One thing that was bothering me about the model so far was that the top seemed too "flat" for a hill of it's size, yet I didn't want to make it too much taller for storage reasons, and I certainly didn't want to make the base any bigger; which I would have had to have done, if the hill was to have been made any taller and yet retain some sense of proportion.
I think I have the solution, though. The position will be a fortified ruin. Maybe an old church or monastery that in happier, pre-war times would have looked something like this;
War has no respect for scenic beauty, and with the entry of Italy into the war against the Central Powers (treacherous swine!) and a couple of heavy bombardments later, any such structure would be left in ruins with the defenders using the basements and cellars as the basis of a prepared fortification as was common at the time, as witness the defence of many a chateau in France along the Western Front.
Therefore the top of the hill will have traces of walls and rubble, and perhaps the remains of a fallen roof or bell tower. Making convincing-looking ruins will in many ways prove more of a challenge than making an actual building itself in its entirety.
I bought some 7mm foam core board- the thin kind that is sandwiched between paper, and which is used for signs and such things. They will form the remaining wall sections, with rubble from a variety of carved foam and wooden off-cuts used to cover the base. The whole thing will be given a very thin, watered-down coat of plaster and sand "goop" before painting to blend it all together, and give everything an "old and decrepit" look.
Someone who has visited the Dolomites has pointed out to me that mountain houses often have walls of at least half a meter thick - indeed I have seen building like this in the mountains of Iwate in Northern Japan when I lived there for five years. If I double up the thickness of the foamboard for the remnants of the outside walls, that should look about right. I'll also be adding stonework out of card which along with the coat of filler should add to the overall mass.
I think I have the solution, though. The position will be a fortified ruin. Maybe an old church or monastery that in happier, pre-war times would have looked something like this;
War has no respect for scenic beauty, and with the entry of Italy into the war against the Central Powers (treacherous swine!) and a couple of heavy bombardments later, any such structure would be left in ruins with the defenders using the basements and cellars as the basis of a prepared fortification as was common at the time, as witness the defence of many a chateau in France along the Western Front.
Therefore the top of the hill will have traces of walls and rubble, and perhaps the remains of a fallen roof or bell tower. Making convincing-looking ruins will in many ways prove more of a challenge than making an actual building itself in its entirety.
I bought some 7mm foam core board- the thin kind that is sandwiched between paper, and which is used for signs and such things. They will form the remaining wall sections, with rubble from a variety of carved foam and wooden off-cuts used to cover the base. The whole thing will be given a very thin, watered-down coat of plaster and sand "goop" before painting to blend it all together, and give everything an "old and decrepit" look.
Someone who has visited the Dolomites has pointed out to me that mountain houses often have walls of at least half a meter thick - indeed I have seen building like this in the mountains of Iwate in Northern Japan when I lived there for five years. If I double up the thickness of the foamboard for the remnants of the outside walls, that should look about right. I'll also be adding stonework out of card which along with the coat of filler should add to the overall mass.
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