Blood & Plunder "Stone Fort" Review/Build

Hello everyone, sorry for the long absence but as we experience real life interferes with hobby-time.  But I have some wonderful news!  My local gaming club has begun playing Firelock Games "Blood & Plunder" a few months back.  I absolutely love pirate games so immediately jumped on this one.

My completed stone tower fort

To start things off with I am going to do a short review on the new terrain that Firelock is releasing.  While I am a member of the Quarter Master program this review is based solely from my personal purchase of the kit.

Image by Firelock Games Website(Click Link for more information).

So to start with I should give some credit to the whomever at Warcast Studios did the design and construction of the kit.  It was nice to see the actual pictures and thought process as it was created.  Click the links below for more information on how is was first created.

Stone Fort Creator

https://www.warcaststudios.com/

After cleaning the kit with some hot soapy water and allowing to dry completely over night I decided the tower needed a proper base.  The tower is cast in two parts (stairs and tower), the bottom of the tower portion is closed off with the inside being hollow.  I had a slight issue with this during the cleaning process since it was actually a sealed container.  This caused the walls to "bow" inward until I drilled out some holes in the bottom to equalize the pressure.  Using a heat gun allowed me to pull the walls back out into position.

Kit as received from Firelock Games

Hollow on the inside and you can see how thin the walls are

A4 sheet of paper to gauge the size of the base

The bottom is completely sealed and this little "plug" piece causes the tower to not sit flat

Taking some quick measurements to have a hole in the base

Cleaning with hot water

Laying out the base on some scrap board

Heat gun to pull the sides back out

Looks good on the base and the walls are in the right spot

Added some pieces to get a feel of space and concept

Found this chap at the Old Glory booth at Cold Wars and love him

Alot of room up top for cannons and men(note the cannons are medium ones for the moment)

Door blank being added

First plan was to do a typical door

After doing some quick internet searching I came across a picture for some insperation.  While looking at it I remembered I had some small scale nut and bolt ends.  So some quick triming and cutting and my door looks more imposing.

Yes I carved wood into the flat plasticard template I made

Image from the internet(love the repaired areas)

My final door, very happy with it.

Door glued into place

Vallejo pumice added for ground effect

Spray paint of grey on black primer

Blocking in some browns for color

Lighter grays were used to break up the monotone gray primer

At this stage I was adding washes, stains, and other effects to age the tower.  After some dry brushing and additional washes the wood had some nice look to it.

Base color down for the sand before painting

Having received the Heavy Cannons I was determining the size of each gun.

Much more imposing

So I managed to this the kit up with some flocking and a coat of varnish.  Very pleased with how it came out and I would highly recommend this kit to anyone playing any game system that allows a small fort.