lot of clean up and it's given me more flexibility for future builds, for example a building that's got a side still to be built.

Components parts printed ready to be assembled . . .

. . . and the assembled components. The roof lifts off for ease of access.

Assembled and painted building with an additional floor made of balsa sheet with pencil line floorboards. This will be added to a base board with lumber piles and other small items at a later date.

Land Registry Shack

This wooden fronted tent building is the first building I made for Beaverlick Falls.  The construction is a basswood frame with balsa 'boards'.  The boardwalk front is made of coffee stirrers and the door and frame are balsa.  The floor is a sheet of balsa with pencilled floorboards that is atop a 5mm blue foam base.  I use the foam to give dimensional stability and reduce the chance of the base warping.


View from the back showing the construction of the roof former before adding the linen 'canvas'.  Green and yellow card is old supermarket price signage like art board (but free) and the grey trusses are PLA 3D prints.  The roof is removable and just sits on top of the framework.

Prepping the linen for the tent.  I add a small hem to each edge using a fold and PVA so that the width of the strip is the same as the length of the roof.  The linen is stuck to the frame using PVA which is allowed to dry before more watered down PVA is brushed onto the rest of the roof to cause it to sag and stiffen.  On this building I stuck the sides down at the same time as the roof and then added the back piece of canvas so that the roof was held in place by the material

Once the PVA had dried and the canvas set I took a scalpel and cut through the material between the wooden frame and the bottom of the roof base to separate the two and have a lift off roof.

The finished construction just requiring detailing. 

The Land Agent's Shack.  The sign was printed on paper and mounted on art board before being weathered. I fitted a magnet in the wooden front of the building and steel paper to the back of the sign so it can be changed if needed.  The wanted posters are from the internet, printed on paper and stained with coffee for an aged look.  Hinge and lock are paper and bits of plastic.

Beaverlick Falls - An Introduction

I've always been interested in Old West 'Gunfight' games but like a lot of gamers I've butterflied between projects, seldom completing any, and my original old west setup (minimal as it was) ended up on a convention bring and buy some years back.

In October 2017 I played a most enjoyable western gunfight set in the fictitious town of McGinty's Crossing using the Fistful of Lead rules and my interest in the Old West was rekindled. The result of my renewed interest is my Beaverlick Falls project.

Beaverlick Falls is my take on a theme - it's not intended to be historically accurate, although I'm basing models on prototypes where possible, so it's got as much Hollywood as it's got History.  In terms of setting and back story, I see Beaverlick as a town that's grown from a few hunting lodges used by fur trappers to a small and expanding frontier town.  It will have a rail link and a riverboat landing at some point and local industry includes mining (The Windy Butte Mining Company) and logging.  Ranchers and cattle will feature too.

I've deliberately not picked a specific location as I want the freedom to model terrain and buildings that I like rather than those that would be geographically appropriate, however it turns out there's a real Beaver Lick town in Kentucky.  Any resemblance between the two is pure coincidence.

Where possible I'm building the structures from scratch using a mix of balsa, basswood and other wood for the wood (unsurprisingly) and tents are made from linen over card or 3D printed frames.  Signs for the most part are designed in Adobe Fireworks and printed on card, paper or transfer material.  Where practical I'll produce some 'how to' posts to explain what I've done.

The blog is a record of my efforts and an attempt to keep the project on track rather thango the way of the proverbial dodo.  I'll post the work to date to start the blog off and then I'll add items as I make them and time permits.  I hope you find it interesting.

Note:
BLF = Beaverlick Falls.  Rather than constantly typing Beaverlick Falls, I've used BLF as a shorthand reference.