Puebla siege works

With the summer moving onwards I am conscious that I need to get on with the terrain for my planned Siege of Puebla 1863 game that I hope will see the light of day at Steel Lard in November.

I'd done a bit of planning with paper templates and drawn up a rough layout for the French siege trenches on three sheets of hardboard. This week I've started building (or is it digging?).

The parapets of the trenches are sculpted from an off-cut of 25mm Kingspan insulation. I created a card template that I can use to make sure the ends of the parapets are the same shape so the three sections will go together in any order (although there is a specific order for my scenario and the bases are marked "L", "C", and "R" underneath to help with quick setting up).

I wanted to include a ruined building somewhere in the line of entrenchments and "Derelict Adobe House", an MDF model from Sarissa does the job nicely. I've mounted it on a sheet of foam core with a hole cut out to give the impression of a cellar beneath the ruined floorboards.

Each of the three sections will have a deeper emplacement. Two of these are likely to be artillery positions with the third used to keep engineers' stores.

The corners of the emplacements are reinforced using 3d printed gabions from Thingiverse. A few of the prints failed due to print-bed adhesion issues but this must gave me shorter gabions that I could fill with filler and cat litter!

The next step was to begin lining the trenches with duckboards and revetted sides made from wooden coffee stirrers.

The coffee stirrers mostly in place I've started smoothing out the revetments by adding a coating of quick-drying Polyfilla. I've also used thin card to create a paved path leading to the door of the ruined house. I want to find something else in the way of ruins (possibly a small shrine?) to add to the near right corner of this base. Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

The impetus to make a start on the entrenchments had actually come over the preceding weekend when I decided to grab some offcuts of foam core and Wills pantile sheet to make a destroyed version of my venerable "Spanish barn" (previously seen in the streets of Matamoros for the Cortina scenario as well as serving in the Peninsula). It's yet to be painted but I'm pleased with how it's gone and I'm considering adding it to the Puebla set-up.

That's all for now but look out for updates as the sappers continue to do their siege work.