Foam Desert Fort... (1 Viewer)

[mikemiller1955]

I have been googling some desert forts...

mostly Foreign Legion forts...

I have always loved these forts like in the movies Beau Geste and March or Die...

Harold (Fubar) painted a nice one...I have always wanted one since I saw his...

anyway...I thought it would be fun to try and build one...

I don't know of any forts similar to these that were occupied by Gordons in the Nile/Sudan wars...

but accuracy and historical veracity have never been my strong suit when playing with my soldiers...

so all you historians and "rivet counters"...if this offends you...well it's just me having fun...

here are some pictures I found to get some ideas from...

 

[mikemiller1955]

I really enjoyed making the small garrison and will do something like it...

only on a bigger scale...

I want a good sized courtyard...

I want interior structures...

barracks, officer's quarters, livestock area, etc...

I definitely want a lookout tower...a water well...

multi levels...

wide catwalks...

so I'm gonna make a pretty good sized fort...

it's 10"s tall...

it's 30"x25"...

I put my small garisson inside to show how big it's going to be...

I want to do a lot of woodwork too...

doors, shutters on the windows, railings, lots of stairs...etc...

I carved out merlons on all the walls and want a big heavy front door...

 

[mikemiller1955]

I particularly like this ached open are veranda...

I want to work it in somewhere...

 

[bearybones]

Michael,

I'll be interested in seeing how your fort progresses. I've always liked forts in desert areas and stories of the French Foreign Legion have always intrigued and interested me. Conte has recently released some really great looking Legionnaires, I believe. This could be the start of a really great diorama. Please keep us posted on your progress.

George

 

[marco55]

I use to have a 25mm FFL fort and it was really nice.I 've always liked these and frontier forts.I'm sure yours will look great.
Mark

 

[PolarBear]

Great start Mike

Here are the Armies in Plastic Forts 54mm scale @$49 each (each include 60 figures)

 

[thebritfarmer]

Cool Michael, you know I will be following along watching your progress.

 

[bearybones]

Michael, I'm anxious to see how your fort progresses. If it turns out as well as your Saracen castle did, it should be just great. Of the pictures you showed in your first post, I like the fort that's presented in black & white photographs. That one is pretty darn neat. Is that one available and could you tell us who makes it? Yours will probably be even better.

George

 

[mikemiller1955]

Of the pictures you showed in your first post, I like the fort that's presented in black & white photographs. That one is pretty darn neat. Is that one available and could you tell us who makes it? Yours will probably be even better.

George

Thanks George...Scott...Mark...appreciate the votes of confidence...

I'm really anxious to get into this fort...I'm no longer intimidated by the foam and feel like I can make something pretty decent now...

George...these are also my favorite models too...I like the detail he did on the interior structures...I don't think it's a commercial piece...I think it's a one of a kind some guy made...he did do a very nice job...I hope mine turns out as good as his...

I especially like how he carved the interior side of the merlons...though I didn't do it...

 

[PolarBear]

I have been googling some desert forts...

mostly Foreign Legion forts...

I have always loved these forts like in the movies Beau Geste and March or Die...

Harold (Fubar) painted a nice one...I have always wanted one since I saw his...

anyway...I thought it would be fun to try and build one...

I don't know of any forts similar to these that were occupied by Gordons in the Nile/Sudan wars...

but accuracy and historical veracity have never been my strong suit when playing with my soldiers...

so all you historians and "rivet counters"...if this offends you...well it's just me having fun...

Mike

I think you are essentially on safe ground with this. Here is text on the situation prior to the December 1885 Battle of Ginniss which (although not Gordons) mentions Cameron Highlanders being in a fort under attack by the Dervishes.


In 1884, a Sudanese religious fanatic, Muhammad Ahmed, also known as "The Mahdi", planned and executed a series of attacks that left a British general, William Hicks, and thousands of ill-trained Egyptian soldiers dead at the hands of angry Arab rebels called Dervishes or Mahdists. The Sudan was controlled by an Anglo-Egyptian administration, and it was decided that something must be done. General Charles Gordon was sent by the British government to be the Egyptian Army's Governor-General there. General Gordon and his aide, Colonel John Donald Hamill Stewart, carried orders from both governments to evacuate the town from the Mahdi. Instead, Gordon built up the town's defenses and hunkered down for a siege. The British government sent two relief columns, the slow River Column and the mobile Desert Column, to rescue Gordon, Stewart, and the Egyptian garrison. After both columns won hard-fought battles, Kirbekan and Abu Klea, respectively, it was found that Stewart had been murdered by wandering Arabs north of Khartoum after his steamboat ran aground and that, through the treachery of an Egyptian deputy commander, Khartoum had fallen and Gordon was killed, the columns retreated, leaving behind a series of forts.
One of these forts was near the towns of Kosha and Ginnis, in northern Sudan, where a detachment of Cameron Highlanders and Egyptian-Sudanese troops from the Ninth Sudanese Battalion, were stationed. Thousands of Dervish warriors, led by their provincial Amirs, began raiding in the vicinity of Ginnis. They besieged the fort, and at one time the garrison's Gardner gun was dismounted by a Dervish artillery barrage. General Evelyn Wood, the British commander in Egypt as well as the Sirdar (commander) of the Egyptian Army, became concerned about the siege and the raids and eventually ordered Major General Francis Grenfell and a force of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade were sent to rid the area of Dervishes.

