Dec 11, 2016

My biggest terrain project... so far


The 1/72 tabletop campaign soon reaches the walls of a fortress, so I had to come up with something imposing, yet practical. I have explained my problems with larger battles, and especially terrain, in 1/72 scale: the first compromise I had to make was building only one corner of the fort.



So I built a 40cm wall section with a gate, a 30cm wall section, a ramp and a bastion. They are made from 3mm and 4mm balsa wood, Tesco wooden bricks and decor rubber. As you will be able to see on the photos, the inside of the structure is hollow, yet the pieces are surprisingly sturdy.

I simply glued the pre-measured pieces together, then added the textures (sand and decor rubber). I primed everything dark grey, then used multiple layers of drybrush to bring it up to a brighter final color.


A unit of 1/72 Strelets figures for scale.


The horizontal sticks on the ramp aid the figures in staying on it.


The gate is also made from decor rubber.


Everything can be pulled apart and stored much more easily.


There is enough space to place cannons both on the wall, and the bastion.


9 comments:

  1. Very nice...and probably very effective!

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  2. Excellent job! By any chance, did you save the measurements? I was thinking of building a similar structure, and would be very grateful to know the size of the pieces and how they fit together. You indicated you used Tesco bricks, which I don't have, but the over-all dimensions would suffice.

    Either way, best regards and have a great holiday!

    Chris Johnson

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chris!
      As I mentioned in the post, one wall section is 30cm, the other 40cm long. Both are 50mm total height and 80mm wide. The outer wall sections measure 55mm flat, and were placed in an acute angle by eye measurement.
      I'm not sure about the bastion, it was a tricky piece and took two attempts to get right. The fit between these three pieces is surprisingly tight, but again crafted more by trial and error than calculation :)
      The ramp is made from multiple pieces of left-over balsa wood, I think it's about 15cm total length, and the same height as the walls.
      The Tesco bricks are 15x20x55mm pieces.

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  3. There is a LOT to admire in this project. It looks impressively good.

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  4. Really nice piece of scenery you constructed, Admiral!

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