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.

 

Numidian Spearmen

I painted eight of the spearmen in this unit a couple of years ago.  Just this past weekend I finished the four command figures to match this unit.  All of the figures are by Crusader miniatures.  I am trying to make sure that every one of my units in the Carthaginian army have at least a leader figure.  So now this unit of skirmishers is twelve men strong.  Enjoy!

Numidian Light Horse

Earlier this month I completed this unit of Numidian Light Horse.  The figures are from Crusader Miniatures.  I am nearing "completion" of my Carthaginian army!  It is pretty exciting to see that particular lead pile start to dwindle down.  I like how these guys turned out.  The skin tone is perhaps a shade darker than I intended, but it's okay with me.  I am planning to add command figures to every unit in this army so that I can use them for playing "War & Conquest".  Enjoy the photos, there will be more soon.

Punic Cavalry

Recently I have been working on my Carthaginian army.  I started collecting Romans and Carthaginians back in 1996.  In 1999 I published the Punic War scenario book "Hannibal Ad Portas".  Back in those days all of my figures were 25mm Ral Partha miniatures.  By today's standards those figures are puny.  They look like little boys.  So several years ago I started re-doing both of those armies using 28mm figures that look awesome!  The Punic army is nearly complete, this past month I finished my Balearic slingers and then started and finished this unit of Carthaginian Heavy Cavalry from Crusader Miniatures.  Enough talk, here is the proof!

Wars of the Roses retinue archers

Here are a few photos of a small group of archers I just finished.  The minis are from Front Rank.  My 13 year old son is also painting some of these figures and I hope to post some of his work soon!  These guys are not painted to be any specific lord's troops, they are just intended to invoke the period.

More Soviets!!!

This group got painted considerably faster than the last batch. Here are a few photos of them. Not the best photos, but... at least they are posted.

Maxim HMG

Maxim HMG

ATR team (PTRD-41)

ATR team (PTRD-41)

Two LMG teams and two officers

Two LMG teams and two officers

So there you go!  After painting 40 Russians in a row I am going to take a little break from the eastern front.  Next project is a large group of US Army rifles plus some support.