Fortress Construction Update

Plan A

Well I cut out the paper template and then proceeded to carve the polystyrene. As many of you predicted, this led to ‘rough edges’ due to the nature of the material.

The side that the template was on wasn’t bad.

Template side: I left the ravelins until later

But the other side was as rough as a badger’s arse.

The fact I'd not cut out the ravelins makes it look worse than it probably is.

In one respect this isn’t a showstopper because the polystyrene sheet at c.2cm is much thicker than I need and the rougher bits can be carved away.  But that is a lot of work. 

Plan B

Before I went away on a project I found and ordered a thinner sheet made out of a different material that looks like it is less likely to suffer from the bobbliness* of expanded polystyrene. * that’s the correct technical term by the way. 

'XPS Board'.

This is produced for underfloor heating and comes in sheets 6mm thick. One sheet was c 5 quid for more than enough to layer up. One layer will do for the glacis level, one up from that will do for the ravelins and one more up for the bastions and curtain walls.  It's easier to show than to describe......

Cross-section Plan B

The issue with this method is that I might need to draw a new template (the original will probably tear when I unstick it from the polystyrene). And I might need different templates for each layer OR use each layer as a template working up from the bottom.

This is where a potential Plan C came to my attention. I think it was Neil who found a supplier of ‘Vauban’ fortress pieces in different scales. My issues with this option were (a) that the geometry of the bastions etc was limited and not suitable for the dimensions and angles I wanted, and (b) the website for the e-Bay seller was difficult to navigate and work out what the products were exactly like . Then last week another blog (sorry I forget which) showed some products from another company. They have options for different bastion ‘angles’ and the dimensions are close to what I drew on my template.

I’m hoping to see some samples on Saturday at Broadside which should help with my remaining questions. Plan C could turn out to be much easier to execute than Plan B. In a way that would be a shame because I was finding the ‘self-build’ route satisfying. But at least the XPS board could be turned to other uses, like trench lines where the little guys can actually be below the surface of the table!

We’ll see.

If you’re going to Broadside on Saturday and would like to say hello let me know through the comments.

A bientôt mes braves.

Fortress update

I think I've completed the drawing stage. The serious work begins tomorrow if I can get the workspace cool enough. Here's the plan.

A few comments about 'design'. I've pretty much kept to the same ground scale as the tactical rules (2cm = 100 yards).  The distance from the apex of the two end bastions is c.30cm so about 1500 yards. I've strayed from the ground scale when it comes to the ditch and the glacis. I've made the ditch a bit too wide at 1.5cm or 75 yards. This is in order to get bases of infantry comfortably inside. As compensation I've made the glacis the same depth and therefore a bit too short. But both added together are about right.

Another 'design decision' is to simplify things. I've done away with a separate covered way and ditch. The covered way would be too small at the right scale. The eagle eyed will note there are no places d'armes either. Too small and fiddly. No distinction either between terreplein and banquette either.

The plan now is to cut out the ditch and the area outside the glacis leaving me with a template. The template will get stuck down to a sheet of expanded polystyrene (somehow) and then I'll cut out the shape. Simples! Well, probably not. Something is bound to go wrong, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Once I've got the shape cut out I'll apply the paper stone walls I bought years ago from a model railway supplier. Next will come the embrasures and the talus. Then the whole lot will be stuck on a piece of board and I can 'do' the ditch floor and glacis. The trickiest bit I think will be chamfering the polystyrene to form the slope of the glacis.

Well that's the idea.

List again!

As it's the season for folk committing to getting things done, I thought I'd dust off the list I prepared back in October and see where I'd got to. After an initial splurge of activity I lost focus for a few weeks. So not only did I get my Resolutions in early, I also dropped them early!

To be fair to myself, I did spend a fair bit of time on getting number 14 done - preparing the New Year campaign. I actually did better than that. I ran the campaign too. I'll give myself a medal.

