Stewart's Best of the West

Here you see the Saloon in all its glory. It is about 47 inches wide by 55 inches tall. It took me a couple of months to do this saloon at a cost of about $40.00 (mainly trim bass-wood from the craft store). Everything else I had laying around my garage.	I decided to paint the clapboards and trim to replicate a relatively new old west saloon. I left the boardwalk natural.
The clapboard siding was made by ripping 2x4 stock to a thickness of about 1/16 th of an inch. The Boardwalk boards are from ripping a 1x6 board to a thickness of about 1/8th of an inch.	The balcony is actually a seperate piece. I made the railing with 1/8th inch dowels and scrap wood from the clapboards. Painting all the dowels took the longest! Thanks for the chaps Wolf!
Thanks to Kirby Jonas of the Johnny West Via Kirby Land Yahoo! newsgroup, I learned how horses would chew on the hitching railings so I detailed them with lots of gnaws and rein wear. I also left them natural, thinking that the poor horses would get sick eating paint!	The windows are all clear plastic with hand cut 1/16th inch bass-wood trim and panes - Yes! it was a PAIN! But looks pretty good. Thanks to Laura from the group for the custom cav saddle blanket.
Thanks to J.W. from the group I came up with the idea of having wanted posters plastered to the walls and posts. This pic shows Sam wondering who's 'stealing' his thunder...	And behind Johnny, we see Sam's name 'up in lights'.
So why The Dirty Shame? Well, I ran a little contest on the newsgroup and Stevo (with help ;-) ) came up with the name and I thought it really fit - Lots of things in life are a dirty shame - Like why I didn't win the lottery last week!	The saloon doors are made from doll house gates I got on clearance at Micheals. I had to make the hinges which are hollowed out dowels glued on the frame with a bent brass wire inserted into the hole and attached to the door. Swings about 170 degrees - this may be the first 'fix' I do if I can figure out a better hinge....
Picture from the left.	Picture of the balcony. All the upper floor windows are half open so I can have the 'red-light' ladies hanging out waiting for customers - didn't have A/C back then!
The Saloon sign was a big project all by itself. I printed out the letters from photoshop and then cut them out on my scroll saw, then I had to make the curved background. I glued the letters on and gave them 5 coats of paint. The trim is cut from a laminate material and glued on the backboard. The sign itself is screwed into the top of the saloon so that I can remove it if necessary.	The Dirty Shame placard on the Saloon sign is made from adhesive craft foam letters and painted wood. I wanted something that kind of said... Dirty
Town folk enjoying the sunlight. Thanks again to JW for the great rocking chair!	Even the kids waiting for their moms to get done at the general store. Next project!
Shot from the inside. Here's the back of my custom buffalo soldier.	Shot from the inside. The inside of the swinging doors showing the custom hinges.
My faithful steed Thunderbolt waiting for me. Jane keeping a close eye out for horse thieves!	This project was a lot of fun to do. I'm still not sure what I'll do with it now - Maybe hang it on the wall... Or... Honey, Can I put this on the mantle!!!!? Thanks to all the fine folks at Kirby Land who encouraged me and gave me ideas - I'll probably tweak this some more with their help!

The Dirty Shame Saloon