Terrain Tutorial: Tank Obstacles the easy way

Last time I covered tank traps, large metal constructions made of girders. This time I offer the simpler way to stop tanks. In fact, this is so simple it barely needs an article! All you need for this is -

* Sand
* PVA glue
* Base (as usual I'm using a CD)
* Cardboard (to cover the central hole in the CD)
* Superglue
* Hot glue gun and sticks
* Paint
* A spare lump of polystyrene

1) Grab your spare bit of polystyrene and cut some similarly shaped squares out of it. Carve these so they look like pyramids with the ops sliced off. They don't have to be very tall You probably won't need more than an inch (25mm) in height at the most. See Fig 1.

2) Superglue some cardboard to cover the hole in the CD. Then use the hot glue gun to secure the pyramidal lumps to the base. Spread them out a bit so infantry can still get through, but bikers and tanks will have trouble. See Fig .2.

3) Apply a layer of diluted PVA to everything, and tip sand over it all. Wait for it to dry, then apply another coat of diluted PVA, and let that dry.

4) Undercoat everything and set to work painting. Drybrush the pyramidal lumps with successively lighter greys, then drybrush the ground in dirt tones until you're happy. See Fig. 3. You can add bits of model grass to add colour, or spare things from your bits box to tie them to a particular army. I have deliberately left these very generic.

Happy gaming, folks!

Terrain Tutorial: Tank Traps

When I was a little boy, I used to love to sit and stare at old war films on the television. One of my favourite was The Longest Day, which depicts the successful (thank Heaven!) Allied invasion of Normandy in WWII. The beach assault scenes are particularly striking. The German defenders have deployed thousands of obstacles to prevent Allied tanks from landing and moving inland. There is a very simple way of making these: get some H-Beam or I-Beam plasticard pieces, chop them up and stick them together. However, I had none to hand. So instead I took some 0.5mm plasticard and some 2mm plasticard and set out to make some simple girders.

1) Take some 2mm-thick plasticard, and cut strips that are 5mm by 50mm. You will need three for each obstacle you mean to make.
2) Take some 0.5mm-thick plasticard and cut some strips that are the same dimensions. You will need twice as many of these as of the 2mm-thick pieces.
3) