Monday, January 23, 2017

Valbona Castle Scratchbuild Project

Last fall my 14 year old son had an opportunity to do a presentation for a class unit on Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'.  So he put on his thinking cap..."How can I do a Shakespeare project that will benefit the Wars of the Roses army I'm painting?...I know I will build a model of a castle!  But not just any castle, it has to be a castle where the action of 'Taming of the Shrew' could have taken place."  So he found pictures of a Renaissance era castle in northern Italy.  Here is the real Valbona Castle.

Our model of Valbona was constructed from foam card, pizza boxes, some chipboard and balsa wood.  Along with glue and paint and various textures.  Many of our techniques and ideas were taken from Mel the Terrain Tutor.  His Youtube channel is a great inspiration for wargame terrain.  And yes, the presentation went great.  Afterwards, as you can see here, the castle was transported to England in the  1400's and occupied by a Yorkist army!  Here are the photos...and let my boy know what a great job he did!









Iberian Cavalry

This unit of six Iberian Cavalry is the last unit to be painted for my Carthaginian army.  The figures are from Crusader and the shield designs are hand painted.  Here are a few quick photos of them.