A Sand Bag (A la Lady Bracknell)

When making the 10mm scale hay stacks I had opened a pack of air drying clay I bought about 6 months ago, to keep the clay fresh I rapped it in cling film and put it into an air tight chines take out box, but the was quite a bit left over, so rather than let it go off and harden. On the spur of the moment I decided to have a go at some sand bags.

The water tower from my 15mm scale flying boat station was designed to have a sand bag bunker on the top. I rolled the clay out into sausages to the right size and then started to cut them up with a scalpel. It then struck me that rather than cutting right throw the clay, all I need to do was put the blade three quarters of the way through. Creating long lines of sand bags still attached to each other. Ready to use in future.

Finished Hay Stacks 10mm

The finished hay stacks, with the first completed member of my 1914 BEF forces, on his trusty stead. These were made with air drying clay, I found working the clay quite easy, looking at the finished hay stacks the modeling of the straw could have been finer, perhaps should have used an old scalpel blade rather than a cut down match stick. Generally quite please with how they turned out. Added a lead foil cover to one, to give a covered with a tarpaulin effect.

Roman Fort Buildings

The buildings for inside the Roman fort, made from heavy card, with the roofs made with ribbed card, which I then ran the back of a scalpel across to create the tile effect. No real in depth research do on the buildings other than having a look on the web. The basic painting is done, just need to detail some areas. I'll base the buildings on a lift out base to go in the fort. Still need to build the walled garden for the Tribunes villa.

Roman fort gate

Progress on the 10mm Roman fort/wall, with the gate section nearing completion. The top picture shows the gate in position. The bottom picture shows the back of the wall with the steps up to the top of the wall, cut from soil sods. PVA'd with sand on.

Roman 10mm fort

Two pictures of the fort, the top one showing the breached wall section in position, showing the polystyrene and small stones used to create the breach. The three buildings are shown with the basic paint work done. In the foreground is the barracks block with the stables and workshop building behind it. At the top is the legats villa, still needs the wall around the villa. I think all three buildings will be mounted onto a single lift out base board which will sit within the fort.

Roman 10mm fort

The 4 wall sections in position as the fort with the addition of the new towers, one much bigger than the other three to act as an artillery support platform. The tower on the front right still needs to have its ditch adding. I'm still working on the construction of the gate area. I found Secundus's blog Iron Mitten a great help. Full of lots of Roman inspiration, and some great fortifications.

10mm Antonine wall / Roman fort

The Antonine wall stretches for 39 miles from the firth of Clyde to the firth of forth in Scotland, 100 miles further north than Hadrian's wall. The idea for doing this project came from a family holiday in the west of Scotland in 2006. We stayed just outside Oban. While there I bought a great book by Gordon Maxwell called a Gathering of Eagles (ISBN 1841583847), about the Roman invasion of Scotland. Lots of superb Illustrations of Roman forts, watch towers and the Antonine wall. In style very similar to an Osprey book, soft cover, same size but only £6.99p.

The idea was to build 5 sections of wall, each 6 inches long, the fifth section being a destroyed section for the caledonians to storm through. And one of the other 3 section with a gate built in. After starting to build the wall, it struck me that with some small modifications and additional sections I could also use the wall sections to make a Roman fort. So by cutting the wall bases at 45 degree angle on the back edges and creating 4 corner towers, I had a Roman Fort and a Wall. The next stage of this madness was thinking well you have a fort, what about some buildings to go inside the fort.

The wall was based on my usual art board, the bulk of the wall was made from polystyrene packaging with the turf blocks cut in with a scalpel. The wooden palisades and walk ways were made from coffee sticks. Then PVA glue with sand.

More pictures to follow in the next post.