This Town Aint Big Enough...

It really is a bit on the smallish side, so far.  One partial house, some garbage skips, and an unbuilt firehouse. And some walls. So yesterday one of my gaming buds and I went to the model train show and procured more buildings.

Twentythree clicks later, the pic appears! Plus I finally learned how to do captions.

 From some friendly peddlers wares comes this selection of classic Plasticville and K-Line buildings in O scale. I picked up three HO buildings as well but those are for the future. In any case hitting the train shows and looking for used buildings can get you some decent town filler on the cheap. I got all of  those pictured for $50. Yes, they are missing some bits. Some need to be carefully cut apart at the glue seams (though some just come apart with a bit of gentle persuasion). They all need to be rebuilt and painted to make them suitable for gaming. But this is a selection of buildings I do not have to design, cut out, and assemble from scratch. I love to scratchbuild things but sometimes you need a bit of help. Ancient plastic model railroad buildings to the rescue!

 If you have never been to a model train show, do yourself a favor and go. Its pretty much like going to a gaming con except with (obviously) trains. You'll see some great layouts and there are vendors with new and used stuff. Everyone we spoke to there was friendly and helpful, even once we explained that no, we aren't really train people and yes we play with army men. Maybe it was the idea that they had an equally crazy but more socially accepted hobby than we do that caused them to not be alarmed by us. Its probably not often that the train nutters get to roll their eyes and say "Oh, check out those guys".  Always happy to do our part!

 Seriously, when you go, take the time to talk to the guys who build the really pretty layouts and likely you'll pick up some good techniques and tips. We stopped to talk to a gentleman who had some absolutely beautiful HO scale buildings for sale - some just buildings, some little vignettes that would look at home in a museum diorama - and he explained a technique of using alcohol and bit of acrylic paint as a stain. He said it works best on real wood but can do well on other surfaces. His results were impressive so guess what I'll be experimenting with when it comes time to paint some of the new construction in VF?

 Some of these buildings were like old friends, despite my never having owned them before. They are featured in a series of articles over at http://combatzonechronicles.net/table.htm . That is one of the sources of inspiration I have used in my approach to creating Valhalla Falls. Well worth a peek if you haven't already surfed over.

 Another thing we saw at the show was a series of prepainted and detailed buildings that looked great. Definitely a cut above the previous generation of useful "pre-built/pre-painted" model railroad buildings that have been on the market. They had a price tag to match but they were indeed on a different level. Now, am I going to pay $150 for even a largish O scale building so that I can cut it open and make it ready for gaming? When I win the lottery, but probably not before. But they were impressive. I tried not to think about the fact that they may have been built and painted by political prisoners in a gulag somewhere. My buildings are built and painted in my own personal one-man gulag, so definitely far more green and sustainable and whatnot.

 The short version - go to the train show, young man.