Pimp Your Bunker Part IV: Final Touches

Pimp Your Bunker IV Adding the Finishing Touches by Mike Haught I booked plenty of time this week to get the bunker to its final state! I've added a few things to finish out the piece. Check out the Anti-tank Pillboxes box set here...    See part one of this article series here.... See part two of this article series here ... See part three of this article series here ...

Barbed Wire The first thing I worked on this week was the double apron barbed wire entanglement. Using nylon thread for the wire I strung it through the fence posts, also known as pickets. As a side note, I  highly recommend not using cotton thread as it tends to look frayed once its painted. I had pre-drilled the holes so to make the process of threading the wire easier and fastened the wire with super glue.

Once the main fence was done, I did the double aprons on either side, zig-zagging the thread from the anchoring spikes over the fence posts and to the kitty-corner anchoring spike. I did this all of the way down and then reversed to cover the rest.  After all the glue had dried I painted the pickets Beige Brown (VP875) and then highlighted the edges and tops with Buff (VP976) to simulate worn wood. The wire was painted with Gunmetal Grey (VP863). I achieved the barbs by loading up my paintbrush with lots of paint and then running it perpendicular to the thread allowing it to bead up.

The Motivational Poster Some bunkers had motivational posters and patriotic slogans decorating the exterior and interior walls. I had a go at some German calligraphy and immediately recognised that it was not in my skill set, so I settled for a poster instead. I found some posters on the web and reduced them in photoshop before printing one off. I fatigued the top to look like it has been ripped by the explosion on the exterior wall.  Once I had glued it into place, I painted some glue residue behind the poster with Ivory (VP918), then gave the whole poster a light brown wash to "grunge" it up a bit.

The Card Game I wanted to do something interesting for the side opposite the barbed wire and came up with an idea to represent an interrupted card game. The idea here was to have a table with a few stools around it and a bunch of cards strewn across the table. The crew of the bunker were obviously playing a round of German poker (is that a thing?) when one of them noticed a few ships on the horizon. As the first naval shell screamed overhead, the crew dropped everything and manned their gun, leaving their cards, bets, and an MG42 outside!  If you look closely, you will notice that one player held a mighty hand of a pair of fours, while the other was well on his way to earning a straight, which would have won him a grand total of 15 Reichsmarks and some change (red bills and coins at the upper left hand coner of the table).

And that's that! Now that the bunker is all finished, I'll need to work on another, as well as a 5cm KwK nest, so this is really only the beginning. Thanks for reading! Mike