Rorke's Drift - The Hospital surroundings, 24th. Jan. 1879 "Sir, the Zulus 'ave scarpered!"

[scottie3158]

Ron,

What a difference a bit of colour and texture make. Looking good mate.

[stillp]

Looks a lot better already Ron. I agree about that ridge board, it could be shortened a bit.
Pete

[Mini Me]

I think the ridge is a bit long also.
Cheers, Rick H.

[yak face]

I see what you mean mate , i would get rid of the bit of ridge board too , the centre of the fire was bang underneath this so i dont think any timbers would have survived here . Cheers tony

[Andy Belsey]

Great work Ron!! Enjoying every minute of this!
Andy

[JR]

Evening 570.
We at the Pyrotechnics institution would agree with you on the ridge board. Would it not have either fallen in as the roof went up or have suffered more damage and been shorter.
There is only one way to test this theory, but a rebuild is out of the question, had you not composted chapters 9 & 10 you might have found out .
The colours have made a good improvement. I'm enjoying this .
Yours Ivor Ripinsky.

[Mini Me]

Are we still voting on this? Bring on the Zulus and let them decide.:tongue-out2:
Cheers, Rick H.

[spanner570]

Sorry for the late response folks, but I've been away until last night.
Thanks for all your comments, particularly about the ridge board. Now sorted.... :thumb2:

I've spent this morning in the workshop and I've done some additions and alterations.

Here's the offending ridge board - or lack of it anyway!
[ATTACH]326201[/ATTACH]


A sketch done after the battle shows a wall directly in front of the Hospital at the same height as the escarpment. As the attackers were supposed to have breached the defences either side of this, I figured it must have been a good height. Also I reasoned that officers, being officers would like a nice flat area to have their 'Tiffin' and admire the view away from everyone else. So to give the rankers something to do they had the wall constructed. All my theory and probably a load of b*****ks, but I'm sticking with it...... :thumb2:

I made the wall from a thin strip of polystyrene, stuck it in the middle section of the original escarpment, then dug at it with a small screwdriver and my finger nails to simulate a rough stone construction.
[ATTACH]326202[/ATTACH]


I also made a second, lower level escarpment either side of the wall for the Zulus to run up to reach the meelie bag wall (Bless!) out of a piece of 20mm scrap polystyrene cut down the middle and hacked at.
Left side....
[ATTACH]326203[/ATTACH]

Right side.
[ATTACH]326204[/ATTACH]

I slurried on some of the adhesive to tone in the front wall stones to match the escarpment colour and built up the top ground level to the wall using powdered adhesive.
[ATTACH]326205[/ATTACH]


I've also started to build up a bit more texture to the ground below the escarpment.
[ATTACH]326206[/ATTACH]

....and forming where the thin band of soil and turf would have broken away on the upper ground level due to the 'farsans' of feet!
[ATTACH]326207[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]326208[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]326209[/ATTACH]

A bit more ground work needed then I can start the painting and vegetation.

Cheers.
Ron

[Mickc1440]

Some really good progress Ron, keep up the good work old boy

[minitnkr]

Have to agree on the ridge board. Did draw the eye too sharply. Really shaping up nicely. PaulE

[Jim R]

Hi Ron
All looking excellent and wll thought through.
Jim

[Mini Me]

Very nice Ron, really shaping up. :thumb2:
Cheers, Rick H.

[spanner570]

Hi all.
I hope you will bear with me over the next few days because I don't like having builds unfinished. I want a 'Clean Slate'. So in order to finish off the 2 or 3 I have on the go I'm afraid I'I'll be bouncing between them.
It's warm enough to be in the workshop now so I've given the base a coat of cheap acrylics.

Here is the result so far....

The terrace wall.





The escarpment.




Drone view....For a bit of diversity some bare patches remain here and there, particularly around the Hospital. The two escarpments show a bit of wear and tear but I've left the terraced area almost untouched as I reasoned the attackers would go around the wall not climb it.


When it all dries I will add some buff coloured texture to the bare patches. Bang goes another Weetabix!

Cheers.
Ron

[minitnkr]

Just lovely. PaulE

[scottie3158]

Ron,
Great work.