Blow Wind Blow Part 1

 Having painted loads of TYW figures ( which I will get around to showing you), I have begun to think I need some bespoke terrain. Something like this windmill for instance, painted by Sebastian Vrancx in the early 17c.

I had already purchased a secondhand windmill at Lincombe Barn Tabletop sale a few years ago, but while the top part was ideal, the base wasn't.

I think this model was from the old Ian Weekly range, cast in a kind of hard

 foam. I originally bought it for goblins to live in, but that project will have to wait.

I suppose I could have made the lower part and ladder I needed, but I found a 3d printed windmill kit on eBay which would work perfectly. 

So here we are so far 

Windy helps with the repairs adding an extra step.

The lower half with some alterations to make it more like the Vrancx painting above, such as adding risers on top of the brick foundations, and extending the central post.

I added some spars to the sails to make it a look a bit more ramshackle. The original print was very neat and tidy, and looking at other paintings of windmills or the time the sails often look warped and rotten.

(Note the bright colourful clothing of the rustics. Not everything was black and covered in crap as modern Hollywood would have us believe).

After the glue on the spars had dried I added some furled sails made from some linen tied with thread. I'm not a windmill expert, but I think the sails are rolled aside when the mill isn't in use, during storms or times of battle.

The next detail was the 'tiller' ( I must get a book on the proper terminology, but this seems the right word), with which the miller turns the mill to face the wind. The 3d one that came with the kit was straight, but in all the paintings I found, it's curved through the ladder . Happily the resin the kit was made from bends easily when held in hot water.

Now I've got the headache of fitting it through the steps....

To be continued....