Some of you may have seen some sneak peeks of my current build on my Instagram or in some of the LEGO Castle groups on Facebook but I wanted to write a post about it here and specifically acknowledge it’s inspiration.

I am currently in the process of building a large Castle themed display pitting my two favourite Castle factions, the Black Falcons and the Forestmen against each other in a forested landscape with a castle which I hope to display at Brickvention 2022 in Melbourne next year in January and whilst I have not actually started building the castle part of the display as yet I am quite a long way along with the underground part of the Forestmen’s hideout.

Above you can see some images of my progress so far, I am really happy with how it is coming along and whilst I really love how the tunnels and caves have turned out I am really happy to be finally out of the ground and working on above ground terrain now.  Anyway, I am sure you can picture the Forestmen hiding out in these caves but I really wanted to give a shout out to the set that inspired not just this build but also my love of Forestmen in the first place!

I can remember vividly opening and building 6066 Camouflaged Outpost, I am not sure of the year, though it must have been after 1987 when the set was released so I would have been either 7 or 8 and I am assuming it was Christmas as in my memory I am building the set at my Grandma’s house.

The set was so inspired with it’s cave with multiple hidden entrances and disguised tree/tower making the perfect hideout for the band of brigands and their stash of treasure, it definitely captured my imagination and remains one of my favourite LEGO sets to this day.

I wish I still had the set but as with all my childhood sets it was gradually cannibalised, I do still have some of the figures and I am sure I could find most of the pieces though if I went looking.

My finished build will include my take on all the best bits from Camouflaged Outpost.  It will include a sprawling collection of interconnected underground caves and tunnels which are accessible from multiple hidden entrances connected to a landscaped terrain. The landscaped terrain will include a forest of trees above ground with lookouts for surveilling the surrounding area. In short a fully realised fortress for the Forestmen, figuratively it will be Camouflaged Outpost x 10.