Real Estate!

No, this post is not going to tell you how to "flip" houses for a profit or make millions in real estate with no money down.  I'm pretty sure there are more than enough web sites and reality shows on the topic, if that's where your interests are.  Good luck to you and thanks for stopping by.

What this post is going to do instead is to talk about the kind of real estate navies have to deal with on occasion, and the models that represent them on the tabletop.  First up are forts.

While there is a huge difference (even in game terms) between an earth battery with a few guns and a brick fortress with dozens or more, a warship is best advised to avoid them all if they are unfriendly.  After all, even the great Lord Nelson allegedly said, "A ship's a fool to fight a fort."  Of course, he also said, "Desperate affairs require desperate measures."  With that in mind, let's take a look (or looks, as this will be more than one post) at some of the different terrain that naval gamers can expect to deal with.
These are the big fortresses, those brick and mortar fortifications that represent the worst that a ship or fleet could possibly have to deal with.  I've got three of these, and will probably never need any more than that.  If anything, I should probably buy some more bomb vessels just to deal with these.  My first fort was bought at a convention flea market years ago.  It has no marking on it anywhere, and I think that it was not professionally made.  It is a generic fortress with 4 bastions, and I suspect that it might be based on Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine Florida.  If that is the case, then my model needs a repaint as you can see below:

The original.  The walls may have started out as a tan color, but time has changed that.

In my defense, I did this a long time ago.

Next up are a pair of forts from Pithead/Spithead Miniatures 1/1200 American Civil War line.  They are forts Jackson and St. Philip that guarded the Mississippi River below New Orleans.  Saint Philip is the oldest of the two, having been built by the Spanish from 1792-1795.  It was then modified by the US from 1812-1815, and was besieged by the British during the War of 1812.  In the 1840s, the walls were thickened and strengthened.  An excellent summary regarding the changes in Fort St. Philip is located here: https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/la/FortStPhilip.pdf .  The two models are made from a heavy black resin (polyester maybe), that at first appears to hide most of the detail.  However, an undercoat brings out the detail very nicely.  As a final note, the masters for these are hand-carved, not computer modeled.  If you prefer the perfection of a computer designed miniature, then these might not be for you.  However, I like the old-school vibe of these, and am planning on buying some Civil War ships from there as well.  This clip from a map depicting the 1812 battle shows the original form of the fort.

There are numerous maps of the fort in the Civil War, and all of them are different.  So this clip is taken from the 1921 plan drawn by the army.

Everything outside the fort should be ignored, as they are post Civil War additions.

Anyway, with the above drawings showing how the structure changed over time, I think you will see that the Pithead model does a good job of capturing the building itself.

While it doesn't represent the original 1815 fort (and shouldn't since it is a Civil War model), I think it will work fine for those times when you need something small, but strong and oddly shaped.

Next up on the list is Fort Jackson, which can also be used for Fort Morgan.  While this is not a Napoleonic fortress, being built from 1822-1832 it is the classic 5 sided star fort.

In a project like this, it's amazing what will trip you up at times.  When I painted the citadel/barracks, I presumed that the roof would be fireproof, so I painted it a slate color.  After some more digging, I found that the barrack roofs at both Jackson and Morgan were wooden.  The idea was that they would be covered with earth before an attack to make them bombproof.

The Saint Philip casting is one piece, where Jackson is 6 pieces; 5 wall parts and the citadel.  Consequently, Fort Jackson does take a little patience and greenstuff putty to make the walls fit together smoothly.  In all fairness to Pithead Miniatures though, this is clearly visible on the website picture of the unpainted version so it's not really a surprise.  To really nitpick, the citadel should be 10-sided and not round, as seen in the 1817 plan below.

I'm sure that the round version is easier to cast, and even in the plan it looks almost round.  Given that this one and the one at Fort Morgan burned during the battle, I don't think that a round casting is a deal breaker here.  I probably could make it look a little more multi-sided by filing the edges of the roof straight on each face, but didn't want to run the risk of messing up the citadel.

When will these get used?  Who knows.  However, when I do need them, I'm ready.  In the next real estate post, I'll take a look at things like lighthouses, signal stations and other less warlike structures.  You know, things that ambitious naval officers call "targets."