Bunker

My gaming group are all keen Warhammer 40,000 players and in the game there are a few scenarios that require that use of bunkers, so being the kind of person that is always on the lookout for new terrain projects, I decided that a bunker was required.

As with most of my terrain projects, a new piece starts out as a quick sketch on paper, this allows me to visualise the piece better and also let me figure out how to construct the piece.

So with sketch in hand, I worked out what parts would be required to make the bunker and platform, for sizing I would usually allow 2 inches in height per floor and 1 inch square of floor space per model when making up plans for a building, so with the required parts, I decided that the best way to make the bunker and the platform was to use foam board to build the basic structure and then add pieces of thin cardboard on to this to add the detailing. I had also decided to make the bunker fairly generic in its overall appearance so that any army could use the bunker and look out of place.

Construction

I made a quick rough model out of paper just to make sure my proposed construction plans would work and to make any amendments to the plans before it is too late, when I was happy with the plan I drew the plans onto the foam board and cut them out using a good sharp craft knife, then assembled the basic structure of the bunker and the platform by gluing the joins together with PVA glue, then allow time for the glue to set, with the glue drying I started draw the design features of the bunker onto some thin card and then cut them out and glue these with PVA glue onto the main bunker structure, being careful not to dismantle the whole thing. When the bunker and the platform where dry it was time to glue them together and leave them to dry.

With the bunker and platform now built and waiting for the glue to dry, I was tempted to just put the bunker onto a base of hardboard, paint it and cover it with flock but I thought that the bunker would be best suited if it was on a small hill so that the army using it could see over the whole battle field.

Before I made the hill I had make the base for the whole thing to sit on. For bases I use hardboard, which is fairly sturdy and very inexpensive board available at all good DIY stores. First I drew a rough outline shape of the hill onto the hardboard using the bunker to give me an idea of the shape and size I needed then cut the base from the hardboard and sanded down any rough edges. With the base cut, I now glued a piece of polystyrene big enough to cover the base onto the board and left it to dry. When the glue had dried I cut the slopes of the hill with a hot wire cutter, sanded the edges and then used a sharp craft knife to carve out the steps at the back leading to the door at the back of the bunker.

The next stage was to simply glue the bunker to the hill, but before this, it was a good time to paint the areas of the bunker that would difficult to paint once it is glued down; this was the interior of the bunker and underneath the platform. Once the paint dried, it was a simple matter of just gluing the bunker onto the hill with PVA glue.

With the bunker and the platform glue to the base, it was time to make the ramp going up to the platform, the reason I had not made the ramp earlier, was to make sure that the ramp fitted up to the platform correctly, so again going back to a sketch that I had made of the proposed, it was simple matter of measuring the platform to take the ramp, making the frame of the ramp out of foam board and then making the rampway out of thin cardboard and gluing it all together with PVA glue. Again, as I had done before when the glue had dried I painted the areas of the rampway that would inaccessible when it would be glued down. Finally the ramp was glued on to the hill with the bunker and the platform.

When the glue holding the bunker, platform and ramp had dried, it was time to work on the hill, using a mixture of PVA glue and ready made filler, I spread it all over the hill and also used the mixture to fill in any gaps between the structure and the hill, then using the a good sized paint brush I smoothed out the surface of the hill by just wetting the paint brush and brushing the filler smooth.

Painting

Now with the model complete, it is time to paint it, for terrain I will mostly use Anita’s Acrylics Craft Paint as it more cost effective than Games Workshop’s Citadel Colour range but I do find it not as good on smaller detail, so I use Citadel Colour for this.

I had decided to paint the bunker grey and add a fair amount of weathering to it to show its age.

Firstly the bunker and platform where painted in a basecoat of Dark Grey. Then painted all the raised areas of the model a mixture of Dark Grey and Skull White paint and continued to add more white to the mixture and painted the edges of the models.

With the main coat of grey painted on the bunker and platform, it looked all shiny and new, which was not the look I was going for, so I dry-brushed some Brown paint around the bottom edges of the model and used Tamiya’s Smoke paint on some areas of the model to represent staining.

As for the rampway, it was giving a basecoat of Black and then dry brushed with Bolt Gun Metal when this paint was dry I give the metal area a ink wash of a mixture Brown, Yellow ink and water to age and corrode the metal slightly.

For the hill, I had to first paint the area on which there was no grass with textured paint, then paint that area Brown and dry-brush with a lighter Brown. When that was dry I painted the rest of the hill in Leaf Green paint and left it to dry.

Final Touches

When all the paint was dry it was time to put some flock onto the hill, so the hill got painted in a good layer of PVA glue making sure not to get paint onto the areas that be being left bare, then coat the glue in flock and leave to dry.

Once the glue was dry, I removed the excess flock and painted on patches of PVA glue, added on the pieces of foilage around the bunker and left to dry.

Once the glue dried and any excess foilage was removed, the bunker was completed.

Additional Information

I have drawn up some plans of the pieces used to construct this bunker that you can download and print out to help you build your own bunker.

Bunker Construction Plans

The plans requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print them.