Ottoman bombards
In 1453 the city of Constantinople was captured, thanks to the help of a Hungarian engineer called Urban. Mehmet II the Ottoman sultan employed him to construct a cannon that would blast a hole through the walls of Babylon itself! The largest was meant to have been 26 feet long and needed 60 pairs of oxen to drag it!
The 2mm Siege of Constantinople game I’ve been using surely needed these sort of monsters being represented? They breached the great city walls and heralded in the age of gunpowder to Europe.
Making the guns in 2mm
The troops in this game are all being made in greenstuff. The palisades are thin card, the bombards are simple wire or plastic sprue offcuts. The siege towers on the left-hand side are made in high-density foam.
Once dry, the bases are covered in PVA glue and sharp sand. They are then painted brown and dry brushed cream. Everything that is on the base is painted black.
A limited range of colours is added. Try to leave some black showing to enhance the contrast. Exaggerate the colours a little and choose lighter colours that stand out more. Think about what you might see from 300 metres away rather than considering every feature of the uniform. Mostly, this is the main body colour, flesh for the face, and a white turban or silver helmet. The shields are added in brighter colours.
The colours are picked out. Use short strokes of the brush and dots to catch the eye from a distance.
The final touches are a bit of fine scatter and some smoke from the guns. Hopefully enough to remind the gamer from 3 feet away that these bombards mean business.
I’ll try to make a few breached sections of the walls to replace the intact ones as they get battered. Now the trial model has been made it’ll need to be repeated five or six times to represent the Ottoman guns. I will try to show the infantry and siege towers at a later date in more detail.