I started chipping away at getting the French SYW flags done. However, that's been on the back-burner for a few weeks now. And I also made good progress on the 6 and 10mm village people, sheep and pack animals. But they're not complete, so that's 4 tasks in an unfinished state. The Puritan side of my mind is nagging me to get it done. But my cavalier side is looking at more interesting things to do. I would rather play with my toys - I enjoyed doing the big campaign deciding battle The Battle of Plauen

In idle moments today and yesterday I've been pondering another Italian campaign (WPS or WAS era) and getting out the craft knife to carve a black-powder era artillery urban fortification ('Vauban fortress' in plainer English). I actually dug up some maps for the Italian campaign on the Royal Collection Trust last night.

Anyway, here's the updated list. Re-ordered so it doesn't look like I've done things out of the correct order.

Tentative Order	Job
1	Finish river pieces
2	Check stock of magnetic paper and bases
4	Paint houses
3	Order storage boxes
5	Paint walls
6	Paint and base trees
7	Rebase Greeks and Persians
8	Prepare New Year Campaign
9	Flag SYW figures (French priority)
10	Paint villagers (6 and 10mm)
11	Paint sheep
12	Paint pack animals
13	Try Alala!
14	Try Siege Works rules
15	Paint wagons and gun teams
16	Decide what to do with SYW odds and sods
17	Paint petard crews etc
18	Make fortress
19	Ottoman painting guide
20	Order Irregular Ottoman army
21	Paint Ottomans
22	Run ECW siege campaign
23	Make AWI boats
24	Maybe rebase some Romans
25	Build & paint sailing ships

By the way, item 20 is stalled due to them being (temporarily) unavailable on the Irregular website, though I note that the individual components are available.

By poplar demand....

....or not, I present the finished poplars. These stand about 4cm tall, so 6 or 7 times the wee figures they're meant for. So in scale as mature trees. I'd prefer them a bit smaller. I stuck magnets onto the bases for storage tonight. It was a bit late to do a parade shot of the Piedmontese army marching in the shade.

Not totally happy with the colour, but I went with what I had in the paint box. Couple of different shades of green dry-ish brushed on black undercoat. Plus a couple of other odd colours to lighten them up a little. I've gone easy on the flock as they going to be primarily along road edges. Just enough to disguise the round metal bases and bit of 'verge'.

Oh, and I dabbed various dull shades on the 6mm civilians I had undercoated ages ago, and slapped some appropriate colour on the 10mm sheep and pack animals.

So that's tasks 1-7 off the list, and 11, 15, 16 and 17 on the way. Next up on the list (#8) is the French flags. This looks like a long, tedious job. Dozens of flags to cut out and stick in place. Not rocket surgery, but fiddly. Activity on the hobby front is a bit slow as I have some Real Life (non-serious) things taking up time at the moment. I'll be fairly chuffed if I can get the flags done this week.

Task List

In the last post I mentioned a burgeoning list of things to do if I'm not to have a pile of unused items build up. This is something I need to get on top of so I had a go at listing everything that needs doing.  There's probably more that hasn't come to mind, but will at some point. No doubt there's things that I've forgotten that I have bought. No doubt also that I'll change the order of some tasks and some jobs will split out into more sub-tasks. Some of the tasks listed are sub-tasks or at least linked to others, but I have deliberately avoided making this too ‘scientific’ as if it were a Real World programme.

Some of the tasks are quick wins (e.g. 15 and 16) whilst others are sizeable projects in their own right (I’m looking at you, number 18). Knocking off a few quick wins will help boost morale while the bigger jobs are pondered, analysed to death, planned and finally executed. Number 1 on the list is a reasonable sized ‘project’ (3.9 metres of river pieces) but one that pays big dividends (every period needs watercourses).

That all said, here is the first version of the list.

Tentative Order	Job
1	Finish river pieces
2	Check stock of magnetic paper and bases
4	Paint houses
3	Order storage boxes
5	Paint walls
6	Paint and base trees
7	Rebase Greeks and Persians
8	Flag SYW figures (French priority)
9	Try Alala!
10	Try Siege Works rules
11	Paint wagons and gun teams
12	Decide what to do with SYW odds and sods
13	Paint petard crews etc
14	Prepare New Year Campaign
15	Paint sheep
16	Paint pack animals
17	Paint villagers (6 and 10mm)
18	Make fortress
19	Ottoman painting guide
20	Order Irregular Ottoman army
21	Paint Ottomans
22	Run ECW siege campaign
23	Make AWI boats
24	Maybe rebase some Romans
25	Build & paint sailing ships

I should add in target dates for them all. Item 14 obviously has a time limit already, and going by that I need to get motoring.  Last time I made such a list (around 5 years ago) I did get through it in a reasonable time, so I'm confident I'll do it.

