Coastal fort, Part I

My next project is a small coastal fort, perfect for pirate raids or small skirmish actions. Here's a picture of the inspiration. My model will be a greatly simplified version of this.

I started by laying out a basic 2 foot x 2 foot grid so I could get the outline of the island the fort will sit on close to what's in the picture.

Here I've drawn a rough outline of the island and I'm ready to cut. I use a hot wire foam cutter to cut the island shape out.

Here's the island cut out. I used 1/2 inch thick foam because I wanted to show the seawall all the way around. After cutting it out, I started to think I should have made it about 25 percent bigger -- something that would prove true later.

I next put together a basic shape for the fortress, consisting of an odd shaped base, a square upper level and a round tower. Originally, I was going to make the round tower height end up between the base and the upper level (I'll call it the keep), which is how it is in the picture, but I just didn't think it was going to look right, so I decided it would be the tallest of all the elements. I used 2 inch thick foam for the basic shap and the keep, and a round pre-cut styrofoam piece I got at a craft store for the tower.





Here's a few shots of the cut fortress parts. I used a jigsaw with a long blade to get nice straight cuts in the foam. Hotwire foam cutters are hard to get good cuts with sometimes. The pirates are 28mm Foundry to give you an idea of the scale. It also became readily apparent at this stage that the island really needed to be bigger. I wanted a little room to move around the outside of the fort (similar to the inspiration photo), but once I add the walls, it was going to be a little tight.





Here's some photos with the walls now cut, which ate into the island some more. It still works, but leaves less space outside the fort walls. The good thing about the fort is I can take it off the island base -- it won't be attached -- and use it on my regular terrain as a small outpost castle or the like. This concludes Part I. Part II will be on the finishing stages.