At the center of Aztec life was their religion, which drove many of their cultural, military, political, and economic practices. The Aztecs had over 200 deities, of which the chief one was Huitzilopochtli, the patron god of the Mexica and of their capital Tenochtitlan. He was also the Aztec god of war.
In trying to replicate an appropriate Tenochtitlan cityscape for 28mm games of for Feudal Patrol™ games in Mesoamerica (using my Civilizations Collide supplement), I have been building and painting multiple types of resin and MDF buildings. This plan by necessity would be clearly downsized from the original, but should have the flavor of the era and location. The painting below from LFIllustration is one that I saw recently on my Pinterest feed. It that gives an idea of what I have been going for conceptually in terms of the cityscape, the farms, the causeways, and more if dealing with Tenochtitlan and its environs circa 1519-1521.
In order to motivate myself to get through my terrain building as efficaciously as possible, In mid-March I devised “Mark’s Aztec Building Challenge Contest”. This was to reward my followers with a guessing contest as to when I would finish all of the terrain in the challenge – as well as to give me impetus to getting through all I was setting out to do. As I wanted like terrain and building pieces to be matching/similar in color and texture, and I needed several paints, I did end up having some materials delays – and others that I have described previously as well. But finally, I have finished all of the pieces in the challenge! I will be posting the winners on a separate and subsequent blog post that will shortly follow this one, so I am adding a bit more suspense to the contestants – but not too much. I just felt I should give this piece its own due, and do a separate contest wrap-up.
So, you ask, what piece is it? Why, it’s “Temple High Throne”. It is another MDF kit. This one, like my previous Aztec MDF, also came from from Things From the Basement via 4Ground via Badger Games – you can see it here. Basically, it is a high raised platform, and as such, Montezuma II would have this platform as his throne overlooking Tenochtitlan in the temple complex. It is adorned with serpent/snake heads and a giant idol image of Huitzilopochtli. Overall, the kit was of good quality and I enjoyed building and painting it. I will have to add some rules about the steepness of the steps with regards to both movement up and down and melee combat.
I built and painted parts of the kit contemporaneously with the Temple Sacrificial Altar for economy of effort. I will go over some WIP and share some eye candy after that. As is my practice, I list the materials I used is at the end of this post for those interested. Also, as Huitzilopochtli is – at least to me – quite monstrous – and physically quite large here as well, I am adding this bad boy/building to the painting challenges being run by Angry Piper over at Dead Dick’s Tavern And Temporary Lodging called “Monster Mayhem 2021” (subject to his assent of course). I found the image below on line and used it as the basis for my painting of the large Huitzilopochtli idol. It’s a bit different than the others I have seen, but I thought it would be a good general guide.
I cleaned off the MDF with a moist microfiber cloth, 
I used pencils and the tower top to aid with gluing. This helped keep glue off of the rubber bands.
After all the painting, I glued it together. A challenge was the Huitzilopochtli idol due to its height and its thinness. Both prevented using rubber bands during the gluing process, but I think it worked out ok. Now, I will share some eye candy shots of the completed model.
Thank you for taking a look. I have a few more buildings and some other stuff coming up for this project, as well as a rules update, but I’m pretty happy with the progress. I will share those shots on the next post, and eventually I hope to have a nice shot of all the terrain on the tabletop – I’m just not there yet. But, my gaming club is back LIVE on June 5th, so I’m close!
For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MODEL
- Elmer’s PVA Glue
- Poster tack
- Plastic Plates
- All Living Things Dry Dust Bath (chinchilla dust)
- Vallejo “Flow Improver”
- Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
- Vallejo Model Air “Sand (Ivory)”
- Citadel “Ushabti Bone”
- Vallejo Model Color “Dark Sand”
- Vallejo Model Color “Black”
- Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
- FolkArt “Yellow Ochre”
- Vallejo Game Air “Desert Yellow”
- Vallejo Model Color “White”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Sky Blue”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Warp Lightning”
- Vallejo Model Air “Base Grey”
- Vallejo Model Color “Red”
- Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
- Citadel “Yriel Yellow”
- Vallejo Model Color “Clear Orange”
- Secret Weapon Washes “Sunshine” (ink)
- P3 “Red” (ink)
- Vallejo Game Color “Bloody Red”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Sand Yellow”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “SZ Red”
- Vallejo Game Air “Moon Yellow”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Turquoise”
- Vallejo Model Air “Silver”
- Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash)
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish”
- Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash)
Mark A. Morin 