"One Quarter of the Starfort is Finished!" Topic

Over the last couple of days I have been pushing hard to get done with this thing that has come to rule my hobby. Tonight I finished 25% of the monster, one wall and one bastion (plus assorted odd bits like the drawbridge, ravelin and gate. I had to put it together and see what it all will look like. To be honest, I am kind of proud of it. link

You have every right to be proud of a monster like that.
Well done

Robert

Wow. It's really coming together.

- Ix

Brilliant!

Wow, that is awesome.

You ought to be proud of it. I've no idea what you will do with it, but it is a lovely model.

Yes, it beautifulbut will you be able to play a GAME on it? Sieges of star forts are pretty much lots and lots and lots of bombardment with a final charge up the breach(s) with the forlorn hope…not my cuppa in a game, but I suppose the process of conducting the charge is exhilarating in the same way that playing roulette is.

What is the purpose you intend? Just a diorama? Educational? It certainly is a spectacular project and effort.

I don't want this to be received as a condescending judgement.

Funny thing is I hadn't been paying any attention to your previous posts as I thought it was a Sci-fi "Star" fort. Only when you mentioned rivelines did my interest get piqued. I expected space opera silliness. Glad to see otherwise.

Such a monster of an undertaking! Hats off to you sir for the effort and success so far.

I have to say, I was sort of wondering that too… what are your plans for this beast? Certainly looks WAY too big to do a real game with…? Is it just the challenge of building it?

It's marvellous!! whatever the practical use. If I judge from my own activities of tinkering: It is just for the fun of it – and to see if it can be accomplished.
And of course you can put just a part of it on the table.Do I remember correctly that several star forts were taken by surprise when the guards were sound asleep in the early hours? Would be quite a skirmish game, wouldn't it?

In answer to the practicality question; the model is built so that the "place of arms" (i.e. the inner courtyard) is removable, the player commanding the fortress will actually stand inside it.

The model is intended to be the center-piece of a very large skirmish game that conflates the various attacks on Saint Augustine Florida by the Pirates and the British and the Native American allies during the period 1690-1705. Of course it isn't terribly practical otherwise…..one of my greatest flaw as a gamer is that I start down a road without a plan and then find myself in too deep with no choice but to push ahead to completion. The fortress is designed (?) so that portions can appear on a tabletop and (with some additional support)the model can be used for RPGs.

I guess that it, in part, is also just an exercise in model-making for the heck of it.

I will be taking it (and a portion of Old Saint Augustine, and hundreds of figures) to Spartacon in Lansing and Flintcon (if the can spare the space) in February.

Grand! I have walked the real thing. A pirate skirmish would very cool.

Amazing. Fantastic. Impressive. And that's just in its present quarter-baked state!

As someone who has enjoyed many tabletop siege games set in various periods, I'd love the chance to be part of a game played in and around that model, or a portion of it.

After following its construction for some time now, my favorite detail is learning it's being built so the defending player will STAND INSIDE IT during the game.

That is quite simply BAD@SS.

Anton, have you decided yet exactly what material you'll use for the water surface in the moat?

Anton, I too thought about the practicality of this, but:

………one of my greatest flaw as a gamer is that I start down a road without a plan and then find myself in too deep with no choice but to push ahead to completion.

In any other field of endeavor this may indeed be a "flaw". But this is a hobby, designed to express your smallest or most outrageous whim. Go for it!

Mick,
I vacation in Saint Augustine almost yearly in the spring. My family doesn't even notice anymore when I slip away to go to the fort. It has held a fascination for me since the first time I saw it; perhaps that is the genesis of this crazy project….I always wanted to see it in all its glory rather than the sad, weedy gray mess it is today.

Mad Guru,
The historical fort had a dry moat, it wasn't flooded until the 1840s. The plan was to use the moat as a holding area for livestock for the besieged. The flooding caused significant damage to the foundations and has recently been reversed. So I have been saved from having to model water!

Also, the townspeople of St. Augustine took refuge in the dry moat during the siege of 1702 during Queen Anne's War. The National Park Service documents that the English trenches reached within pistol shot of the outer work – which would put them about where the modern visitors parking lot is. I imagine that the conditions were gruesome.

Rick

Ooh! I can't wait to see it. Spartacon and Flintcon are both in my planner this year :)

It is coming together and looking good