David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Saturday 27 October 2018

Palazzo Project Completed

It seems to me like eons since I foolishly embarked on this project to build a Palazzo as a centrepiece for our Italian Wars games. But here it is completed and well before the end of the year, which was my target you may recall. As Grand Designs go it is '...on time and under budget...', a very rare creature indeed! Of course, I had some help with the final dry brushing of the buildings' walls, but the rest is as they say, all down to me. Here is a final photo report on the processes and the more of the finished article. I hope that it meets with some degree of approval after all the hours spent on it~

Aerial view to show the planned layout of the Palazzo.
Front view ~ from left to right ~ three Warbases Modular
buildings {Tower, Tall Modular, Small Modular} with
Supreme Littleness Designs Ornate Window added; Warbases
Villa Gateway {front} and Charlie Foxtrot Spanish Tower
{rear}; Sally Forth Tower and Italianate fortifications added;
hidden are the Warbases Modular Low Building and the
Gateway. The Statue is a Foundry Roman Officer on a
Sarissa Precision Plinth.
The whole textured with Fine Polyfilla. Messy and fiddly!
The basecoat of Golden Brown by Crafters' Acrylics.
After successive dry brushing of Fawn and Light Antique
White, a wash of GW diluted Seraphim Brown, and a final
dry brush with Crown Emulsion Lime Wash.
The Wills Flagstones have had similar treatment to maintain
the sense of colour for the piece.

A view from the side rear. The Foundry Madder Red Shade on
the pantiles has been dry brushed with the same firm's Orange
Midtone and Light.

View from the right rear aspect showing the side gate.
View from the left rear aspect to show the small Warbases
Shed filling in a corner.

View from the front left aspect to highlight the Supreme
Littleness Designs Ornate Window added to the Warbases 
Tall Modular Building.
Final view from the front right aspect to show the courtyard
interior, minus the statue which is being Satin varnished by
Phil for me.


To recap if you've just arrived at this final stage, the buildings are all MDF shells: from Warbases; Sarissa Precision; Charlie Foxtrot Models; and, Sally Forth. I can't praise all of them enough for the advice and help offered in the planning and purchase phase of the project, but particular thanks must go to Martin and Dianne at Warbases who cut the base to my specifications and made a number of parts from whole kits available to me. They are the stars of the MDF firmament for me!

24 comments:

  1. That looks absolutely brilliant David!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very imposing building, will look great on the table, just some storming ladders and accompanying troops to do now. :-)
    All the best Airhead

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Casting Room Miniatures do just such figures. They are on my list!

      Delete
  3. We have a masterpiece under our eyes...gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Splendid! Looks most excellent.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fantastic,lovely finish, great design and execution and ahead of schedule too!
    I especially like the exterior stairs for the tower, but it's all splendid!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Iain. The stairs are by Sally Forth.

      Delete
  6. Bloody hel!! that's fantastic!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very pleased you liked my modest effort.

      Delete
  7. Excellent, there's so much to like about this, lots of great detail, the roof and wall angles break up the outline to make a very interesting piece. A huge improvement on the bog standard MDF buildings so beloved of wargamers with no imagination.
    Well done

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I’ve often struggled myself to move from imagining a piece to creating it, so I’m doubly pleased with how this turned out.

      Delete
  8. What an excellent centerpiece David!

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  9. The finished model looks splendid David...
    I am looking forward to seeing it ‘in action ‘ if you know what I mean.


    All the best. Aly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Much appreciate Aly! I think it will grace a game in mid November looking at our schedule.

      Delete
  10. Super duper, just ripe for sacking in due course.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Fantastic work David - I can imagine adding the layer of fine Polyfilla to the base model was the most time consuming and frustrating part of the process, having used that product for similar purposes myself. the end result was well worth your efforts however!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for those kind words, and glad you liked the end product.

      Delete