One final caveat or note: every time I used the words ‘need to’ above I really mean ‘want to’. I remind myself that nothing bad will happen if I don’t do any of the things listed.

How big is your to do list? Do you expect to complete it (ignoring any new things that come along of course!).

Another ‘Churchill’s Spaniards’ Talk

The author, Séan Scullion, is doing another talk on his book. This time at the Royal Engineers Museum on Saturday 14th September.

If you’re within reach of Gillingham, I would recommend it:

https://www.re-museum.co.uk/

Hope this won’t be the end

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/

Wilkinson’s or ‘Wilkos’ to most Brits is a high street (‘Main St’) retail chain selling all manner of household goods, often very cheaply. Next to Binns (a regional bargain retail chain along the east coast) Wilkos was one of the shops my mother loved most. Always a great place to pick up craft supplies or DIY (‘home improvement’) supplies too - very useful for model making. Kids round here stock up with sweets and soft drinks in Wilkos before heading to the cinema nearby. Sad for all the workers and customers.

This feels very similar to when Woolworth went down the pan in the UK in 2008. That was the start of many closures. Today we’re also in something of a tightening of credit situation. I’m not making any economic predictions here. Just saying what it feels like. Woolies had a similar place for my generation to Wilkos. Woolworth was the main recipient of any money I spent on Airfix sets and Humbrol paints.

Better get down there quick before it’s too late.

Bat-oh!

Knocked up a mock up of a ‘bateau’ for the wars on the American Continent. This was a quick test to see if I could do something. The answer was ‘I can’ but there’s room for improvement.

Materials were an empty cereal packet, some cocktail sticks, paper and Blutak to hold stuff in place temporarily. And a sharp knife (after an abortive attempt with a blunt one).

The basic idea was to make something that can hold a base of my AWI chaps (2x3cm base). Functionality is more important than looks. At the back of my mind I had Dave Crook’s stylised ships for the late 29 18th century. What I’m basing the design on is a simple ‘bateau’ of the type used on the rivers and lakes of North America in the F&I wars, the AWI and War of 1812. Bateaux had pointy bits at both ends and were flat bottomed to aid portability across land. Some had sails as well as oars and varied greatly in size. They were used to move men, weapons and supplies. Some even seemed to have little ‘canon’.

The plan is to maybe make a fleet of 30ish for use in amphibious operations - prompted by my reading of ‘These Distinguished Corps’ by Don Hagist. The book is a history of flank battalion operations in the American Revolution. The Lights and Grenadiers seemed to do an awful lot of bobbing about in boats in the AWI, do I thought ‘why not?’

Now on to the critique:

The gunwales are too low for the figures. I need to up these from 5mm.

I need a good method of gluing the gunwales and pointy bits to each other. Not sure how.

Ditto the mast.

The oars and rudder handle could do with being thinner - maybe thick wire is the answer.

And maybe more of them.

And one or two ‘crew’.

Obviously it needs a paint job.

I might need bases for them (c 12x6cm) to protect them from handling.

But overall it looks workable!

Idle hands

The Devil makes work for them as you know. Having finished my SYW odds n sods (see Devils in Skirts) and having finished the Duffy Festschrift book* kindly leant to me by the Ragged Soldier, I’m at a bit of a loose end. Until the arrival of the Great French Re-enforcement and His Britannic Majesty’s Army that is. Which hopefully will be with me by the weekend!

I’m raring to go. If they do arrive, Saturday afternoon will be spent file in hand, smoothing off the bases, whilst listening to the Mariners strut their stuff in Salford**. All being well they should all be undercoated on Sunday and maybe even a start made on painting. I’ll probably prioritise the redcoats, and the more interesting French units like the horse grenadiers in bearskin caps.

