Thursday 28 April 2011

Fort L'Escroc

A little while back that awfully nice chap, David Crook, very kindly sent me an old Airfix Fort Sahara that eh had discovered at a car boot sale. I'd been after one of these quite liteally for years (after missing out on a mint one at The Keep many years ago I'd never seen one since).

Being second hand it was obviously "pre-loved" but some judicious application of plastic card, cardboard and chopped up coffee stirrers, along with a paint job combined with a sprinkling of sand to give a suitably rough surface to the inner walls has led to what i think is a pretty satisfying conclusion.




I'll probably make a few "lean-to" buildings and a well to go in the courtyard, but for now its finished.

I have  a whole raft of uses for this now. It can just about do for a fort in the Sudan, and fits nicely with my plans for a hypothetical SCW-based campaign setting (not to mention working nicely with my AK-47 armies).

A French Foreign legion setting would be good too, wouldn't it? Well, up until a few days back that was an aspiration but wasn't likely to come to anything. However, whilst trawling through te "lead pile" and sorting out the stuff that is going to the Lincombe Barn tabletop sale I found a box of unpainted Irregular FFL and Tuaregs that I bought many, many years back. So maybe more a "project for later" than an aspiration :)

9 comments:

  1. Hi Dave,

    Wow! You have been busy! This looks really good and I love the coffee stirrer touch - I bet Starbucks will be cursing you! It really is crying out for the FFL though.

    All the best,

    DC

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  2. I've found that coffee stirers make excellent planks. Chop them up with some decent clippers (not scissors) and the ends don't crush too much. then you can stick them together to make fences, walls and roofs, and then just stain with thinned down brown paint for an authentic "old wood" look :)

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  3. That takes me back. I had one of those and it was used for all of my Airfix troops. Lot of fun. Wonder what happened to it?

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  4. Snap!!

    http://steve-the-wargamer.blogspot.com/2007/09/sudan-fort.html

    ..:o))

    I like the use of the stirrers though - looks good..

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  5. Steve - great minds (although some years apart). Stirrers were anecessity to hide some unsightly gaps, as my measure-and-cut skills had escaped me when I made the replacement roof!

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  6. Wow, now that is beautiful. I had one of those back in the day and recently made a miniaturised version of it for use with my 1:300 DAK forces (see my blog). Cheers, WW.

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  7. Great job mate- look a treat. I have one of these models too: Fort Escargot!

    And I have chopped up quite a few coffee stirrer sticks over the years too :-)

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  8. Very inspiring, I'll have to rummage in the attic again and get mine down for Whirarwistan...

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  9. Great work Dave and I well remember having one myself and fighting all over it with the Arfix figs.

    Arfix have brough back a few of their models, but not this one yet.

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