  We use computer simulations to study a model, first proposed by Wales [1],
for the reversible and monodisperse self-assembly of simple icosahedral virus
capsid structures. The success and efficiency of assembly as a function of
thermodynamic and geometric factors can be qualitatively related to the
potential energy landscape structure of the assembling system. Even though the
model is strongly coarse-grained, it exhibits a number of features also
observed in experiments, such as sigmoidal assembly dynamics, hysteresis in
capsid formation and numerous kinetic traps. We also investigate the effect of
macromolecular crowding on the assembly dynamics. Crowding agents generally
reduce capsid yields at optimal conditions for non-crowded assembly, but may
increase yields for parameter regimes away from the optimum. Finally, we
generalize the model to a larger triangulation number T = 3, and observe more
complex assembly dynamics than that seen for the original T = 1 model.
