More Town Clutter

Here I have grouped some more around the western town Items. First is the boardwalk, I needed quiet a bit of it and making a master from balsa wood and casting it proved to be the fastest way to generate it quickly. A wash of medium brown paint finished it off is one coat. For paint I buy 8 oz bottles of Acrylic Craft Paint from either Micheal's Crafts or Jo Ann's Crafts shops. Typically I pay about 4 dollars for an 8 oz bottle that will last me quiet awhile, gives a nice matt finish. I use it to dilute / tint my Kel Seal brushable caulking that I texture my game matts with and also use to coat over Styrofoam hills (later article). Tap Plastics has the 2 part rubber molding material, cures at room temperature. Then a 2 part resin to cast into the molds with. Follow instructions, have a clear area with paper beneath to catch drips. Practice, practice makes for better molds for simple items.

The grey fence is unpainted but is made from super thin styrene plastic sheeting that I bought in 1 inch wide strips. I used a pair of scissors and snipped off the thin slats in the picture, then contact cement onto long thin strips that form the backing boards to hold them all together. An occasional piece of fencing can be left out for Older fence sections. I make the fence sections in short pieces so that, should during an engagement, a piece get knocked down or flattened I can simply trade them out. Have to hate having your light screening cover fall down....

The Cactus is also resin cast, painted and rolled in flocking to give it the prickly look. I used the paint as the adhesive rather than pva or contact cement that would have caused it to be completely covered and ended up making it look more like a Topiary than a Cactus. Not pictured are simple barrel cacti, though the same simple casting, paint and flock generates lots of them. I have made some out of Sculpy Oven Bake Clay though the price of the clay has gotten a bit steep of recent.

The Lumber Pile, goes side by side with any construction site. Its made of coffee stir sticks cut to the same length and glue / layered to the desired height. This also makes a great buckboard load to have handy as most all towns had a sawmill nearby if there were any trees about. Period sawmills could be water powered or 2 man hand powered businesses, and wood was always in demand as soon as it became available. I would judge a pile of cut lumber as hard cover able to stop lead bullets in the 1800s. I'm hoping to model a water powered lumber mill per the reconstructed Sutter's Mill at Colma which has been totally rebuilt, along with a couple of the out buildings, but not all the buildings. Having a building unfinished with wood supplies lying about adds a "growing" feeling to your town, shaded of "8:10 to Yuma" comes to mind.

And there you have it.