Friday 2 December 2011

Master for a Ravenna war cart

At Ravenna the Spanish and their Papal allies deployed somewhere between 30 and 70 war carts. These had been devised by Pedro Navarro. They were armed with heavy arquebus and were fitted with defencive spear points and scythes. From the description I have (given in F. Taylor's The Art of War in Italy 1494 - 1529) I have made the following model.

 

 

The wheels are by Irregular Miniatures, but the rest is constructed from Miliput and various odd bits of tube an metal. I will make a mould from RTV rubber so I can cast a few in white metal. The piece will be cast (without wheels) in three pieces, possibly four if I finish and fit the wooden 'gun shield'. I'll buy the wheels from Irregular Miniatures.

The gun shield is almost finished, but I'm not sure if I'll add it as I rather like the model as it is here.

14 comments:

BigRedBat said...

Looks great James; reminds me of the old GW chaos dwarf war machines!

Ray Rousell said...

Very nice indeed!! It looks like it could do a lot of damage!

Mike said...

That is great! I researched these once thinking I would try one, but didn't follow through. Well done.

Hendrid said...

Interesting project, certainly add a touch of character to your collection. I remember the hinchcliffe organ guns from years ago but they were a lot simpler looking as I remember. How many are you thinking of producing?

Brent said...

Love it! It fits the descriptions to a "T".

Brent

Gonsalvo said...

Excellent! I'd buy a few if they were commercially available!

JAMES ROACH said...

Thanks guys,

Hi Hendrid, I'll probably do 8 for myself.

Hi Peter (Gonsalvo), I'd be happy to do some extra for you. I'll email you when I've made the mould and started casting (I need some new RTV rubber so it will be a while)- the mould will probably be good for at least 50.

Unknown said...

Excellent work, and very inspiring too.

Really interested in the next steps – making the RTV mould, and doing some test casts. Do mind blogging about that step in detail as you do it, because I am very very interested in taking that next step myself.

Cheers

Rodger said...

Excellent work James.

Stuart said...

Excellent stuff James, i'm looking forward to seeing the finished article.

Stuart

Bluewillow said...

nice, must think about one of those!

cheers
Matt

Gonsalvo said...

That would be superb, James, and I would of course pay postage and want to compensate you for your time and effort! We can discuss that privately.

The US Pike and Shot Federation is contemplating pooling our resources and running a big Ravenna game at Historicon 2012, nothing definite yet though.

Peter

Peter

JAMES ROACH said...

Steveoc,
there is a post on mould making and casting here. Look under the modelling tag.

Hendrid said...

Good stuff James. I would be interested too, put me down for a couple or so once you get the silicone etc. Keep me posted on the progress.

Cheers

Rory