It’s The Fort That Counts…

I’m afraid that once again this year, I neglected to send a Christmas card to my surviving reader.  So by way of apology, here’s a short article and hoping that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas.

It’s the fort that counts…

As previously mentioned, in 2024 I finally got around to buying myself the start of a 17th/18th/19th Century bastion-fortress from Total System Scenic (TSS) Models.  I’d been procrastinating over getting one for years, as they’re not normally a feature of most field battles and I’m not really interested in wargaming sieges.  However, quite a few 18th Century battles did have a fortress sitting ‘on the sidelines’, so I always thought that a fortress might be a nice addition to my collection.  I did dabble a couple of years ago with some bastion and wall sections by Total Battle Miniatures (TBM), but they didn’t really work for me due to the strange, lop-sided design of the bastion/wall section.

If you don’t know who Ian Weekley was (shame on you), he was a very well-known terrain-modeler and frequent contributor to all the modelling and wargame magazines of the 1970s and 80s, producing incredible bespoke models for people all over the world, including royal palaces and museums, as well as wargamers.  His magazine articles showing the model-building process were a constant source of inspiration and ideas, though there was no way that we mere mortals could ever afford to buy his wonderful creations!  However, for the benefit of us plebs, he then released a range of wonderful resin building models, cast in a very nice lightweight foam-resin that held the detail, didn’t weigh a ton and unlike ‘traditional’ resin, didn’t chip or shatter when dropped.  I still have a couple of his Spanish buildings and a Middle Eastern fort here somewhere that I bought during the 80s.

As soon as I saw the model, I knew I had to have one as well, but Ian Weekley has long shuffled off this mortal coil and searches of eBay drew a blank.  However, from asking around I soon discovered that TSS Models had picked up part of Ian Weekley’s old resin range, including the ‘Vaubanesque’ modular fortress in both 15mm and 25mm scales.  I bought a couple of pieces to test the water and found that TSS have cast them using ‘traditional’ hard resin, instead of the foamed stuff.  They’ve lost a degree of detail when compared to the original model (presumably due to the age of the masters), though they’re still more than good enough for my needs, so I ordered a few more pieces.  In total this now amounts to two bastions, a large ravelin, three sections of curtain wall (one with a gateway) and a right-angled wall that can act as a redan or smaller ravelin instead of the original lightweight foam resin, they are now cast in the traditional heavy resin.

As TSS are using ‘traditional’ hard resin, this could made the fortress VERY heavy.  However, TSS have inserted polystyrene foam cores inside each piece, which serves to reduce a lot of the weight and also stiffens up the structure, making them a lot stronger than they would be if they’d simply made them hollow in order to reduce weight.  I still prefer Ian Weekley’s foamed resin, but there’s probably a good business reason (cost or elf’n’safety) for using traditional ‘hard’ resin in preference to the foamed stuff.  Nevertheless, I’ve glued them to cardboard bases to act as ‘bumpers’, to help prevent chipping.

I must confess however, that the gateway wall section didn’t do it for me, being very uninspiring (just a rectangular hole in the wall) and quite badly cast.  I therefore cut out the gateway using a hacksaw and used the resultant two short wall sections to flank a lovely fortress gateway by TBM.  I really do like this gateway model and the two gates can be slipped out to make an open arch if you prefer.

The fortress has already appeared in a couple of games (the Battles of Sanderhausen and Wanneminden) and will undoubtedly appear in a few more.  I intend to get a third bastion, two more wall sections, a breached wall section and perhaps an additional gateway and ravelin.  That will then give me a good arc of city wall.  I’ll also need to build a ‘plinth’ to raise the fortress up and a glacis to create a ditch.  I’ll also need a scratch-build a ravelin with a gateway and a couple of draw-bridges.  A few ‘proper’ fortress guns would also be a nice addition.

Anyway, I hope that Wargame Santa brought you plenty of goodies and that you have Christmas games lined up?  We’ll be refighting the Battle of La Souffel 1815 this week and I’ve been painting additional Württembergers and some French Gardes-Nationale (below) for the occasion and am very much looking forward to it.

Merry Christmas from all at Fawr Towers!