The Village

Just the briefest of posts to showcase the rest of the buildings that were done in readiness for our western adventure using the Shoot N' Skedaddle rules.  All are from 'Sarissa Precision', but not all from the most obvious areas of their collection.  True, the small Adobe houses and the Cantina were certainly from the 'South of the Border' range and very nice they were too.  Quick and easy to put together and painted to match the church.  As with all MDF builds the overly straight edges and joints sometimes spoil the look, but some cheap wood filler worked really well at concealing these whilst also added a pleasing level of texture.

I discovered the destroyed single storey souk building in the North Africa/Colonial section, but just felt that the arches were remisnetct of the architecture form the village that starred in the Magnificent Seven.  By the time it was painted using a similar colour palette to the rest of the buildings it certainly seemed to fit with them.

A chance discovery in the Mediterranean section unearthed this small house.  I simple disposed of the pitched roof, added lashings of wood glue and used reeds instead of vines to create an animal shelter for the villagers.  Whereas the rickety fencing was from the Japan section and catalogued as 'Mountain Village low farm fence'.  They fitted in with the worn down look I was hoping to achieve and seen here in the last picture protecting my 'Warbases' hay stacks.

Looking at back at these photographs, I can see lots of areas that could have been enhanced even further with a bit more time, but with these pieces done, the village was good to go.  As with all my projects what followed can only be described as mission creep and as soon as the photographs are thinned down, I shall share with you where my wild machinations led me next.

The Church

Having decided to create a sleepy, little Mexican village for our gunslingers to fight over, inspired by the wonderful 'Magnificent Seven', I found myself pouring over the virtual pages of 'Sarissa Precision'.  I appreciate that MDF on the tabletop is not for everyone, but I have to confess to rather enjoying the building process and with some liberally applied wood filler and texture pastes, it is possible to minimise the angular look of the kits.  

It would also be fair to say that 'Sarissa Precision' are at the top of their game, clearly looking to push their designs further than most, not settling for the basic structures, but incorporating more etching and clever construction techniques to produce some really top quality models.  The Mexican Church#2  from their South of the Border range is a case in point.  Instantly recognisable from the aforementioned celluloid gem, this was a 'must have' centerpiece for my village, offering cover and a considerable vantage point for those lucky enough to secure the bell tower for their side.

With the texture of the walls done the painting was really straight forward with just base colours and dry brushing.  As with all projects, I could have taken things further, but time was marching on and there was still quite a list of 'things to do' before the scheduled game day.  The base plate was textured and painted to match those of my villagers and bandits and with some tufts of weeds added the first bit of real estate was complete.  

Villagers

Having assembled my protagonists for the planned game of Shoot N' Skedaddle, I couldn’t help but feel that they were very much akin to the gang of marauding Banditos from the celluloid gem that is 'The Magnificent Seven'.  

This connection was to open of a rabbit hole of pure boyhood joy and self expression as I set out to recreate the ill fated village for the table top.  Whilst I waited for a sizable order of MDF from the ever reliable ‘Sarissa Precision’, I toyed with the idea of having some non combatants to add a touch of local colour to the setting.  

I had an idea that they could amble around and generally get in the way of what was going to be a three way gun battle.  As luck would have it, 'Wargames Foundry' do a couple of rather nice packs of Mexican Villagers and Peons.  A bit like the 'Artizan Designs' Banditos these are just great fun to paint.  Even after all this time there is very little flash and the detailing is not over complicated.  Having opted for a very straightforward palette they were based in grey primer and then I just made a couple of passes with the airbrush lightening the tone each time.  With the skin colour added and few details and they were done! 

As you will see in the close up shots, I managed to overdo the varnish again, but it isn’t too noticeable at arm’s length.  All that I needed to do now was build their village!