"Making A 15mm Building Look "Space-Westerned"?" Topic

Yes. I know that "Space Western" doesn't necessarily mean structures that look from the Old West.

But I wonder if something like this could be "westerned" (given an Old West flavor):

link

Q – Suggestions?

Dan
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Stick some alien cow skulls on it? :)

Most of those look like utility buildings and warehouses. I don't think you need to necessarily add old west architectural nods to them, but maybe just use western fonts for signs and notices. If your sci west still uses horses (or alien beasts of burden) for transport, you could incorporate hitching posts into the scene.

The cinema above could be gussied-up with a facade.

Ok,

- Facade;
- Signs with western fonts; and
- Hitching posts for beasts

Excellent. What about boardwalks and porches? Too much?

Thanks,

Dan

Rust.

Adobe, lots of Adobe….. Or stucco…. Or Stuccoed Adobe….

This is coming from the man whose Ranch style house has a Stucco wall with spanish arches…. (It's ok my Dad's was Spanish once upon a time, well the 1600s…)

Most of "Western" is weather beaten and fastly built, alongside more sturdily buildings as the town aged. Oh and Facades lots of facades. For more modern sorts look at pictures of Carson City and Reno both towns have a lot of what could be considered western, so could any remaining plains "T"town.

I my opinion you can get the 'frontier' feeling from mostly paint alone. Here are my thoughts:

1. Bold colors with high contrast signage (navy blue with yellow lettering painted on the side of the building for example)

2. Fancy lettering. Don't use any font without serifs. Times New Roman is plenty fancy, Arial is not.

3. Speaking of signage, you don;t have to use billboards. The side of a cargo container is a wide canvas for putting a store's signage on. Use it rather than a billboard to get the frontier feeling without obvious old west architecture.

4. Weathering. No matter how fancy the structure it should look weathered. The kind of weathering matters though. If you want a more 'old west' feel colors should be faded or weathered to look like they are oxidized or peeling. Rust is fine as well, since wrought iron takes on a rusty patina quickly, but my personal opinion is that it should be limited in more sci-fi setting.

5. Greeblies. Trash. Spare vehicle parts. Low fences, hitching posts for beasts of burden, or charging posts for vehicles. Old west towns are cluttered with bits and pieces of wagons and such, water barrels, water troughs, etc. Adding the right greeblies can really set the tone for the whole layout. Clear Horizons, Mr. Harold's blog, is a great example of this. His layouts scream cyberpunk not because of the buildings alone, all the well placed detritus is what really sells his layouts.

6. Building placement. Setting up your buildings in such a way that streets become apparent will push the old west feel. Just make sure that you put some buildings together, but leave gaps between others.

In the end, I think that what you're looking for can be accomplished without a ton of building conversions or buying genre specific kits (like my Wired West stuff ;)…). You can do almost all of it with paint, building placement, and accessories.

Actual boardwalks would probably be a bit overkill, but there's nothing wrong with some kind of cheap-ish attached 'sidewalk' to give people a chance to knock the mud and dust off their boots. Diamondplate or pressed-steel planking, sand channels, etc.

The other key is definitely the weathering. Sunfaded and dusty, hasn't seen rain in a couple months…

Lion: "there's nothing wrong with some kind of cheap-ish attached 'sidewalk' to give people a chance to knock the mud and dust off their boots"

You mean like "granny grating" (plastic canvas) or something similar? Or HO scale tread plate styrene?

Thanks,

Dan

HO treadplate styrene. Diamond plate is a plate of metal with small raised diamond shapes in it, not holes.

The boardwalks were a place for people to walk and not have to worry about "roadapples" or mud.

Infojunky: "Adobe, lots of Adobe….. Or stucco…. Or Stuccoed Adobe…."

Then I should start with something like this instead:

Dan

Dan, that works too. I have been pondering that picture for years, trying figure out where to start. I love the sloped walls.

I just noticed the Kiosks down the center, now to figure them out in terms of my shanty down in progress…

The desert buildings from 'The Scene' have that sloped wall

Spittoons?

Guys,

Just found this map of Old West town of "Deadwood":

link

Dan
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