Carnevale – City of romance, grandeur and bloody screaming.

I might have gotten a bit carried away with building kits and just pushed on with assembling things.

I decided to warm up with the two smaller boats then went in on the kinda huge guild galleon. I actually found it easier to build than you might think, despite the miss-labeling of some hull pieces! Always dry fit!

At this point everything in the bundle is now assembled, so that is progress!

I might have gotten a bit carried away with building kits and just pushed on with assembling things.

I decided to warm up with the two smaller boats then went in on the kinda huge guild galleon. I actually found it easier to build than you might think, despite the miss-labeling of some hull pieces! Always dry fit!

At this point everything in the bundle is now assembled, so that is progress!

Carnevale includes rules for tightropes and ziplines to create alternative routes and shortcuts around the city.

They also create a modelling challenge! How do you flexibly model them on a changing layout?

I think the answer lies in magnets, so I am inserting bits of magnetic sheet around my buildings as anchor points for things that will hold the lines using magnets.

Design to follow at some point, after I have painted and disguised the connection points!

I had an idea to achieve a rough red brick effect on my Arsenale towers and thought that I could get there using an orange.

It turned out very orange.

I am in the process of trying something else so have darkened it down before highlighting with….. something else? At this point I found my supply of acrylic craft paint lacking so went shopping. The local high street shops failed me so I found a place online and have ordered a box full of various things and I will play with those when they get here.

Thought I should probably get some more buildings assembled, these beasts will add a lot of height and fill out the space quite a bit.

I decided to go with a more traditional white tiling detail on my Venetian streets but not to get too bogged down at this stage. The wood bits are a simple dry brushing for now, I haven’t settled on how far to take it but I think that I want a weathered look.

I think the next step is probably spray varnish then maybe some sort of wash? Also thinking of adding a little slime effect around the waterline.

Might move on to buildings while I think about it and see how they look on what I have so far.

I decided to go with a more traditional white tiling detail on my Venetian streets but not to get too bogged down at this stage. The wood bits are a simple dry brushing for now, I haven’t settled on how far to take it but I think that I want a weathered look.

I think the next step is probably spray varnish then maybe some sort of wash? Also thinking of adding a little slime effect around the waterline.

Might move on to buildings while I think about it and see how they look on what I have so far.

Once I was happy with the colour test I went ahead and did a three stage dry brush across all my street sections to blend in with the first.

Now the detailing begins….

Every Carnevale board starts with the water and the iconic Venetian streets, so naturally I am painting those first as the buildings will all need to match them.

First off I did a colour test of one larger section and put that down on my water mat with some minis to get a feel for the shade.

Last year I bought a nautically themed TTCombat terrain bundle at UKGE. UKGE is back next month so I guess that I had better get on with it!

Also Gerry recently passed comment on my lack of terrain updates, and as we know internet shaming is a great motivator.

I am going to set my sights on getting a playable 2×2 done for some if the smaller scenarios and build up from there.

Filling out my roster, I have been working on a Merchant and Venetian Spy. Venice is best ruled by trade in coin and rumours I feel. Or a sniper rifle.

Sun & Moon are a Patrician power couple as they are among the Gifted. Bestowed with supernatural powers they are all set for a good old fancy murder party!

These sculpts are the event exclusive versions that go on sale during conventions and the like.

While we all await Rome, let us make do with Venice.

As there is a bit of a local surge in interest and club day approaches, I figure we need a bit more terrain so started building!

First things first, the streets! There is a mix of heights and steps in the Dorsuduro block set so should lend itself to some interesting layouts.

Following up on the ground floor I decided to just go straight up and put together the Torre Del Arsenal, the grand towers of Venice’s dockyard.

I have decided to spray prime in subassemblies to deal with some of the recesses. I also noticed that the tower tops would be difficult to get minis in and out of so I won’t be gluing the roofs on for access.

Next step is some modification. Carnevale includes some advanced terrain rules for ziplines and tightropes running between buildings. This presents a cool but tricky terrain building challenge! How do you make a modular tightrope?

I think the answer probably involves magnets! I’m not entirely sure how, it might involve gargoyles or something that I hook/stick thread or picture wire onto (or just the magnets), but I think there is some mileage in sticking adhesive magnetic strips onto the buildings as anchor points.

I also want to try breaking up the flatness of MDF panels with a bit of texture, that I can also use to conceal the magnetic strip. So, polyfilla!

Carnevale hasn’t left my horizon but it has been a long while since I added anything to the collection. I have been meaning to start a Strigoi crew and build my own board, but kept putting it off.

Then I went to UKGE, saw one of TTCombat’s £100 table bundles and cracked. That was made to me order and arrived today!

Behold, a heavy box, heap of packing peanuts and a heck of a lot of laser cut MDF sprues!

While waiting the 4-6 weeks delivery on that lot, TTCombat had a spray paint sale. Obviously I need primers for all of that MDF and had a Carnevale itch to scratch so went through the single figures section of the website and ordered some new Patricians and the core of a Strigoi crew made up of the alt-sculpt minis you don’t see in the retail sets.

At some point I’ll start painting this stuff in between my Kings of War Halfling project.

And here it is, my first 100 ducats (points) crew is complete.  I’ll need to add a bit more to hit the 125 ducats standard but first I’ll try to get a few starter games in and get a better feel for the game and faction.