I fort I would do something else for a change.

Another scorcher of a day here in the UK, too nice to be indoors and too hot for painting as the paints dry up as soon as they hit the palette. So, as I have my American War of Independence box set to tackle later in the year, I decided that building a fort, suitable for that conflict and the French & Indian Wars would be a nice project for today.

I had all the bits and pieces I needed kicking around in the shed, a piece of hardboard, some balsa battens and strips, and a couple of packs of bamboo sticks which are intended for use in the garden supporting plants etc. A drop of PVA glue and a sharp knife means that the project has really cost me nothing so far.

I don't have a plan as such and am simply winging it, hopefully it will turn out OK. May even be able to add some log buildings inside, we shall see.

A piece of hardboard roughly 13 inches by 12 inches for the base, with some balsa battens glued down with PVA (white wood glue).

My idea is to build the walls/palisades separately and butt them up to the battens.

I then started to cut the bamboo sticks into roughly 100 mm lengths (4 inches), sharpening one end slightly to resemble axe workings. The green will have to go and once the walls are built I will paint and stain them.

I cut about 90 of these, thinking that would be enough. Wrong! one side took about 50 alone, so a lot more cutting and sharpening tomorrow.

I used a tray with a lip to lay out one wall of palisade fencing. This gave me a good right angle, so hopefully each piece will not only be flush on the base but also vertical too. Just a single batten to hold it all together until joined to the base. A walkway will sit on the batten later. The three pieces of Blu-Tack are simply to keep the pieces tightly together, and a three tins of soup made excellent weights on the batten.

One completed wall section, so far so good.