Wednesday, August 30, 2006



In this pair of images we see the "teeth" of the fortress. I thought it made sense to put the Nordenfeldt on top of the Keep where it could "sweep" the fron of the fortress of stormers. The gun is from the London War Room (just google "tlwr") and is a delightful bit of kit - it will have a double life, also arming my cariacature HMVS Cerberus for a 1885 "Invasion of Melbourne" scenario.

The Armstrong guns are meant to be 7" Confederate artillery. Armstrongs sold them to the Colonies and to the Egyptians as well, although in their 9" incarnations. I don't quite believe it myself, but their manufacturer completely escapes me - unless they are from the Armchair General??? Anyone have a clue? If you do, email me at bloggerator@gmail.com, please. They are massive pieces of kit and are quite heavy.

Anyway, let me know wht you think if you take a look at these - I am getting quietly enthused about the period again just now...


In these couple of images you can see the rear of the fort with and without the compound wall. It's plain to see that the construction is mainly of foamcore. I would like to have lined the interior of the casemates with some kind of stone or brick effect paper or card, just for the look of the thing. The casemates are actually large enough each to accommodate one of the Armstrong RBL Guns that are on the platform above. Had i enough, I'd have loved to have had a tier of guns above and another below. Perhaps Field gund could be mounted above, instead.

That door to the right in the images is a paper-cutout of a door from a magasine pasted to a bit of card and glued in place behind a doorway cut in the foamcore.



Quite some time ago I became terribly interested in the beginning of the direct British involvement in Egypt stemming from the bombardment of the Forts at Alexandria and culminating in the Battle of Tel el Kebir. I began developing a scenario dealing with British troops storming a particularly troublesome Eguptian Fort. I got as far as buying the artillery (which I thought would also go nicely in defending Melbourne from the Russians in 1885) and building this fortress. It's loosely based on photos of the Egyptian forts of the time and on what I know of casemated artillery fortification. I hope you enjoy these next few images.

In the one image we see the lonely Egyptian sentry walking his round. I've included him in this picture to give some idea of the scale of the fortress. The other image gives some idea of it's layout. Looking now at the wall that encloses the compound, I would wish to make that area vey much larger so I could get some buildings into it and add some room for a brawl to take place.

Perhaps even the gun platform is a little tight, too. I'm not too sure.