Bunkers

by Gary James & Nik Katsabas

Unless you are making modular terrain your bunkers are going to be completely above ground level. This bunker is covered with a mound of earth...and that Orky dreadnought is in trouble!

In gaming terms bunkers are a bit of a mixed blessing...they provide hard cover, but it takes time to get in and out of them.

Materials

A wooden or cardboard base about 8 inches in diameter
Thick card, for example picture mount card
Offcuts of polystyrene
Modelling clay or polyfiller (the stuff you use to fill cracks in walls)
Lentils
Aluminium mesh from a car repair store or similar

Method

First construct the floor and internal 'metal' walls of the bunker from thick card. I cut rectangular holes in the card in the floor and ramp of the bunker and stuck small gauge mesh under the card to give a grid-like floor. The 'girder' appearence of the ramp legs are simply built up with bits of card.
Paint the underneath of the bunker floor black and stick it down to the base (you won't be able to get to it once it has been glued to the base).
Use offcuts of polystyrene to build up a roughly hemisperical shape to the outside of the bunker.
Cover the polystyrene offcuts with modelling clay or polyfiller to create the mound.
Decorate with lentils to make heavy rivets.
Spray black and dry brush silver or chainmail.
Cover the mound of the bunker with PVA glue and sand. Paint up as earth, grass etc.

This second bunker is by Nik Katsabas and is of a fully enclosed design. The construction is simple, as Nik explains:

My friend always admires the scenery pieces I do when he comes over and one day I told him that I was tired of making them (yeah right!) and that it was his turn. So he decided we needed a small bunker. He got some cardboard and made a box with a slit out the front and extending partway down either side. That's about as far as he got.

Later that week I picked up the piece and decided I'd finish it. I took a handful of toothpicks, broke that in half and forced them through the walls from the inside out.

I drew a "Imperial" eagle emblem on some card and stuck it to the roof then painted the box black with silver drybrush (my favorite combination) and painted the spikes and emblem gold.

Then I took a small piece of foam and cut out a square the same dimensions as the bunker, glue the bunker into it and sloped the edges. Then I flocked and based the whole deal. Voila... one rugged and nice looking bunker. It fits 4 standard sized figurines.

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