Mostly Moat....what sort of madness be this?

      Even someone as mad as I will stop and consider exactly what they are up to. On occasion this moment of reflection changes the course of their actions, on other occasions it does not. I was confronted with the moat question when I first started this project; in my usual style (working without a plan and even fewer serious thoughts) I dismissed the question and charged ahead. It now seems that I have run out of "ahead" and have come full-circle to the moat question once more.

   I stopped to fully contemplate exactly what modelling the moat would entail; to model it at full depth (and why would you do ANYTHING else, if you were to take the plunge that is) would mean building a full-depth counterscarp (which would be about two inches high). This would look simply foolish without the covered way and glacis in front of it, so they would have to be added. Even compressed by a third these would add about six feet to the distance from the center of my model to its outer edge. Consider the lovely drawing below.

   Now my model only has one ravelin so the vast increase in size would only be on the southern side where the gateway is located. But on the remaining sides it would still be intimidating.  As I pondered this I poured myself a glass of whiskey and took a deep breath. Accommodations would have to be made, this IS a model intended for wargaming, not a museum display item. So, no below-grade moat. But that fact that there really was a moat would have to be dealt with, some sort of indication would need be present on the field of play. Another glass of whiskey and some deep thought led to a refreshing nap and a functional decision.

 

 tiny blue-board bricks, thousands of them..

 

 laid out following the line of the counterscarp

    
      This did two things, first it clearly indicated the edge of the moat, second it doesn't stop me from adding the full counterscarp later. As far as game-play is concerned figure in the "moat" will be visible only to other figures also in the moat, figures standing on the inner edge of the covered way and figures on the parapet more than six inches away from the figure in the moat. Having made up my mind I got out my Proxxon hot wire cutter and whipped up a couple of thousand bricks and them glued them down on my pencil lines from before. An hour or so later I had the moats outlined and I began priming the model in white paint. I think it looks a delight!

 

one lone sentry prowls the rampart

this is just the four bastion sections, 

there are additional wall sections that add 15" to each side

..