Rail Wars at Techromancer's Sanctum

	Rail Wars Terrain (Can't quite get this to fit on a 640 by 480 monitor - sorry) I've slowly been adding to my Rail Wars terrain; the pictures on this page are mostly little pieces that help (I think) add character to the board. One simple piece that provides a nice touch to the usual wilderness battlefield is the road sign. These can be made from balsa and sheet plastic, then fixed to a simple base. I have two; the one not shown has three arrows, indicating the direction to "Dodge City," "Buzzard Gulch" and "Hell." It's also topped by a human skull (I really need to stop decorating with skulls ...).
Balsa and basswood are definitely your friends when it comes to Weird West terrain. Rail fences are easily constructed from the stuff. All you need is some glue and the usual sharp knife. Water-troughs and hitching posts are easily built with it as well. If you can make a box, a simple piece to do is the outhouse (shown behind "Yosef").
	The "Diablo Mine" was made to be the hiding place of the Slade Gang's stolen treasure. Except for the mine entrance and sign, it's a normal hill. The supports are just balsa wood; I used a really thick piece of Styrofoam to form the hill, but layers of thinner material would work just as well. The tunnel should have been made a little taller, since some figures don't quite fit inside. It isn't a bad idea to keep a model (preferably unpainted) around when building terrain, just to check for scale. Pity I forgot this time...
Graves are very easy to do. Make Styrofoam mounds (just a bit bigger than a figure) and use balsa (or the rounded end of a popsicle stick) to finish it off. Cover the mound with ballast or textured material (I coat mine with thinned-down Elmer's glue and then cover them in sand) and all that's left is a little painting.
	I've only made about six western buildings so far; the walls of this one are built of foamboard and are covered with filler to give it an adobe look. The boardwalk and floorboards are made from popsicle sticks and the doors are balsa. It also has a removable roof made of comic backing-board (not shown). Another building I've recently done is Rosa's Cantina, seen here during a gunfight (with the roof removed). At the bottom of the page you can see the town of Buzzard's Gulch. (Can you tell I like to make adobe buildings?) Another view of the town is here. The haystack (below, in the right foreground) is made from of a Styrofoam hemisphere covered it in unraveled cord and glue. The paint job isn't the best in the world (I couldn't find quite the right colors) but it looks pretty good on the table. Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I've given you some ideas for terrain. If not, I got to show off my work, so either way I'm happy...

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Rail Wars Terrain