The Eight...and electricity comes to Drake's Branch.

Disclaimer: The lamps are stand-ins for actual oil-lamps...not electricity...

A small update.  I've slapped together another 4Ground building and have assembled a handful of street lamps for Drake's Branch (my fictional town setting)

The re-painted "Rogan's Bar" set from 4Ground.  Will probably be festooned with posters in a bit.  I dislike green buildings quite a bit so this got a re-spray.  Nice quality with only minimal fuss while building.

Ordered some cheap street lamps from a Chinese shop on ebay and tossed them on...oddly long bases.  I don't like to waste good bases on terrain too often so I decided to use up some Wargames Factory cavalry bases --- this let me add some do-dads to some of the bases as well.

Sorry the last picture is out of focus!

I also threw some shingles onto the Rorke's Drift Storehouse and hate the outcome, but I'm going to keep it - it just doesn't get rewarded with fancy pictures on the internet. It's usable but ugly.

Drake's Branch is expanding!

So, as a Christmas present to myself, I gathered some ebay-funded moneys and picked up a load of new 4Ground stuff.  Shortly after ordering I had discovered the pile of 4Ground kits in a tub which I had forgotten about...the entire Rorke's Drift set!

I had finished the storehouse last post...subsequently broke/ruined the roof by removing the thatch...grrrrrrr...

Anyway, have some paper shingles on the way to re-do the roof and find a way to mend it.  Meanwhile I started on the new kits which showed up....

While waiting for the postman to show I did up some extra scatter terrain and decided to try my hand at some more characterful tokens for "Hiding" in Shoot N' Skedaddle.

The Rorke's Drift hospital awaiting a shingle roof (grey is just the cover colour).  Again a nice old 4Ground kit.  If I was more motivated I could have done a lot with the interior but I find the games rarely use a lot of the interior space.  I may go back later and add some furniture.

Almost big enough to play an entire game inside!

Some Pegasus Hobbies fences.  I applied a basing texture, clipped the ends (so that the posts can meet up properly) primed them black, repainted and drybrushed them and added some static grass.  They fit particularly well on the Steppe mat.  I've gone from solid desert basing to an intermediate so I can get more use out of stuff for other games.

A simple under-construction kit from 4Ground.  Not my favourite.  Hard to assemble and very very fragile.  I'm not entirely sure how long this thing will last gaming.

 The AD Hardware store - a wonderful simple 4Ground kit.  The manner in which they assembled these have changed from the first kits..not sure which method I prefer.  Typical 4Ground quality.

The Land Officer kit from 4Ground.  Lovely stuff, though this was the first 4Ground kit I've had in a long time which gave me some issues (one of the MDF sheets was a bit out of wack and had to be trimmed to fit, etc.).  Overall I love the final product - nice to have two more different designs for single story buildings.

There is a lot more waiting in the wings...and even more in the post still.  While Drake's Branch was a meagre seven buildings prior...it could expand into a proper town within the next few weeks.  Hoping to shingle/fix the RD kits and though they may not look 100% proper in town, I can do a nice farmstead at some point.

Storehouse!

After beginning to get over my Old West doldrums, I had just ordered a large order of 4Ground buildings when I stumbled upon the old Rorkes Drift kit I forgot I had ordered a year or two ago.

This is the rather old kit - unpainted, with one-face burns etc.  It was still a typical 4Ground kit though - beautifully executed, smartly planned - hugely gamer friendly, and a treat to assemble.

After spending way too long on it to even achieve a mediocre paintjob, I immediately began to appreciate the lovely pre-painted kits they now release!

The front, only missing two of the support posts (these will be based separately and added later as a stand-alone part)

One side features a small supply door and the smaller office/shed structure.

 Being a storehouse, the back is closed off...non-descript.

 In typical 4Ground fashion, the building is hugely gamer-friendly.  The "front" roof section comes off in a nice sturdy, well supported set.  It reveals the attic and the front door section.

The small shed/office which is accessible through its own door.  There is a "damage blow out" panel in the rear wall, but I'm trying to keep it in place.  I don't want this to be a battle damaged structure.

 Rear attic features a cargo door on the left of the picture, a floor-hole w/ ladder and a full door on the right, accessed by an external staircase.

Inside the main structure are two separate room areas, each consisting of two adjoined rooms.

This kit is still available as long as they have remaining stock, rumour was (years ago) that they might re-release the kit in new pre-painted form, but that never seemed to happen.

It's a lovely kit, but really makes me appreciate the genius of the current pre-painted kits and their interior details.  Also, forgive the grey colour.  The paint looked much lighter and dried rather dark.  I debated repainting it, but I'll leave it as is for a while.