Carnevale: making plans for scenery

The last week I was down with a severe flu… no, to be exact: I am still down with it, my throat aches terribly, my nose is dripping… no hobbytime for me this weekend, it’s all about lying in bed and hoping to get well soon…

Apart from the fact that this is fairly frustrating, I have used my time to do some thinking about my scenery pieces for Carnevale (to be used in other fantasy skirmishes as well – Mordheim, Anima Tactics… I wouldn’t even mind using them for Eden, after all the Apokalypse may happen in Venice as well…). So far I am sure there will be three different sets of scenery – some scenery to do some battles in the sewers of Venice, some pieces that will make up the canal system and finally some ruined buildings.

At the moment I am still into researching – what makes a building (or rather ruin) venetian? And how can I build those with not-too-much-effort?

I guess (I do know myself a bit, you know?) I will sooner or later end up with a load of books on Venice and venetian architecture, but until then I spend a lot of time on Wikimedia Commons. There are quite a lot of pictures there to start with, be it in the category Venizia or Republic of Venice.

I want most of my ruins to be rather simple – after all, I don’t want to have my miniatures fighting in the doge’s palace, but in some abandoned part of the city… same goes for this “venetian” Mordheim the ruins will form.

But still I believe that as a starting point I want to be inspired by something… greater than just some simple houses. So here’s my choice for inspiration: the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.

I emphasize the word “inspiration” though… the real Fondaco is one of the largest historical buildings in Venice, rebuilding it in its entirety in 28 mm would be far too much work, I guess… so “my” ruin will just be made up of a downsized main facade. But I like the simple grandezza of this building, which lends itself well to wargaming terrain. There are just simple arches and even the columns are squarish, not round.

Most probably I will use historical views as this one as my main inspiration. As you can see, they had arched windows even on the second floor, then, as well as two pavilions on the roof and those extra-cool chimneys. Really like those…

Only the facade frescoes I will ignore. No need to feel like Titian… anyway, I will keep you posted on all this – once I am back to health, of course…