The Fortification Pack (work in progress)

[Marcello]

"Hackenberg, Block 5 Artillery casemate for 3 x 75-mm guns"

Ah, sweet memories. I did a tour of french fortresses seven years ago. On the Maginot line I visited Hackenberg and Fermont from the inside plus some others works from the outside. Bought all the materials they had, pestered the staff for info etc. If you have any question ask.

"Each bunker which projected above ground was essentially "custom designed" to fit the terrain available; making recreating the magniot line problematic without making a lot of generic icons..."

While the bunkers were modified to fit local conditions they were based on standardized patterns drawn by the CORF (Commission d'Organisation des R�gions Fortifi�es). While a generic icon would not be 100% it will be good enough.
Let's take the Bloc 5 for example. This is a textbook "casemate the flanquement". Each fort was supposed to have two of them (in some cases they were replaced by turrets fulfilling the same mission). They were the most important blocs of the fortress as they were supposed to cover the intervals between one fortress and the other, so that the germans couldn't just break throught there. You can find the same type of bloc at Fermont, for example, where it is labelled Bloc 4.
The only substantial difference is the position of the lift.

[Marcello]

"Cloche (the two on the ends are GFM, the center one is for an automatic mortar that was never perfected)"

Do you mean the 50mm mortar? AFAIK it was a standard feature across the line.

Besides the above bloc and the GFM cloche a few others standard types would be needed

1) The main entrance bloc (that with the narrow gauge railway)
2) the standard mg turret;
3) the standard twin 75mm turret;
4) the standard twin 82mm turret;
5) the standard twin 135mm turret;
6) An infantry bloc armed with mg;

With the ones above you could build most of the typical forts of the line. Now if you want say a 100% exact copy of Hackenberg you will have to crank out 25 icons, many of which will be non standard, but for a typical fortress the ones above will do.

[Marek_Tucan]

May I interest you in creating some Czechoslovakian forts just for the fun of it? I may supply you with floor plans etc.