Proper Chinese Walls

The issue of what happens around the main West Gate at Ching Kiang Foo has been exercising me over the last few days. I have a couple of accounts and I can't get them to marry up with (a) each other and (b) what I've got set up on the table. 

What is clear to me now is that there's a strongpoint built over the gates. I worked this out courtesy of a water colour by a Royal Naval surgeon who was present with the Naval Squadron at the battle. So I needed a fortified gate area. Nothing for it but to get the foam boards offcuts out and turn on the glue gun.

I built it to sit behind my original gate way, so I had to cut the gate out of that with my knock off Dremel using a cutting wheel attachment. The main body is straight forwards, as you can see, but the roof was more of a challenge. I have some pdfs for cutout Chinese houses, so I resized the roof and adjusted the dimensions to make it square. 

I wasn't sure initially if the outer gate wall would be needed, so I built the tower to a size that it would fit in a square with a couple of the wall "stubs" I'd already made.

When I'd finished I thought to myself that it looked a bit tall. Nothing for it but to put it on the table and see how it looks.

I tried it first with the existing gateway. It looked okay. 

As you can see, it fits a few bases of figures comfortably. The roof is on some matchstick stilts so they can see out.

It provides a sort of counterpoint to the palace building.

I swapped out the gateway for the stubs. I think that's the look I want.

And here we are with the roof off. In theory it'll take two bases on a side, but it's a tight fit, so this set up works best.

I think I can do away with the inner wall now.

Still not sure how this plays, but it looks great.