I’ve been planning on building a FFL desert fort for some time. Almost a year. What has prevented me was that I had no idea how I would go about doing this–no idea of the materials needed or which would work better; my building techniques were not perfected and my painting methods were untested; and I was simply worried that the project would be a disaster if I jumped right in. So I took my time and did some research and lots of thinking about how exactly to take on building some of the structures such as the walls and buildings. I practiced a bit with some blue foam and perfected some painting techniques that look like stucco/adobe. So. Garden is in. Spring (cleaning) is over. Work still sucks but now I’m ready.
The fort will be very much like Fort Zinderneuf but the walls and arrangement of buildings might be a bit off. I also have not perfected the slight angles to the walls that can be seen on the actual movie fort so the walls will probably go straight up. I’m not going for exact replica here–just a nice piece of playable terrain for my 1:72 scale miniatures (mounted on pennies). I might call it Blockhaus 17 or Fort Adriana or Fort Bou Izkan (or something). It could be the other fort just down the caravan track from Zinderneuf. Basic plan is to build the fort on a 1/2 inch sheet of blue styrene mounted on a 1/4 inch plywood base. This might allow me to have steps leading to the semi-dug-in barracks building (a bit of depth). The picture below show some of the obvious structures and general features of the basic desert fort structure. I also wrote a little checklist of structures and details that will need to be built. So over this summer I will get this project started and periodically post pictorial updates and tutorials.
Mon Legionnaire 
How is the project evolving? Where can I find the update?
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I actually started a fort. WIP posts appear in October 2011. It was a very good start but I seriously messed up the scales–used a 28mm plan but used 1:72 scale (20mm) for doors and other details. I planned on using the 1:72 scale figures with the fort but they looked completely out of place. I also forgot to put firing ports on the front towers and made several other errors. The board sits in my garage–unfinished–out of sight and out of mind. I suppose I can fix it up but I might start another fort for my 28mm figures and do it right this time.
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Dommage! as the legionnaires would have put it. I know the 54mm Zinderneuf by Conté, from pictures only, but that is awesome. If you even succeed in 50% you’ll have a great point of focus for you’re games. If to want you can like my Facebook community page titled: The Batavian: painted toys soldiers What are your plans with the 1/72 figs? Do you want to get rid of ‘m?
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Oui, c’est dommage. I’m fond of 1:72 figures and my small platoons painted up nice so I’ll hang on to them for a while. I like the idea of your facebook page–I really need to get back into some of my miniatures projects but I’m working at a new job and time is scarce. Keep checking though. I’ve written a tutorial on making rocky desert terrain that might be interesting. Should be posted by January.
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I’ll sure keep checking your posting. Thnx. for the liking of my fb page. It’s some sort of a showcase of the things I can do and did concerning miniatures, modeling, gaming and scenery. In fact I have a nice way to make arid rocky outcrops too. I will enjoy reading your view on the subject. I have some nice Foreign Legion items. Handwritten legionair cards (with censorship approval) , a novel and a issue of the Captain Galland comic.
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