Back in the Building Business….Part 4

Although it has yet to see action I thought it might be a good idea to give a quick run through of how I built the model - actually I noticed that I had series of pictures at each stage of the construction process and so it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity!

 

1. The first step in the construction process. Two complete ‘not quite Jenga blocks’ with two three quarter length versions at either end and a quarter sized piece for the lookout tower.

2. The second step involves placing the shutters, main gate, side doors and the gun carriages from pieces of grey card. The lintel over the main gate and the wall around the top of the tower and the main gun platforms are fashioned from balsa strip.

3. After coating the model with sealer and then undercoating in white the real painting can commence. I used Vallejo Iraqi Sand for the walls.

4. The finished model. The walkways are painted using Vallejo Deck Tan - actually rather a grey shade. The gun barrels and flagstaff are made from wooden cocktail sticks painted black. The flag was printed on self adhesive paper by Brigade Models and is 1:600th.

Simple to build and the only time consuming part was placing the shutters and gun carriages. The gun barrels are 10mm long and my technique for making these is to paint a cocktail stick black and when dry I carefully file the end into a round shape. This is then repainted black and when dry a 10mm piece is cut off and glued to the gun carriage - 5mm of the barrel on the carriage and 5mm ‘overhanging’ to represent having been ‘run out’.

I hope this little insight into how I built the fort is helpful and I will also look to do something similar for some of my ship models at some point.