Fort Necessity

[kingsmt]

This is another of my scratch built pieces.

George Washington's Fort Necessity.
Actually, it was built for the F&I War, but it's a cool fort!!

Fun fact!!  The wooden fort timber is nothing more than Caramel Apple sticks!

First, I put the apple sticks in a pile and randomly hit it with a small hammer.
Just enough to rough up the sticks, so that they don't look uniform.
Bang 'em around. You can also throw the sticks in a bag with some rocks and shake it up.
This will give the sticks some bruises which you want.

Now, fill a jar with Isopropyl Alcohol (common rubbing alcohol) and add a few drops of black ink to the mixture.
Throw 2 or 3 sticks into the mix and leave them there for a couple of hours.

Once you remove the sticks, they should be that "natural" gray color.
Like wood that's been outside forever.
Too light or too dark? Adjust the ink drops accordingly.

I removed all the sticks and let them dry for a day.
Next, I took handfulls of the sticks, with the pointy end facing down, and smashed them onto the cement.
Repeatedly!!
This removes the "pencil point" sharpness of the stick, but also gives you cracks and broken tips.

Finished??

Nope.

To get that really outdoors wood look, I did the natural thing.
I placed all the sticks in a plastic shoebox and filled it with water.
Then I left the shooebox outside, on my picnic table, all winter.

The elements did what element are supposed to do and the Fort Stockade is the result.
I ended up with some realistic looking "logs" that twisted every which way.

Anyway, another from my ridiculous collection.

[BillK]

Wonderful piece of work.
Thanks for the tutorial.

[FifteensAway]

Wow!  Easily the best rendition of the fort I've seen - and love the process you used to get there, that is some serious dedication.

During a vacation many years ago, wife and I visited the DC area and I made sure we made a special trip out to see the site of the Jumonville skirmish and Fort Necessity site.  Bought - and framed - a beautiful print of the battle.

Again, exceptional work.  I'm guessing you've been on site given how close to the recreation of the fort on site is to your modeling.

[Inkpaduta]

Neat trick thanks for sharing.

[MaleGriffin]

Great looking fort! Thank you for sharing the methods you used to achieve this realistic look!

[fred]

Nice model, and good dedication to the method of preparing the stakes.

I assumed it was a scaled down model to make it practical from a gaming perspective. But given FifteensAway comment, I’m wondering if the real for was a garden shed surrounded by a fence!

Perhaps a bit spoilt by castles in the UK!

[kingsmt]

15's....Never seen the fort. I worked from photos.

Fred,   The Fort was thrown up in two days, I believe.
Perhaps check out the history and you'll see why it looks the way it does.

Here are two pix of the National Battlefield reproductions.
Remember the planks are reproductions and would not have been "flat".
They were just trees stripped of branches and stuck in the ground.

[fred]

Done a bit of reading - so it was far more a storehouse, than an actual fortified defence work.

[FierceKitty]

Actually, it was built for the F&I War, but it's a cool fort!!

Two or three fire arrows, and it'll be a rather warm fort.

[FifteensAway]

Fierce Kitty's fire arrow concept might work in August, but at the time of the attack, the fort was wet from rain, the trenches were mud, and the wood was relatively green so unlikely fire arrows would have taken out the fort - though likely would have burned the roof off the inner 'cabin' used for storage (and maybe some of the sick).

[FierceKitty]

Better arrange a truce in the dry season.

[Smokeyrone]

Love it

[CapnJim]

I like it.  Very atmospheric.