Wyvern's Wild West

[Wyvern]

I've been on a Western kick of late, reading Western novels and watching "Hell on Wheels" and classic Western movies. I've been building some Western-themed paper models, too, and this thread will showcase them.

My first model is a small diorama. Originally I was just making the building, but then decided to try to take it a little farther. The building is a bathhouse which is part of Eric Holz' "Whitewash City" series, which can be purchased from him or on Wargame Vault. The Bathhouse is actually part of a set of small outbuildings. The Bathouse, outhouse, and shed are all part of this collection.

As for the other components of the scene, the ground piece, barrels, and logs are all Dave Graffam items, also available on Wargame Vault or Ecardmodels.com. The ground tile is laminated to a piece of foam core. I printed the logs in several different sizes to make appropriate pieces for the scale of the scene.

A diorama tells a story, and it occurred to me that a bathhouse would be a good "side business" for a carpenter, woodcutter, or sawmill owner- plenty of scrap wood for fuel. So here we have a bathhouse on the frontier; the owner has a conveniently-located privy, and a storage shed for whatever equipment he might need about the property. A couple of barrels are nearby for supplies of water for customer's baths- no city main to hook up to on the frontier! Two logs waiting to be chopped up for fuel are in the yard, and there are a couple of sections of cut wood by the back door, ready for the water heater inside. There's also a bundle of cut lumber for fuel- maybe it was rejected for being too green, or maybe the sawyer wants to keep supplies of cut lumber low, so he can keep prices high! A barrel lays on it's side next to the storage shed- an empty, or perhaps a hogshead of nails? Finally, there's a simple bench by the front door, just some planks over a couple of sections of log.

The bench supports and seat were made from sections of Dave Graffam log, as were the "stumps" in back by the door. Scale of the buildings and accessories is 30mm if printed at full scale. I'll be giving this diorama away to my father-in-law, who is a big fan of John Wayne and Louis L'Amour; I'll be building it for myself down-scaled to HO. The HO-scale version of the bathhouse is shown with the 30mm diorama in the last photo.

Thanks for looking, and mosey back to these parts, as I'll be posting some more buildings shortly.

Wyvern

[hawkman67]

Wow!
Super coolness!! very nice looking dio there, all the little items add to the story. Your builds of them are nice, neat, and tidy. Like both scales shown... They turned out very well.
Jeff

[Gixergs]

Nicely built and a nice little scenario to ring it to life. I look forward to the next one

[Vermin_King]

Have you been collecting Glenn Williams's Western buildings, too?

[Wyvern]

Originally Posted by Vermin_King

Have you been collecting Glenn Williams's Western buildings, too?

I have one set, "Casa del Viejo". By happy coincidence, it will be the next one I post. I want several others of his- the Bunkhouse, Miner's Shack, and Palmenthal Saloon.

Wyvern

[Gixergs]

Originally Posted by Gixergs

Nicely built and a nice little scenario to ring it to life. I look forward to the next one

Bring it to life garn nammit

[Don Boose]

Nice work. Given the confluence of Golden Age aviation, early motion pictures, and the American West, there is clearly an opportunity for some diorama synergy here.

Don

[Wyvern]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

Nice work. Given the confluence of Golden Age aviation, early motion pictures, and the American West, there is clearly an opportunity for some diorama synergy here.

Don

Well, Sky King was a flying rancher....

Wyvern

[elliott]

Nice work there Wyvern!

[Texman]

And I thought your building kits was only in myth, legend, story and song! Nice job.