40k Communications bunker

For a bit of nostalgia, I have decided to try my hand at a 40k Communications bunker over the weekend.

It was first featured as a terrain project in a web magazine by Games workshop USA called Black Gobbo (I miss that site!).  Needless to say I managed to track down the site through the "wayback machine" internet archive, link below:-  

http://web.archive.org/web/20070702180634/http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40k/gaming/articles/commbunker/default.htm

Sadly to say most of the links are broken and the templates are no longer available.

I managed to find one or two images using the wayback machine site to get a rough idea of how to build this piece of terrain. Some of the instructions are still available within the site (link above) but most of the pictures are missing. So using any available pictures I can find and the instruction in the site as my guide, I started to build the bunker.

Refer orriginal picture

First I cut four walls (roughly 5" x 5") out of a 5mm thick foam board. Next task is to cut the buttress elements and door components. Then on all four of the walls, I cut a 45 degree angle technique on the sides. This is to allow the walls, when fixed together to “butt up” against one another.
 

I then cut some groves into to of the side walls for where the buttress would go in. The buttresses are cut out of thick 2 ply cardboard. It was such a chore to cut the buttresses, so I cheated by cutting less then needed. (I know the original instruction uses plastic card, but I like using card board and it’s cheaper as well!)

After attaching the buttresses, I fixed three out of four walls together with PVA glue. In order to make the roof of the building I measured the opening at the top and cut out a foam board to suit. The roof itself is held up by some extra pieces of foam board within the bunker. I only then glued the last wall to the rest after fixing the roof.

I then proceeded to cut out 4 pieces of cardboard which will be used to cover the corners of the bunker. Later I also cut out some strips of cardboard as surround piece to wrap around the top. I then glue them to the bunker as shown in picture below. 

 

The top parapet wall was a little tricky as again I had to measure to suit and cut out the angles to have the whole parapet to mitre against one and other in a 45 degree angle. For this I used a thicker cardboard about 2ply. To finish off I glued the doors and buttresses to the side(yes i know i have been supporting a particular fast food chain during my scratch building projects; just to show any cardboard will do and I do recycle all the time! :P) .

All you need is to paint, and it's finish. I actually used a Dulux branded paint "grey with texture". 

You can add other 40k icons eg the imperial eagle or chaos icons to finish off, but that is up to your own creative taste. 

You can also use this as a bastion to your 40k games and add weapons to this piece of terrain as shown in picture above.


As always, good luck in your scratch building
Capt. Stainguard

Scratch building 40k Barricades

I  have decided to kick-start the year by making some terrain. The first thing that caught my eye was the wooden rulers for sale at the departmental stores (eg k-mart or Office works here in Australia) for school kids at the start of school season. 

One of my basic rules for scratch building terrain; base your terrain/scenery on a solid base. This is a no brainier because your terrain will last longer. So Wooden rulers, make good bases for barricades.

What you need

Utility knife

Metal Ruler

PVA glue

Materials

Wooden ruler

Bits of foam board

Corrugated cardboard

Sand/flock

Citadel paints

Instructions

I cut the rulers in half (I bought the 30mm ones) with a utility knife. You can choose to cut the sides to give it a less squarish look if you wish.

The next step is to cut some foam board and stick it to the wooden base using PVA glue. Fortunately for me I have lots of left overs from previous projects. I prefer to have the foam board glued on in bits (just enough to cover your models) to represent rubble so you get that ruin city look.

Cut some corrugated card board. You can purchase this in any stationary store (or get them from takeaway pizza boxes). Cut them into triangles and stick them behind the foam board walls. This will act as roof sheeting debris or just bit of metal fencing being propped together in a warzone.

Now using a wet brush evenly spread some PVA glue to the surface of the base.

Not my favourite part because it can get messy. Quickly after this process, add sand (or flock) and leave to dry. Make sure the PVA is dried before proceeding to make sure the sand is sealed in!

Now you are almost done. Base coat the terrain with chaos black (I sometimes tend to add a light wash of PVA glue and water just to seal in the sand before base coating).

I used a dry brush technique to paint my terrain. I started painting the base, first with snake bite leather (or scorch brown).

The exposed foam board is dry brush painted with codex grey. I then painted the corrugated board with brazen brass. Finally paint boltgun metal over the top bits of the corrugated board.

There you have it, some 40k barricades!

I would like to encourage you to give this a try but if this is too time consuming and messy for you, I have some on ebay for you to bid, just to save you the trouble.

40k barricades at ebay

As always, good luck in your scratch building

Capt. Stainguard