Having sold both the Battleflag Old West buildings I built earlier, I have ordered myself more of the 4Ground Dead Man's Hand buildings. Once I've built those, I will have the beginnings of a decent little settlement - plenty big enough to stage a small gunfight.
This week I have built the larger of the two 4Ground unfinished buildings. It's quite evocative, and really gives the feel of a building in an up-and-coming settlement. Its only drawback is the number of dark, sooty, cut edges - to look like new timber (lumber in American parlance?) I may have to paint the whole thing in a light wood colour. I wonder whether it would airbrush? Another thought - I wonder where the owners will live whilst the building is unfinished - perhaps I need a tent or two, to erect in the back yard!
I have just started work on 4Ground's Side Street Building 2, which is probably going to be finished as 'Tyndall's Emporium - Mining & Drilling Supples' in line with my plan.
I will need some boards, or a cloth, to form the groundwork for my town. I could use the desert cloth I use for my 'Fire in the East' games (late Principate Romans versus early Sassanid Persians), but that would result in having small green tufts in the middle of the streets, which I suspect will look unrealistic. So, maybe I need a new cloth, or a couple of boards, to make an area 4' x 3' (1200 x 900 mm), which should be plenty big enough.
Lastly... But by no means 'leastly'... Figures! The Dixon Miniatures (true 25mm) figures I bought are clearly too small to suit the (28mm) buildings I'm using. I have some of Great Escape Games' Dead Man's Hand figures; they're very nicely sculpted, and fit the buildings very well, though I think I'm going to use 20mm diameter bases rather than the recommended 25mm, so they don't occupy quite so much space - and so they'll fit through the doorways. I think the (rather lovely) figures from Artizan Designs are compatible with them too.
As regards finishing the bases, my usual desert grit, painted in the usual way, should suffice. To begin with, I won't add any tufts - at least until I decide on what I'm doing in terms of a cloth or boards. In fact, given that some of the time the figures may actually go inside buildings, they may look better overall if I never add tufts. That's okay so long as the bases don't look so plain that they detract from the appearance of the figures.