Palace Gardens - making the fountain

The outline sketch of the fountain and adjoining water ponds.

 The initial layout; side ponds will have a clear plastic surface and a central section using an up-turned table top (from an old Barbie Doll accessory)

 The central section initial build, water spouts from some plastic animal heads, the central pyramid is a small Italeri tank trap which will will hold a detachable fountain jet.

Central section with its initial paint job and the side ponds don ...

The central section completed

how I did the water effects:
- to do the side ponds the baseboard was painted an off shade of blue with a stippled wash of mid-grey with some thin clear plastic on top (stuck round the edges)
- for the central section

• the circular area is a light wash of blue paint stippled with a large brush and left to dry with a three generous coats of acrylic gloss varnish on top. 
• the water from the spouts is made a bit of plastic plant stem painted blue and white plus with some gloss varnish 
• the bits trickling into the ponds are a small piece of clear plastic with a wash of blue paint and some white paint to indicate movement
• water ripple effects - painted thin white in broken circles and then some gloss varnish on top

The central fountain jet has been made from a piece of thin wire with some thread and blobs of glue and will be painted white with a coat of gloss varnish - this will be in the next post.

Palace Gardens: Orangery completed ...

The King and Queen have come to look at the newly completed Orangery...

Palace Gardens - making the Orangery

A few piccies of the main construction phases of the orangery for the palace gardens

The architects initial drawings ... 

 The basic structure, made from foamboard on a cardboard base...

 The basic structure with initial detail added ...

 The side doors and columns added....

 The roof on (I've made the roof removable) and column tops added...

 glazing for the front door/windows, I'm making this using clear plastic and strips of inkjet labels, work in progress ....

Jewel of Mahadur: the King visits the treasury

continued from the previous post ....

Count Herman oversaw the movement of the strongbox containing the jewel to the treasury, he then sent a servant to to find the King.

---oXo---

The servant hurried through to the rear of the palace and out into the formal gardens

Pardon me may I get past please

He hurried on past the men at work...

At last he reached the terrace ...

 Excuse me your Majesty, the jewel has arrived, Count Herman has it secured in the treasury

Once the King had finished his inspection of the new completed works in the formal gardens he went straight to the treasury where he viewed the fabulous jewel of Mahadur - it glinted in the light and appeared to look four times it actual size.

 

[formal palace gardens, include some recent additions: side walls, a couple of statues, and the terrace with its side pavilions]

Jewel of Mahadur: return journey ...

continued from the previous post...

Mlle Givenchy and her irregulars ride on ...

 Reaching Zelderhof late in the evening they contacted a detachment of mounted jagers who had been waiting for them. They stayed the night at an inn in the town and in the morning prepared for the last leg of their journey. Mlle Givenchy and Mimi used a coach with an escort of the mounted jagers, while the rest of the irregulars made their way home...

 A day later they arrived at Wittenberg and went up to the palace; there they were greeted by Count Herman. The jewel was in a strong box - this would soon be moved to the palace treasury...

Jewel of Mahadur: At the Abbey of St Walpurga

continued from the previous post.....

After a day or so's ride Mlle Givenchy and her irregulars arrived near the Abbey of St Walpurga; the ground not being suitable for horses, they left them in a barn of a farm nearby.   Meanwhile Gentleman Jim and his band of adventurers were also nearby....

---oXo---

Mlle Givenchy and her irregulars move on foot past the small chapel that remains in use and head towards the abbey ruins.

Gentleman Jim and his band reach the still standing abbey gatehouse.

Mlle Givenchy and her irregulars move towards the abbey ruins ...

They can see the whats is left of the abbey church and the ruins of the cloisters....

As they enter the cloisters, they think they can see someone moving in the distance. Mlle Givenchy investigates the cross. Fiddling about near the base she pushed a small carving and the side panel fell off - a large jewel slid out of a rotten fabric bag - "Hey I found it ! the jewel it's here ..."

As Mlle Givenchy started to move the jewel, a shot rang out and whizzed passed her head. Bess on the other side of the cross saw someone in a nearby ruin and took a shot with her musket; Mimi next to her saw him as well and fired her pistol - between them they got him and he fell backwards into the ruined building.

Gentleman Jim arrived on the edge of the cloisters and saw someone moving a large jewel; he fired his pistol at them but missed. He had duck down quickly as two shots one from Bess and the other from Sally on the opposite side of the cloister hit the wall near him ....

Gentleman Jim turned round and found that he had no support, where were all his men ? He found that two had decided to search the gatehouse, some had got lost in a thicket and two had wandered off to the north of the abbey.... He thought to himself 'whoever got the jewel will be long gone by the time I get this lot organised' 

Mlle Givenchy moved off with the jewel covered by the rest of the irregulars .....

---oXo---

Mlle Givenchy and her irregulars reached their horses without further incident. They mounted up and rode hard and fast to the north-west with their prize.  Meanwhile Gentleman Jim finally got his band together in one place and decided to search the ruins for other valuables ....

[a first play though of the draft 18C pulp style rules. We found quite a few issues with them, so I've quite a few edits to do - mostly for Movement, Combat, Character/Faction sheets. Another thing we realised was that we needed to get the scenario set up a bit more tightly, e.g. figures nearer to the proposed centre of action, so we could get more characters into play.]

Jewel of Mahadur: the mission

Mlle Givenchy and Count Herman Munster meet early one evening in the temple by the lake in the palace gardens

Count: I have a mission for you ..
Givenchy: Do tell ..
Count: Information has come into my possession that the Jewel of Mahadur, thought lost for two hundred years, is hidden somewhere in the ruined abbey of St Walpurga near Haberstadt in Upper Belgravia. Will you and the irregulars see if you can find it ?
Givenchy: Of course ..
Count: There may be a complication, my source also informs me that the Monrovians have hired the adventurer 'Gentleman Jim' to find the jewel; you may have some trouble.
Givenchy: I round up some of the girls and get to it right away....