Thursday, June 11, 2020

Iain W 28mm Great Italian wars terrain

Not many figures painted recently I've been on a prepping and priming mode but I have finally finished some buildings for my great Italian wars town/city.
They are all from TT combats carnivale range although the three larger buildings have since been superseded in their catalogue, clearly I have taken too long painting them!
So,MDF, I haven't built many MDF kits, the big northern European church (also by TT combat) was about it and I felt I needed a bit more texture than I got with just the MDF so I slapped on some paint  with a bit of sand here and there, based coated dry brushed, washes, I've finally decided enough is enough and close enough is good enough!
These buildings are designed to be slightly later in period and they are also meant to be Venetian, I probably won't use them as Venice but more likely Pavia, Rome or Florence .
I figured I'd look into images of 15th century Florence as my city walls are a pretty good match .
A reconstruction of 15th century Florence 

An image of Pavia ( with patron saint in 1525)

Late medieval Sienna 

The entry of Charles VIII into Florence  1494

The rebuilding of 15th century Florence 

15th century Florence in a contemporary painting 

A view of 15th century Florence 

The Duke of Urbino's palace/city.
So this is the feel I wanted to achieve with the buildings I was working on plus some others I'd already built. 















What I realised was looking at the images of Florence, Pavia,Urbino was that I was missing the distinctive pan tiled roofs. Carnivale ( the game) is all about jumping about on flat roofs, so it's not that surprising that they've made the majority of their roofs flat, but didn't help me much, so I built my own detachable pantile roofs,so that I can use the roof as a  command post or make it visually work with a roof,they're foamboard with some unknown plastic tiles I picked up in a model shop in Windsor ( I always try and buy something in a bricks and mortar model shop!) The ridge tiles I carved out of balsa. 



I have still to finish this ones optional roof but it kind of shows how I did it 

So this is my version of Charles  VIII entry into Florence. 
What I liked about the larger models was how they could stand in for the bigger town houses and I  figured I could combine them with one of my free standing towers and a few small outbuildings to give me the feel of a villa of the period, like say Biocca. Three of the buildings gives you a reasonably sized village or small town, again with the addition of some outbuildings which after cypress trees are next on the Italian wars terrain list, although a bridge with buildings on it would be nice wouldn't it?

Here the new buildings mixed in within my city walls and with my existing buildings, I deliberately went with tiles for my northern European churches so that I could use them to pack out my Italian city, especially if I were to do the siege of Rome! Next up maybe some figures in the last week!?
All the best Iain 


35 comments:

  1. Stunning final result Iain! Love the whole effect. I have a couple of the TTC buildings and was quite happy with them. Your new roofs and aces too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Peter! They're a little on the heroic scale and I don't need the interiors but they do have a good feel to them, still got one to assemble yet!
      Best Iain

      Delete
  2. Very good looking buildings. It seems that you used MDF buildings just as a skeleton and then scratch built the houses on top of that. :) Well done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Teemu! All I did was scratch build the roofs, they're nice kits!
      Best Iain

      Delete
  3. Fantastic looking buildings - really capture the Italian vibe. The whoke table is lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Superb set of buildings and walls Iain! The roof tiles did the trick and you’re spot on with the colour scheme. Ponte Vecchio next?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Mike! Well it sounds like fun? Without the Medici corridor though and useable for a variety of locations, which I like!
      Best Iain

      Delete
  5. What a fantastic looking set of buildings Iain, absolutely Bob on 👍

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know someone whose got some figures that would look lovely next to them 😉

      Delete
    2. Well I am planning a parade of all my Italian wars figures next on my blog, a bit like your ECW one,all in front of the buildings and walls!
      Best Iain

      Delete
    3. Although yours would be welcome to visit but I am down sarf,some way from "gods own county "!
      Best Iain

      Delete
    4. Looks spectacular I like the idea of a Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge display game at Salute or Reading

      Delete
    5. Sounds like a good idea, we might need quite a big table!
      Best Iain

      Delete
    6. Management approves of this idea. :)

      Delete
  6. The individual buildings certainly look very nice, but the complete city laid out is positively stunning. You sure achieved the effect from the contemporary illustrations. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Martijn! I think it's got the right kind of feel, I just need some outbuildings, stables, barns etc!
      Best Iain

      Delete
  7. Beautiful work Iain! I love the tiled roofs you made. The whole setup looks terrific. Question: Are all those colour plates from one book?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Curt! No ,they're from a number of books,the plan view reconstruction is from Inside the medieval world, the 15th century street scene is from a book on Masccario,the view of Florence is from the cover of a book on the renaissance, the entry of Charles VIII is from a book on the Medici and the rest are from an illustrated history of Italy. I still find books better than digital for research as not everything has been transferred yet,its also nice to have them on the work bench,I also used other renaissance artists books and guides to Florence, Rome and Sienna.
      Best Iain

      Delete
  8. Wow - that is stunning - and an excellent setup to emulate. (I'm using the TT games buildings, too, aiming for Venice, but can't quite settle on how I want them to look). This is a beautiful city, Iain - and nicely researched, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Noel! Can I suggest Carpaccio's cycle of St Ursula? Its a great series of paintings of Venice in the late 15th early 16th century and has really good architectural details, Bellini is also good!
      Best Iain

      Delete
    2. Got to love the source material!

      Delete
  9. Holy crap, what a setup! Great work Iain, it looks tremendous. Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  10. The buildings, and your scratch-built roofs, look amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow, that is great work! Really sets the scene!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Now you've given me an example to live up to painting mine! Awesome buildings Iain!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sander! I look forward to seeing yours!
      Best Iain

      Delete