T is for a Tale of Two Forts

Written for the second time as I lost the first edit when I shut the laptop down looking for something! In a nice piece of synergy this week I managed to shoot the larger Cherilea Fort even as Chris Smith was sending both to me!

This is Chris's light-grey version of the small fort we looked at (for the second time) the other day. Chris thinks it's Cherilea, and mentions the glue as a clue, and while it is a good clue, and I myself have mentioned Cherilea [in hope] each time, other people did use the same brown snot (proprietary brand in the UK was Evostick (or 'evilstick'!)), even as far afield as Hong Kong where Blue Box (and others) could ruin a toy before it was sold with a great blob of the stuff!

Figures - MPC small set

I think the better clue is in the style and patterning as well as the variation - between samples - of the flecked/marbling of the coloring of the forts? Last time we looked at the larger fort (either side above) it was a silvery-gray one (which I haven't found yet?) now in storage, while here Chris has a darker grey one (far left)  to my brown one (far right).

Now my yellow smallie is very similar to the colouring of some of the shrubbery-bushes (some were to be seen in the background of the 'Paul Rocks' .gif a month or two ago), while Chris's smallie is similar in colour-way to my older, missing one, and collectively they are close to other examples of the small scenics we saw the other day.

Close-ups of the brown one

So the evidence would certainly seem to point to Cherilea, and it's hard to place anyone else there (Speedwell maybe, as I might have suggested the first time, but it's hard to make it stick?), but despite seeing dozens of the smaller boxed-sets from Cherilea I've never seen the small fort in one, has anyone else?

If we accept it (the small fort) is also Cherilea (we know the large one is, it's always in those boxed sets!), we can ask another question or two . . .

. . . firstly; given the differences between the 'ears' on the small fort, and the tiny 'fort' ruin we saw the other day (and the lack of ears on the largest fort), could the smooth ears on the tan 'termite hill' - question-mark last week - be another variation of Cherilea standing-up mechanism?!!

And secondly; could that thinner, smooth-backed copy of the loophole'd sandbag defence be Cherilea? It'll all be answered in time!