"Scenic Backdrops of the Italian Alps?" Topic

I recall seeing a couple of 15mm, Italian Wars armies (could have been Italian Medieval ones as well, I suppose) facing off against one another, and/or just on display, in a photo quite some time ago. It was of a narrow mountain pass, and/or valley floor, and I think there was snow in the high peaks.

The armies arrayed against one another were very colorfully painted, and looked very nice.

Can't recall if it was in a magazine, or on-line, but in the photo, it appeared that there was either a foam mountain-scape backdrop, or perhaps it was just painted (memory fails me after so many years).

In any case, it was a wonderful looking setting, so it got me wondering if there is any strip-type commercial scenery of a Northern Italian/Swiss mountain pass that could be used as a scenic backdrop for gaming the Italian Wars of the early renaissance, or perhaps the medieval period before that, say from 1300 – 1530?

Modern day photos, and/or posters might work, as long as there aren't any cars, trucks, or major vehicle roads in them. Preferably, no modern buildings either.

I suppose I could try hand-painting a backdrop about a foot or two high, to use as a border on one side of a table, but am not sure my painting skills are up to snuff. Photo-realistic strip scenary, 4 – 8' long, and a couple of feet high would be better.

I did a little searching on-line, and found some photos, but getting something that long will probably be a problem.

I think I'm going to have to try making some rolling hills for scenery too, and/or some small mountains to place in front of that, since I think having an army trying to stop invaders in a mountain pass would be very scenic, and interesting.

Any ideas?

I just tried Googling "Brenner Pass panoramic photos" and got this: link
Thinking about it, the Brenner may be the most famous pass, very important in the wars of Charles V, but it may not be the best one to try to get a photo of for your purposes, since much of it is very narrow and there seems to be a railroad and major highway with three lanes each direction that have a tendency to get in the way.
I understand that archaeologists have found artifacts dating back to WWI in what was then the Austro-Italian front lines. This implies that people don't go that way as much, and some of the less well known passes might not have a lot of modern things to mess up the view. Googling panoramic photos of less well know passes might work better.

Grelber

You could try to find a photo of what you like and take it to staples. Just check the resolution(Not sure if that the correct term) if you want to scale it up. Also I think I have seen stuff like that at model train stores.

Check the Model Railroad web sites for backgrounds.

I ordered mine from a model rail company . I can't remember which one but I think that it was railroadbackdrops.com. Mine has an Italian castle on it. They have plenty of ones with the Alps.

It was about 8-10 ft long so I cut it up and mounted it on four foam core boards for easy transport. The hardest part was getting it to lay flat.

There were a few power lines and the top of a truck, but these were easy to paint out. There was even the top of a suspension bridge which I had to cover up, but again no problem – about five minutes work. I have attached an image.

Looking good.

The castle in the background is a bonus. Too much for me to hope to include in the want list, though I did that about it. Nice!

Thanks for the tip and link.

I found a few on Shutterstock, or something like that, though the long 8' ones, even on plain paper are shockingly expensive.

So, I probably need to see if I can find something at the model railroad store, find a poster or three, or learn to paint.

I've got a sneaking suspicion the latter will probably be best, at least from a financial outlay standpoint.