Friday, 12 June 2020

Great Italian wars 43 finished buildings

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They are all from TT combats carnivale range although the three larger buildings have since been superseded in their catalogue, clearly I have taken too long painting them!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 a review in front of the city walls I think!
All the best Iain 


48 comments:

  1. Excellent work on your buildings Iain, the additional roofs you built tie them in really well with your other buildings, and your city photos are sublime

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    1. Thanks Dave! I'm glad you think the roofs work!
      Best Iain

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  2. Iain on their own, the buildings are lovely, plenty of presence with a fairly constrained foot print - together in your wall town, they look just fantastic, I doubt that could be replicated in many places in the wargames world, it looks like a museum quality display.

    I like all the colour plates, some good reference material in your collection.

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    1. Thanks Norm! High praise indeed! I do like a bit of reference material!
      Best Iain

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  3. Outstanding work Iain.

    You should definitely do Siena with its homage to Grimsby Dock Tower

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_Dock_Tower#/media/File%3AGrimsby_Dock_Tower.jpg

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    1. Thanks! I've been to the one in Sienna but not the one in Grimsby, perhaps I'm missing a trick?
      Best Iain

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  4. Super work on the buildings! As Norm states, these look great within your city walls.

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  5. They turned out well! I've got a bunch of mdf for 15mm. I might have to dig them out now . . .

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    1. Thanks Marcus! Yes you should definitely dig them out !
      Best Iain

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  6. Excellent buildings, the colouring being especially good and a great fit with the refernce works. I'm surprised that as part of your research you didn;t use googlemaps 3D to get a first hand view ofwhat various historic building look like today.
    The massof buildings you have do indeed look like a bustling, crowded city and fit in with your older models very well.
    Very, very impressive.

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    1. Thanks Joe! I did use some recent ish guides to look at the current feel too, plus I was lucky to go to Venice and southern Italy last year, all useful stuff!
      Best Iain

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  7. The walls and buildings work really well together to make a superb fortified town! You could probably get away with a few different colours for the buildings, have a look at this picture of Naples, https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HOtZntOJdz8/XXlHP2iTNlI/AAAAAAAAEGM/Xue2UH3xnNkYe_ybMDdY1I2OKHst-GS9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Naples%2B1472.jpg but to be honest I think you have chosen the colours perfectly.

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    1. Thanks Oli! I tried a few colours but ended up happy with what I have!
      Best Iain

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  8. Really terrific work Iain. I love the supplementary roofs, and the whole lot together looks sensational.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence! I thought they needed the extra roofs and they hang together nicely, just need a bit of scatter terrain!
      Best Iain

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  9. Fantastic buildings! They definitely look better with the tiled roofs.

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  10. Brilliant! Excellent work! Yes, the optional tiled roofs are a nice addition. And everything all laid out looks great as a walled city.

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    1. Thanks Fitz! A bit of extra work but worth it!
      Best Iain

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  11. They are great buildings - you must treat us to a siege after the parade. What rules would you use?

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    1. Thanks Rob! Yes, I was thinking of using the siege rules in To kill a king ,pike and shot supplement with a little adjustment!
      Best Iain

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  12. Seriously impressive Iain! The buildings look great but when you see them as part of the city - wow!

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    1. Thanks Michael! High praise from the schloss master of terrain!
      Best Iain

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  13. Really impressive Iain .......fantastic looking terrain, no city ! Your extra roof for each building a gem and nicely done. Definately blog if you find or are able to make cypress trees as I can find any and have tried and failed a couple of times.

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    1. Thanks Matt! I have had a go at the cypress trees, not sure if it works but I have a back up and if that works I'll definitely post it!
      Best Iain

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  14. Great work Iain, I was not aware of these and had only seen the cardboard ones that are nowhere near as nice.

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    1. Thanks Paul! I think the cardboard ones come with the game and you can upgrade with MDF!
      Best Iain

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  15. As said above. Each building is great as it’s own, but when you put the whole thing together something special happens. It looks like wargamer terrain that you would see in a glossy magazine, but for free and in a blog. Maybe you ought to charge a subscription. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew! Glad you like them all together, in some ways blogs have taken the place of magazines for me these days!
      Best Iain

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  16. Amazing. That's quite a nice job. The pics of the whole town are jaw dropping.

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  17. An excellent collection of buildings Iain...

    All the best. Aly

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  18. Stunning houses, Iain! The whole town looks amazing. Indeed you’ve conveided a distinct feel of Italy architecture through the brushwork and decorations, lovely!

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    1. Thanks Dmitry! I'm glad they all work together well!
      Best Iain

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  19. nice job lain the buildings are beautiful, although from Italian Tuscan very parochial like all Tuscan Italian cities seem similar but are very different in history and stratification. however, you can use these buildings for Italy in other historical periods as not much has changed since the Renaissance to today.

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    1. Thanks Ronin! Yes, that's what I wanted, something I could use for Florence, Pavia, Rome, Sienna or Ravenna, I didn't want to be too specific!
      Best Iain

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  20. Fantastic work on all these Renaissance Italian buildings Iain, you city looks incredible!

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    1. Thanks Keith! Got to find a way of using it now!
      Best Iain

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  22. Excellent Iain, the texture certainly improves them. What I most admire are your pantile roofs, the reason my 40mm efforts went in the bin was because I could not achieve that look! I have been studying your pictures closely to see how you did it :)

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    1. Thanks Lee! I think it's doing the ridge tile right that finished them off nicely!
      Best Iain

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