Fortress gate to “West Complex Fortress”

Location ...

The gate is located in Poland (Europe) on the Usedom Island (in Polish: Uznam), on the Jachtowa street. Geographical coordinates are 53.916213,14.274155. The gate is located at “West Complex Fortress”. Below is map with the exact location.

Wyświetl większą mapę

A Brief History of ...

Fortress gate to “West Complex Fortress” was probably built in the years 1870-1880. From the beginning the gate was a land crossing to the island where is West Fort, also known as Redoubts. The gate was used not only for transport - it was used for defensive function - it was caponier. The gate consists of two pairs of columns. Each pair of columns also has two heavy steel gate, riveted. Between pairs of columns there is a wall. In each wall are located to the openings for shooting positions. Looking from the entrance - behind the gate was a moat. In the columns are located to the metal parts (wheels), which probably were used to raise the bridge.

Restoration ...

For many years, the gate was in the power of occupants who attacked Poland. In the 90's the Polish authorities took control of the entire fort complex. Buildings, fort, shelters, the gate was destroyed by vandals. City councilors were not interested about the situation of these buildings. Nature also tried to regain what once belonged to it. In 2011, the city councils decided to renovate the gate - now it is a monument. [more in polish article on eswinoujscie.pl] Gate regained its former appearance. Unfortunately bridge was not rebuilt. The moat is only a shadow of what could be in the beginning.

Exhibition and competition ...

I am determined to build this diorama. I really would want to present this diorama in the contest. The competition and exhibition for modelers is called "Szczecinski Paprykarz Modelarski"¹ (more about SPM). I don't take part in the contest with the intention of winning. I want to show my diorama and take a good time with my family.

---

¹ Szczecinski Paprykarz is the most famous fish paste from Szczecin (Poland). More in the Wikipedia.

Cannon 150 mm SK C/28 (chapter - 4)

I decided that the first element of the model cannon, will be pedestal. This is the easiest part of the model. When I build the pedestal, I'll be able to build the rest of the model on it. Since this is the first model that I'm designing, I want to design it perfectly. I drew a pedestal as a 3D solid. I have unfolded this item on sheets. Pedestal will consist of 10-15 parts.

Cannon 150 mm SK C/28 (chapter - 3)

This time only photos ...

Cannon 150 mm SK C/28 (chapter - 2)

At the beginning of the project I wanted to build a diorama that would be the sizable part of the fort. I have to admit that I started to build this diorama in such a large size. However, the amount of materials that I would have to use a scared me. On photo below You can see rendered project of whole diorama. The second picture shows the diorama of how it looked during building.

In a previous post I wrote that all digital drawings and pictures are lost. Some of them I found on a CD and on the Internet. Unfortunately, 3D CAD design I had lost for good. But I did not give up. I design from the beginning drawings of cannon and diorama.

The greatest difficulty in designing the cannon is fact that I don't have any archival plans or sketches. And I don't know where I can get them. Whole designing is based on photos from internet. All of them are made in perspective. In that case it's hard to make some measurements. That's why I have to do everything approximate.

Cannon 150 mm SK C/28 (chapter - 1)

So, I presented another return to gallery of unfinished models. This time it will be diorama of German stronghold (fort) placed in Swinoujscie city. You can read about history of this stronghold on official site by clicking on this adress: West Fortification in Swinoujscie.

Of course, my diorama, will be shows one part of the fort. It will be artillery stand for 150 mm SK C/28 cannon (SK - Schnell-Lade-Kanone, C - Construktionsjahr). Work on this cannon I started about 2 years ago. I had to stop this project because I had problems with my job. Then in my laptop hard drive has been damage, all the data too.

I was searching all CD with data in my home. After hours of searching, I found some photos, sketches, and digital projects of the cannon. Better than nothing. I decided not to give up and restore all the information and drawings.

If anyone has any plans, drawings or information about this cannon please contact me!