Here is a link to another article that refers to the forts

http://www.savageandsoldier.com/sudan/Ginnis.html

 

[Wraith]

I'm really anxious to get into this fort...I'm no longer intimidated by the foam and feel like I can make something pretty decent now...

Michael,

NEVER let the foam intimidate you. You are in control of it. It is but a piece of material made by man. As it is made by man, so can it be destroyed by man.

If you ever find the foam becoming a little too bolshy in it's attitude, take another piece (not too big mind, cause otherwise it can get expensive), then smash it in to little chunks of foam. Then cut it, rasp it, hack it and stamp on it.

You'll feel better for this exercise, and the foam will have been put firmly in it's place (or a number of places, dependant on how enthusiastic the hacking stage was).

And, by the way, looking forward to your new venture, looks like you have some great ideas there.

Simon

 

[mikemiller1955]

Michael,

NEVER let the foam intimidate you. You are in control of it. It is but a piece of material made by man. As it is made by man, so can it be destroyed by man.

If you ever find the foam becoming a little too bolshy in it's attitude, take another piece (not too big mind, cause otherwise it can get expensive), then smash it in to little chunks of foam. Then cut it, rasp it, hack it and stamp on it.

You'll feel better for this exercise, and the foam will have been put firmly in it's place (or a number of places, dependant on how enthusiastic the hacking stage was).

And, by the way, looking forward to your new venture, looks like you have some great ideas there.

Simon

Hehehehe...

I feel like smashing a few pieces...

I need to establish my Alpha Male role over the foam...

It can get on your nerves...

Randy...thanks for the link...that's proof enough for me...

 

[mikemiller1955]

I started on the interior buildings...but I'm not real happy with this first piece...I really feel like it should be higher and wider...so I think I will scrap it and re-do it...I do like the arched doorways and think this might make a real nice piece when it's finished...

 

[PolarBear]

Mike

That interior building look's great--very North African

My only concern is that your courtyard area looks a bit small with all the things you mention that you want in it such as barracks, etc. I think you need a card table size area for your center space-seriously!

Randy

 

[mikemiller1955]

Mike

That interior building look's great--very North African

My only concern is that your courtyard area looks a bit small with all the things you mention that you want in it such as barracks, etc. I think you need a card table size area for your center space-seriously!

Randy

I hate to admit it...but you're right...I'm slowly watching my courtyard disappear...

I still need to build the interior frame of the fort...

as I have to have a catwalk...

it will be 2"s all the way around for the soldiers to stand on...

this is the same problem I had with my castle...

measuring for 5" deep buildings...my courtyard will only be 13"s wide...which might be okay...

this is what I get for not having any plans and "winging it"...but I really think it's going to be okay...

 

[mikemiller1955]

Mike...I think you need a card table size area for your center space-seriously!Randy

That's just tooooooooooooo big!!!

 

[The Lt.]

I hate to admit it...but you're right...I'm slowly watching my courtyard disappear...

I still need to build the interior frame of the fort...

as I have to have a catwalk...

it will be 2"s all the way around for the soldiers to stand on...

this is the same problem I had with my castle...

measuring for 5" deep buildings...my courtyard will only be 13"s wide...which might be okay...

this is what I get for not having any plans and "winging it"...but I really think it's going to be okay...

It's looking fine to me Michael but knowing you if it doesn't seem right to you it goes bye, bye. Looking forward to seeing the next stage which I've been advised it's on hold for a couple of days

 

[Mitch]

Looks a very nice building. Look forward to seeing it develop
Mitch

 

[thebritfarmer]

I hate to admit it...but you're right...I'm slowly watching my courtyard disappear...

I still need to build the interior frame of the fort...

as I have to have a catwalk...

it will be 2"s all the way around for the soldiers to stand on...

this is the same problem I had with my castle...

measuring for 5" deep buildings...my courtyard will only be 13"s wide...which might be okay...

this is what I get for not having any plans and "winging it"...but I really think it's going to be okay...

All may not be lost Michael. You could make 4 smaller wall sections and the cut the main wall section and put a piece inbetween on each side. Does that make sense ?

Anyway I think it is looking brilliant !!

 

[mikemiller1955]

All may not be lost Michael. You could make 4 smaller wall sections and the cut the main wall section and put a piece inbetween on each side. Does that make sense ?

Anyway I think it is looking brilliant !!

Thanks Joseph, Mitch and Scott...

Scott...I'm not exactly sure what you're saying but I am building the inside walls 2 "s thick...

2"s in 54mm scale is about 6 feet almost...so this will give the illusion of a thicker more realistic fort wall...

these are pictures with the "studs" in place that I will adhere the interior walls and catwalk to...

the catwalk will be 2"s thick with the merlons on one side and a wood railing all along the indside...I don't want soldiers falling into the courtyard...

once this is filled in...I will add the interior buildings...

Randy...my interior courtyard is slowly disappearing...but there is no turning back now...

the courtyard may end up very small...hahahaha...

I will have room for a badminton net perhaps...