Detailing Potomac Creek

John Crabtree stopped by to visit the layout last week. He is a Army Major teaching a course on strategic logistics planning at the Defense Logistics Agency. We had an interesting discussion focusing on logistics in the civil war. Using one of my box cars and the army bread boxes I made, we concluded that a box car would "cube out"before the weight of the army bread boxes would exceed the 10 ton capacity of the car. We estimated that the car could hold about 4.5 tons when loaded with army bread.

Wall tent. The figures are by Sash and Sabre

John got to see some of the hooches I was building for Potomac Creek scene.


Later in the week I built a 4x8 officer's wall tent with a fly. I used bond paper for the main tent and cooking parchment for the fly.  The tent took about 4 hours to make, but hopefully subsequent ones will be faster.

Wall tent made from paper, some strip wood  and thread

exterior view of blockhouse before installation

An interior view of the blockhouse.

 I only have the one distant shot showing the blockhouse, so I had to do some "imagineering" on how it was built. I consulted my Eric Sloane books and the HABS/HAER for examples of log cabin construction.

I added extra rafters, as this building would be built sturdy in case it took fire.

Here in the reverse view of the installed blockhouse.

I installed the blockhouse on the hill top behind the bridge.

I made stockade fences using twigs I collected from a field near my house.

Aisle side view

The infantry squad inside are 28mm scale figures, but measure more like 36mm high, nearly O scale. I am not sure who made them.

The soldiers are practicing their musket drill while inside the blockhouse. The low ceiling could interfere with the ramrods during loading, so the men are practicing to familiarize themselves with defending the bunker.

Since the interior is visible, I will detail it.

I will probably add a plank floor to the inside of the blockhouse as well as some other details.