WIP: A bell tower for Montaperti ...

One of the apparent peculiarities of the Battle of Montaperti (Tuscany 1260) was the presence of a huge mobile bell tower, the Martinella, as part of the civic paraphernalia of the Florentine Guelph army ...

As the Florentines had one, and I am creating an a version of the battle for the Society of Ancients event, I felt I had to have one.

Mine is scratch assembled from canibalised parts ... the bell is from a Lindt chocolate Easter bunny (I'm sure many of you will know the one) ... the wagon is Irregular Miniatures ... the tower is assembled from 2 deconstructed Museum Miniatures Beam Sling base plates ...

(wagon, bell and a couple of Beam Sling base plates)

I should emphasis that I was able to use the rest of the MM parts to build Medieval siege equipment (base plates can be coped without with a little ingenuity - so if you collect plenty of siege ware, these components are virtually 'free')

(left: the plates recut ready to make a tower; right: the tower glued together on the wagon)

I have had the parts for this hanging around for quite some time, but shied away from taking the plunge (visualised how they would go together but not actually done it)

Pressed by the time schedule, in truth, it was all much simpler than I might have feared and, once the parts were all recut, they went together quickly and accurately.   I had planned a 'green stuff/milliput' phase to fill gaps etc. but it was barely needed.

(taking the assembly through to the basic painting stage)

Because of the nature of the project (and the tower's complex interior), the painting would have to be in two stages ... one before the addition of figures (who in turn would need pre-painting, especially the bell ringer) and one completion phase after the figures went in.

(the Martinella based and populated alongside a contemporary illustration)

I still need to add some cross pieces and embellish the base and oxen, but the vehicle is now wargame serviceable.

We are led to believe that the bell tower was in a separate wagon to the big flag (so the picture shows the two together rather than the tower on the back of the banner wagon) ...

Given that the civic colours were white and red, I have assumed from the illustration that the tower was painted white (but that, in all likelihood, the wagon was still red ... but I could be wrong on that - two wagons, one for the flag, one for the bell, one white/one red would be equally plausible I think)

In his famous diorama, Mario Venturi shows the tower as 'stained wood' (maybe he intends an earthy red), but I think the illustration clearly indicates white.

If anyone knows more ...

(the battle set up with bell tower in the Florentine rear)