Another weekend has come and is rapidly passing. Seven more until Chirstmas I think and only nineteen until I finish working life. When we last left the big build I had added the wooden basis of the southern firing sep of Balcarres' redoubt, so how have things progressed?
As a quick reminder of things, here ia map of the defensive works constructed across the Saratoga battlefiled after Freeman's Farm:
Below is a closer view of the area of interest for the current project, with Balcarres' redoubt in the centre with its unusual, distinctive shape. Every plan of the battlefield represents this fieldwork slightly differently but I'm aiming for some average of these that will work in a game.
One thing I mentioned last time that needed to be resolved was how to recreate the farmhouse of Freeman's Farm which was incorporated into the structure of the redoubt. The Perry/Renedra model appeared in the post:
Looking at the sprues, the version out of the box seemed to be a little wide for my purposes despite being quite a small model for 28mm figures. During the week, I broke out the plasticard strip, modelling saw and clippers to set about shortening the cabin and making use of the offcuts. Here is what I came up with in all its slightly bodged glory:
I was pretty please with this, as I was rather making things up as I went along. Using offcuts to add the extra piece at the rear of the house helps to break it up without really compromising the footprint and is reflective of the "saltbox" architecture of many North American buildings of the time.
Here is the house roughly placed while I worked out the northern firing step:
Satisfied with this as a workable answer to the farmhouse question, Saturday began with construction of the basis of the northern firing step using the same wood as the rest of the construction. Sections were cut using a mitre saw and glued & screwed together. The whole assembly was then glued & screwed to the foundation layer in the same way as the southern section last week:
The only modification to last week's build was to turn the end section of the southern section to open it up a little more, rather than turning back in like a hook.
That sorf of concludes the "heavy-duty" element of construction. I left everything for the PVA to go off before coming back in the afternoon after some dog-walking and gardening. The next step was to start the first course of horizonal logs supporting the inner and outer faces of the firing step. I could have first begun with the earth mounds, but I felt this would make it harder to get the log layers level and even. Even though this approach will mean constructing things that won't actually be visible it is a bit easier in the long-run.
The horizontal logs are made from wooden craft dowels. I thought about bamboo skewers but these seem a little thin for this purpose but will be more suitable for any vertical supports. I cut and glued stick all around the firing step, inside and out, except where the house slots in. Once the glue had dried on the bottom layer, overnight, I added the second course today as well as beginning a plank surface for the firing step using coffee-stirrers and constructed steps leading down to the lower level between the two hills - also using stirrers and sticks. Any vertical posts you see here are temporary supports while glue dries:
planks above are temporary to check the widths work
In the middle of all this I did pop on some figures to check for scale and height:
All-in-all I am happy with how this is going so far. The two ends of the redoubt are pretty solid and heavy, with no sign of any warping. Everything is now waiting for the glue to dry. I might get a bit more done today but in all likelihood it will take a bit longer, it is November now so colder an damper that the ideal for terrain building - but I do have until May to finish this. Keep the comments coming.
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