Back to work!!

I have just spent the last few days in Kashima city on a business trip, and when I came back I resumed work on the Collina della Formica.

Before I left I had glued the observation post bay assembly into the top, so that by the time I returned it had had plenty of time to dry out. Now I can get to work knocking it around again!

Just one more bay to complete and the trench assemblies are done.

There is a little more work to do on the internal planking and detailing, and I'm going to add a stone floor to the mortar enplacement for variety. I've also started "dressing" the stone work on the parapets.

I still need to add a detachable top for both the machine gun emplacement and the observation post- currently I'm pondering the best way to do this and what material I should use.

The foam walls you see here have been placed in position with toothpicks, but have not yet been detailed. Once I do this, and the trenches are completely finished, then I'll glue the walls down with PVA.

I also decided to re-contour the base around the ruined walls so that the building doesn't look so much like it was perched on top of a birthday cake. It entails some extra work to the project, but I feel it makes for quite an improvement.

The same, after having covered the foam with a "goop" made from a mixture of papier-mache, filler, and PVA.


When that dries out and the walls have been glued down, I'll use acrylic-based putty to enhance the look of the rock formations.

*******

I found another photo of an actual Austro-Hungarian fortification of the time. Somewhat similar to my image of what the Collina della Formica may have looked like before having been shelled into rubble!


I'm under some time pressure to get the actual construction done though. Here is what my desk currently looks like- a major disaster area! No place for any painting and there is much too much dust around to do any painting anyway.

So once the model is completed, I'll leave it a few days for the glue and filler to dry out thoroughly. At that time I'll organize my desk top, and clean the room completely so that there is no dust to settle on wet paint.

Then I'll get to work on painting its garrison of Kaiserliks, and on undercoating the "Anthill" prior to the massive undertaking of painting it!

I'm probably looking at the end of the month as a completion date.