"List of all current 28 mm Wild West Buildings" Topic

The Wild West bug has bitten again with my game group and this time we are going to do it in style. I know there has been a plethora of Wild West kits for buildings in 28 mm come down the pike of late. Would anyone be so kind as to give a list of manufacturers and the pros and cons of each please?

Old Glory has their western range. They are resin and they have a line that allows you to pick the fronts and roofs (I think). Metal detail parts (doors, windows). Pros: good price with OG Army card, lots of variety, durable. Cons: resin cleanup can be a bit much if you want to just paint it and go, some overpour of resin (not much but I figured I'd mention it).

Really quick here are the five that I have worked with:
Battle-Flag – laser cut MDF, overall just excellent buildings, straight forward assembly, pricing is not bad.

Sarissa-Precision – laser cut MDF (2mm), parts like door and window frames are a bit fragile till you glue them on, again excellent buildings, straight forward assembly, pricing is really good. For a laser cut building sometimes the parts don't give a nice tight fit.

Aetherworks – laser cut MDF, again an excellent line, goes together nicely. I would buy more of these but the shipping from Australia is truly outrageous (a $54 USD building costs $28 USD to ship).

Knuckleduster – laser cut Plywood, this is a solid line, goes together well. I had some issues with a couple of interior walls not fitting correctly which is just about inexcusable for a laser cut building.

Gamecraft Miniatures – laser cut MDF, another very solid line with lots of options available. My issue with Gamecraft is that floors are optional and you are on your own as far as how to get them in and how to make the removable.

My favorite of the bunch are the Battle-Flag kits followed closely by the Sarissa Precision kits. I just like the looks of these two lines the best. I also like the Aetherworks kits but I can't justify the shipping costs. The Gamecraft kits will be used to fill in anything missing from the other lines. The Knuckleduster are very, sturdy but they tend to have a squat look that I don't like.

There are lots of reviews with pictures on my blog:
link

Avoid Old Glory resin buildings. You will cry when you see all the air bubbles, and I mean really bad air bubbles. Plus, they need tons of clean up and patch up work. I will not buy any more of them. At my blog, you can see my step-by-step problems I had with three of the buildings, from raw resin to nearly finished products. Just take a look at the photos of the modular buildings on their website and you'll see all the bubble holes. I'm done with any OG resin building!

My blog. Lots of Western stuff: ordinarygaming.blogspot.com

Arnica Realestate. arnicarealestate.com I have some of the small sheds when the original owner made them. Good buildings at a good value. I don't find these kits as good a value under the new owner as they once were, plus they look a bit goofy compared to today's more realistic looking laser cut kits.

Go laser cut kits.

I had some issues with a couple of interior walls not fitting correctly which is just about inexcusable for a laser cut building.

Coming from the model railroad hobby, where we have had these type of kits since the early 1990s, along with peel-and-stick gluing, I will agree that this is unacceptable. Thanks for the heads up! Still, I like the look of these.

Check out Blackwater Gulch and Gutshot. Both have been very helpfull to me since my return from deployment and have many good links from the sites.
We have used Fat Dragon and Hotz PDF western kits as a family project and have been enjoying good hobby time putting our town together. Some of the builds are tough for the kids, but the basic builds are a breeze for them. Floor plans are included for both sets so you can mark where where the figures are inside….plus they are cheap!

Good catch on the paper idea, Cadian!

Works Works Games also has a paper Western line. All their kits are 30% off right now. worldworksgames.com/store

Ages ago, I tried the Hotz buildings but found them too small for the West Wind figures I use. I've had this out with Eric Hotz, but I still feel they don't look quite right. YMMMV.

Nobody mentioned the Perry / Renedra range of plastics? There are three plastic buildings (farmhouse, general store, church) as well as various accessories to supplement them (tents, barrels, fences, tombstones).

They are a little small. My kids like the black line work where they can color them up anyway they choose( purple and pink sherrif office????) I may do some myself in red for High Plains Drifter!
They are(both) a bit small for the reaper cowboys, but scale better with the Perry ACW I have.
We haven't bought any other lines yet, the kids are still learning the ropes with the Reaper figs….maybe by Easter…

CPBelt, why didn't you just return the buildings if they are as bad you as you say they are? Also, the attacks on the resin surprise me as there was a time that you purchased a lot of resin products.

I have always offer in the past to replace items that are in the condition that you talk about. It sometimes happens, given the weather conditions and such, that resin sets up faster than we have time to get all air bubbles out. I know when I am casting, their are many buildings that pour and paint the resin on before I finish the casting.

Our 28mm Western buildings still sell very well. I have been replacing molds for some of the older buildings and will be doing some more here in the near future.

Sounds like an embarrassment of riches in regards what can be done Wild West terrain. I had not considered the paper model route. That might provide a good stop gap so we can get some games in until we can build and paint the other kits depending on what we go with.

Personally I have never had a problem with any resin kits I have gotten from Old Glory.

How about rules? We have played Gutshot and like it. We had a chance to play Cowboy Wars over the weekend and it turned out to be a really fun game that was easy to work up and played fast and fun. Gunshot! was good but proved a bit too fiddly and the Legends of the Old West rules just did not do it for our group. We are going to try out Rules With no Name next time we get together. So thoughts on the above and others we should perhaps consider?

I've played Desperado and TRWNN and I think I prefer TRWNN more, just less randomness to the hits and the modifier (lots of rolling for very little chance to hit). I'll play either though, not writing off Desperado.

My kids struggle a little with gutshot, but they still like the details. Blackwater gulch is a freebie download and the kids picked it up real fast. It is a nice quick game and is more friendly with larger gangs.

I agree with the Battleflag then Sarissa mentioned above. I will not mention the manufacturer but I had nothing but bad castings with resin buildings. I have had no problems with MDF ones. I prime them with the war hammer white and then air brish them. It works great.
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Tri-City has an excellent line as well. They are really nice designs, reasonably priced and have interior details, too. link Go to the second page for the lion's share of the buildings.

Oh sweet thanks Naz for the Tri City link. I remember seeing these at the last Spring Fever gaming convention. Nice interiors.

Don't forget Architects of War. They have some nice buildings for their 28mm ACW range that would work great for the Old West. The church and the barn especially! Also there are two nice Adobe buildings that are fantastic! I am also using their donkey mill for my Mexican Village. There is also a nice adobe animal enclosure.

The buildings that Knuckleduster sells are the Tri-City buildings.

or you could try making them yourself. 90% of my Western town is homemade and frankly, they are better then any of the products I have brought.

Pictures please! I would normally scratchbuild all of my stuff, but if I'm going to game I can't spend the time working on something from scratch, little alone the entire town. I do have three pieces in the design stage that I will build myself as they are unique. Three out of twenty-five is about right.