Paper buildings for games set in the Old West by Eric Hotz www.erichotz.com Cost US $3 per building, collections available. Like a long discredited urban myth, the appeal of the Old West never truly dies. Just as another generation writes it off, somebody manages to resurrect it for another short while and I have to say I'm glad, as one who never truly has grown up and somewhere still wants to play cowboys and Indians. Hmm I think the description "Wargamer" kind of short circuits the overblown prose above. For this fascination with the Old West I could go to Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae (an island near where Paul McCartney’s daughter got married) or down to the Grand Ole Opry Country and Western theatre in Glasgow, and blast away with a blank firing Peacemaker replica, but having a last shred of a grip on reality I take my sojourns into the frontier and fight range wars and feuds by use of miniatures on a tabletop. Much saner. Really. Being perpetually short of funds, I think the term "wargamer" covers this too through some "Parkinson's Law" of figure buying (You will always buy 10% more figures than you could ever paint in your lifetime) and scenics not being cheap I obtained Western Buildings to print and build from Eric Hotz in which to set my bank robberies and show-downs. The buildings are supposed to print to 30mm scale and include inside floor plans as well, for all save the smallest buildings, as the 3D buildings themselves in both colour and monochrome. You can use floor plans with predrawn furniture or blank to furnish as you will, with figures or paper cut outs. The buildings will be in sections when cut out but usually the minimal possible given A4/Letter format paper. Some parts are close together on the sheet and will require dexterity and a sharp cutting edge to separate. Scissors are not enough, a steel rule, cutting pad and sharp knife are also necessary. The sections have tabs which occasionally are too small and you may wish to leave scrap card on to make the tabs bigger. Construction is easy, the time consuming bit being cutting the shapes out, especially the porches and rails where you'll have to cut out squares of unwanted card leaving wooden railings and supports untouched. I found myself cutting through the supports and having to patch them, and some of them still looked bowed and unsupported when built. Again, reinforcing these bits with extra scrap card reinforcing helped. The building's scale seemed smaller than the 30mm claimed both in height and space available on the floor plans but that may be down to me mounting these things on big, chunky 1 inch GW slottabases. Having said that for most purposes in gaming to date it didn't really matter and the buildings look just fine for those duels in the dust. The artwork is top-notch, paint-work even shows signs of weathering, and the fit of pieces is good. There are add-ons available, different signs, windows and of course wanted posters. The buildings are a good range in function and size (from large livery stable and hotels through the sheriff's office and jail down to the bathhouse and even an outhouse with a moon cut-out of its door) and make an inexpensive and effective way to set the scene for games set in the old West. All the gamer need supply are figures and rules. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior # 146 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com