Stupidly, I didn’t think to crack on with repainting any of the spare mounted officers as Anglo-Hanoverian staff. Or trying to do any of the French flags on the last batch. Still, there’s always Thursday and Friday evenings. 

* Very interesting book by the way. If you’re into this period.

** With an away form much better than home form so far, I wouldn’t…....tempt fate.

By the way, I’ve been listening to the series on Portugal on the Rest is History podcast. I knew next to nothing about the country. Amongst other things it answered the big question (why out of all the Iberian medieval kingdoms is Portugal now independent). A very good way of getting a quick overview. Don’t expect it to go into any detail on the Battle of Bussaco though.

Adeus!

Update

Looks like the Devil has got the better of me, in the form of the Communication Workers Union, as a postal workers' strike has delayed my delivery. Ah well, I don't begrudge them in the circumstances. I've used the time to convert some Austrian and Prussian mounted officers to Anglo-Hanoverian/Hessian staff. This involved prising them off their penny bases, and rebasing them on square MDF bases. Might complete the base texturing later. There appears to be no clear uniform for British general officers, with the assumption on Kronoskaf being that they wore the uniform of the regiment's that they were colonel-proprietors of.

I reckon the chap in the middle throwing his hat in the air is the Marquis of Granby, though someone will probably point out he wore a blue coat. Behind him in his cloak is Dick Turpin/Adam Ant.

Cabin log

Nearly there now. In terms of the professionals, it’s just the second fix electrickery (which should be next Tuesday) and internet* cable connection. And painting to be done by the amateurs. Oh, and the procurement of furnishings, on which the decisions have been more or less taken.

* I wonder what Catweasle would call it?

Finnish Meccano

I was having vivid dreams about the expected delivery and woke up shortly before the alarm went off. Then after a shower the phone rang and it was a delivery driver with a large flatbed truck and huge crane, blocking the road outside. There was insufficient room for him to park the truck next to the kerb, but he got on with his task without fuss. I'm almost tempted to say 'he handled his equipment with aplomb' as he negotiated the overhead telephone lines, but you rightly don't expect innuendo from me.

In case you haven't twigged, my eagerly awaited 1/1 scale terrain piece had arrived on schedule. The unloading was complete by 8:00 and fortunately only 3 other drivers had to turn around and use an alternative route. There were no audible signs of annoyance on their part. In the unlikely event that they are reading, I apologise profusely. (Aside: why are apologies 'profuse'?). By about 9:30 the installation team had arrived and began laying out the kit in the back garden.  They built the base and anchored it in place using posts made out of some type of plastic, sunk into the ground. By 15:00 they had finished building up the walls to around waist-height ready for the electrician to do the first fix the following day.

Here is day one progress in pictures.

You can just about see the telephone lines here. Those 'cranes' are remarkable pieces of engineering.

The 1/1 kit laid out. Not a tube of superglue in sight. The modellers are assembling the base. Why don't they put the roof up first so they can keep dry?

The position at close of play. Main room on the right, bike shed on the left. I should point out that (unusually) the neighbour is responsible for the fence on the right. Not me guv, honest.

View through the side window.

Close-up showing the tongue and groove method of fitting the 'logs' together. We specified double thickness so we could have cavity insulation. 2 x 45mm thick wood plus 30mm of insulation. The floor will be insulated too.

My bike shed, though it does scream "sauna" at me.

There's nothing to give any sense of scale here as my 1/1 scale Modern Period Finnish Assault Gardener was reluctant to pose. The main room looks *%$@ing massive. Or as the F.A.G. put it more eloquently, "It's a proper room."

Still lots to go. In amongst that lot is some 'decking' for a verandah. The Mem and I will be able to retire there for a G&T while we watch the sun go down over the neighbour's palm tree and listen to the parakeets.

More 'Finnish Meccano'

View from the Observer Post. Apologies for the angle but I was leaning out of a window trying not to get the frame in shot.

Ah, yes, the 'bike shed' door and its frame, erm 'cassette'. Is that the right word? I think I've just spotted a design flaw.

Here's hoping there are no hiccups like Bob Cordery has faced recently with the co-ordination between different trades. I'm not betting on it though. This is still Britain.