Tuesday 8 January 2013

15mm fortified camp (part1)

This is a custom order for a fortified camp, made into an open ended circuit, u shaped, without the back side, all realized using our 15mm Hoppidus modular fortification system.
The front of the fortification is 20cm wide (5 x 40mm wide modules, the middle one being the gate opening) and the sides are 12cm (3 x 40mm modules) in depth. This is mounted on a wider sloped base with a 15mm wide ditch cut into it.

The base is made of three layers of 4mm thick plywood topped by a 2mm thick MDF sheet, cut to shape, glued together with generous amounts of extra-strong PVA and left to dry for three weeks under press.
All this to endure the best possible stability of the finished piece and minimize warping with age. The thickness is the minimum necessary to allow for the ditch to be cut into the actual base depth. The inner courtyard is 140mm wide by 90mm deep and has a 80mm x 60mm recess cut into it, 2mm deep. There is no 2mm plywood commercially available here but I managed to scavenge some from the back of an old frame! There is an insert to fit into this recess (shown in place in the picture) which has 2 x 15LEG 15mm legionary tents on it. The tents are not mounted yet, they'll be based with a few supplies to make a nice lively scene...
The third tent is permanently attached to the base. The insert can be removed and replaced by an Impetus size base of troops to garrison the camp.
The green stuff showing in the picture is some squadron putty used to hide the tiny gaps that would otherwise remain at the junction with two pieces...

Now that the main structural work is complete will finish the outer terrain, there is still a gap to cover around the ditch and also the access ramp need to be level. I also going to apply an appropriate finish to the face of the plywood still visible under the embankment and texture the terrain. All this will be done before mounting the palisade, so I can leave the glue to set with the whole piece under press, again to avoid warping due to the tension generated by the glue hardening... once is all set the palisade will go up and then the whole piece will be ready to paint!

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