Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Ruined Terrain 2 - The Bunker

This post will detail my creation of a 40k bunker, with removable roof, so you can keep your units on the table when you occupy it. Oddly enough the styrofoam block I used for this was perfect in scale and size in that it can easily fit 10-15 men squads inside, and is tall enough to place the roof on top and clear the heads of marine sized models, and it just came out of an electronics box ready to be trashed! The first thing was measuring out the inside cut, which was 1" away from the edges. Any less and it would be unstable walls and any thicker and you could fit a max of 10 models, tightly. I measured the windows to be 1" wide and .5" tall, plenty big to place a lascannon or HB through the window. I also traced out two Rhino doors, one on either side, as entry points. Per the buildings rule, you could claim the doors to be open and gain an extra "firing point" but risk a +1 on the damage table.
 
 The roof was an additional piece of styrofoam, also the perfect size right out of the box. I decided to add a radio tower out of a plastic mounting arm from a hamster cage I have. Odd I know, but it also looked pretty good as is, but I added a Landspeeder antenna to it and a Dark Angels Icon as a sort of radar dish. I also added a small "electrical box." I smoothed down the Rhino door area so it would be flush with the walls, and not just sticking out like a sore thumb. I just used some PVA glue to secure it to the surface.
I also added Rhino head lights next to the two entrances and added two lamps from the Landspeeder sprue to either side of the bunker with no doors, to act as spot lamps. Since they were just lamps with no mounting, I took actual sprue bits to act as a arm from the bunker wall and glued the lamp to that. I base coated it in black spray paint, being very careful with that, and then watered down some Codex Gray and brushed it on. I used some of the styrofoam shavings dipped in paint to give the surface a rough look. Sand would be better, but I didn't have a source of that at the time.
 
I use the same technique as on the walls to wear down the edges of the building and the roof, to take off the sharp edges. The little pipes in the foreground were my test bed for painting rust and it came out well. Plus I now have a stack of rusty pipes to place anywhere to add a bit of flavor. Finally, I added some Dark Angels icons to the doors, including a Dreadnought face plate. I painted the rust on the doors, lights, and roof stuff by starting with watered down Blood Red, followed by watery Snake Bite Leather. I focused on the edges of things, hinges, and rivets.
 
And here are some close up shots for details.
 So, let me know what you think. I'm quite happy with it for being a simple job. More detailed people might put more layers and highlights of paint, but I think it looks fine the way it is. Much better than cardboard buildings we've been using so far and our first actual bunker that units can occupy. Next up will be my tips and tricks I picked up while doing this project, as well as pics of my destroyed bunker.

3 comments:

the other Kevin said...

Looks great!

SynnerG said...

Thanks! I might do an update to this and add some age to the concrete to match the rusted metal.

brent said...

It's a good size choice if your models can fit in it. Who would want to take their models off the table?

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