This is again true of my sea wall for Tarawa. This was essentially a step designed to keep the sea from inundating the island and behind which the Marines obtained about their only cover during the initial invasion. I produced the following piece to do the job.
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| Mark I sea wall. |
As you can see, it's a wooden wall, held up with vertical posts and so perfectly adequate. Except that it doesn't really give that 'step' impression required.
Luckily, inspiration hit me at B&Q where I saw some pine architrave (used for decorative touches around the house). There are plenty of shapes available and most come in 2m + lengths (so you may get inspiration of your own). I then saw a wedge shape - flat to front and bottom with a gentle slope down.
I thought that if I could stick a 'cocktail stick' wall to the front and then talus / flock the slope, it could meet the requirement.
So after a bit of experimentation, I now have the Mark II.
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| From the front - the step is much more apparent |
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| From the rear |
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| From the side - you can see the wedge shape more clearly. 10p coin for scale. |
Mark and Ian seem happy with it - I just need to knock out a few (about 50?) more. This one is 13cm long so Mark will need to let me know how many more are required.
The same technique could also be used to create a trench system (buy putting two back-to-back) or a firing position / hull down position.