Hi, this is a Topic I posted on the Pendraken Forum some Time ago, and now I thought it might be a good Idea to share it here.
After I started painting a lot of Marlburian Miniatures from Pendraken, I´m thought of building my own Star Fortress for them.
One Inspiration was the Vauban Table at the Hamburg Tactica, where I played a game.
The fantastic Table
In fact we played only on the right half of the table....
The concentrated Guy on the right is me...
View from the other side....
Another Inspiration are two fortresses Nearby in North Germany and the Netherlands.
First the Fortress of Dömitz, south of Hamburg
It was build between 1559 - 1565 and was in Military use until 1894. It saw action in the 30 Years War and in the Liberation Wars 1813-1814.
and second the Fortress of Bourtange
In 1580 William of Orange gave the order to build a fort on the sand ridge in the Bourtanger moor, on the border of modern Germany. On the order of William Louis of Nassau the fortress was raised in 1593.* Between 1593 and 1851 Bourtange was an important fortress.
Some Mathematic:
I learned from Wikipedia, that the Fortresses of this time were build to give the attacker no Blind spot where he could bring ladders on the Wall without being shot. The Bastions overtake the role of the Towers in a Medieval Castle, and the distance between two Bastions was, at this time, the effective Range of Muskets and Cannon grapeshot, roughly 200 meters.
As I will play with Maurice rules, there the Range for Muskets and Grapeshots are 4 Base-width, the range will be in my case 12 cm, as I based my Miniatures on 3 cm wide Bases.
First I made a Master Plate from 0,5 cm Polystyrene, what you also need for it, is a set square, a pencil, a long Spacer. You can see on the picture how i made it, starting with a point in the Middle, drawing a line upwards and then using the set Square for the other 4 lines, the Wall, the Bastions, etc....
after a long without any Progress I make some great steps to finish my Star Fort project.
Now I have to say that the Dimensions are a little bid to small, particularly if you want to place Cannon Bases in the Fort.
But, here we go...
Due to the fact that I did work a little bit sloppy, I had to rework the inner walls to get the needed deep of 2 cm for the Bases and a plain inner wall. The Breastwork is a little low, only 8 mm, I forgot the 2 mm Bases...
Seen from ground level...
Also, one of my Bastions is not in the right form, but that happens also with original Fortresses, like Dömitz...
After I added the Structure Paste on the Walls and the rampart, I started to Paint the Fortress.
First an overcoat in Black, then brown Earth-tones, Ochre and Sand Yellow. For the inner walls I used from Faller a l cardboard with stone wall pattern, that I glued on. Then I flocked the outer Walls and rampart with static grass....
of course i have to Paint the inner of the Gate in dark Grey and add some inner Ramps. 1-3 Buildings will follow, an outer moat, bridge, and some smaller Ravelins....
Some Pictures from the Bourtagne Fort...
My daughter running the rampart...
a Ravelin
The Bastion
The inner Bastion
Ready to storm the Fort, Sir...
And the Museum Diorama
After I nearly finished the Main Fortress, I decided to start the ravelins. I used 2cm thick Styrodur and 1 cm high Selitron for the Rampart, to cut it in shape I used my Proxxon hot Wire cutter again, used the Structure Paste again and then Painted and flocked them. I made a total of 5 of them.
Due to its size i decided to install the Fortress on a 60 x 60 cm MDF Plate with a Selitron Base and surrounding Terrain.
But enough, here are the Pictures:
Two ravelins protect the Walls of the Fort...
Entrance
And here the whole Fortress in all its Glory
I´m still not finished with it, I planed some Buildings for the Soldiers, Some bushes who block the LOS on the narrow Paths to the ravelins,
Staircases, Flag Masts, Guards, a Cannon or two, a Gate Door, and I´m searching for some N Gauge Ducks for the moat.
Regards,
Peter
March 25, 2009, 05:44:08 PM