For my Mexican village, I settled on a great set of terrain that is really more “Spanish colonial” rather than “Mexican adobe village.” These sorts of buildings existed in Mexico, though usually in wealthier places. I couldn’t quite find files for an adobe village that I liked and when I found these, well… I had to do it. There’s the added benefit that these buildings will work for Italy or even parts of the pacific. I found the files on MyMiniFactory here:

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-colonial-spanish-stable-tabletop-terrain-28-mm-414961

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-colonial-spanish-district-tabletop-terrain-28-mm-363540

They have moving doors, full interiors, and just great detail in general. Excellent pieces, though very material intensive. Each building costs around $5 in plastic to print, so bear that in mind. The stable itself was probably around $8 in plastic. I think they’re well worth it. The stable alone is 16″ long and holds high skirmish game potential.

There’s several decisions to make on a piece like this. First was the walls. I primed the whole thing chocolate brown (Krylon primer) and then dry brushed with a warm mid-tone white (cream?) followed by a white. The next was windows: I looked at several villas online and settled on windowsills being red but stone window outlines being white along with the wall behind them. For some of the lower windows with bars I went with black. Throughout the rest of the village I’ll keep this theme but vary the windowsills from red to green to blue for some variety.

The brickwork, again, took research. I found a variety of colors online but felt that more red bricks would feel too monotone, so I went with a warm grey. Base, wash, and dry brush with the base again. Easy, if time consuming.

The next major decision was wood. Honestly, I just chose a tone and moved on. I’ll probably vary this a bit building to building.

I’m not 100% done, though the piece is plenty acceptable as-is. When I finish the set I’ll consider adding creeping vines, flowers, or perhaps some mold on the roofs. I am heavily debating placing up wanted posters and other ‘Wild West’ markers–on the one hand it’ll really help sell the period; on the other hand Rich just suggested Chain of Command V2 may come out in April and uh… this village sure does look Italian, if you ask me.

No, I’ll probably keep it period agnostic. I only have so much space and this board will beat the hell out of my old Mediterranean board, which was already one of my best. I can always use cacti and barrels of pasta to designate what part of the world we’re in today.

Okay, okay. That last bit was offensive to Italy. I could always use cacti or… ah… what does Italy have that Mexico doesn’t? Surely they aren’t so similar in our popular memory that you could just… say… film the most famous cowboy movies of all time in Italy? And call it the ‘Spaghetti Western?’

Crap.