Carnevale – City of romance, grandeur and bloody screaming.

My first two Carnevale miniatures are done!  I am starting off with a Patricians crew as for me they are definitively Venetian I  appearance and their backstory of street-roaming murder parties is simple but so characterful.

I decided to kick off with a pair of Barnabotti, who are minor nobles whose family fortunes have fallen on hard times.  They pour their remaining wealth into maintaining appearances so I decided to go all out on making them a gang of outrageously flamboyant murder peacocks and try my hand at bold yellows.

Then I thought, why not make them a couple out on the town with a his & hers costume theme?

Our third fancy dandy is the leader of my crew, the Venetian Noble.  I have carried on with the cloth of gold theme for the lining of his cloak and gone with an opulent Turquoise outfit.

The Hawk Turquoise is the base colour highlighted with mixing in a little Electric Blue.  The gold trim (and cape lining) is Glorious Gold and a light Nuln Oil (black) wash to give some definition.  The cape is Scarlett Red with some Ivory mixed in for the highlights and shaded with a touch of purple.

I had a stinking cold over the weekend which slowed things down, but the third Barnabotti is done.

The dress is Goblin Green shaded with Cayman Green, then highlighted with a little Ice Yellow.

The underskirt, if that is what you call them, is Ice Yellow highlighted with a bit of white mixed in and a touch of Moon Yellow for shading.

The lace and wig (at least I presume it is a wig!) are Ivory basecoats shaded with Stonewall Grey.  I also used a diluted Nuln Oil wash into the recesses of the hair taking some care not to darken it all.

The feathers and fan are Squid Pink, again highlighted with white.  I also used a diluted red wash (Carroburg Crimson) for a bit of shading.

The Gold trim is Glorious Gold and Nuln oil.

And now we come to the humble yet loyal household staff.  When the nobility of Venice take their fancy soirées out on the streets, they take the staff along with them to help out.

Because you never know when you will need a butler.  Or frying pan.

Zovena Vela, one of Venice’s Gifted.  She is a show model/limited edition for 2021 and rather cool!  As she was a member of Venetian nobility who has become a pyromancer, I thought she belonged in my crew.

Her skin is done with a Barbarian flesh basecoat, then shaded with a terracotta/barbarian mix.  Finally I diluted some dark fleshtone with glaze medium and washed it over her cracked skin to give a dark burned look.

This model was crying out for some OSL with her burning hands so I gave that a go.  I think it turned out ok, extreme lighting effects are something I’m working on!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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….

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.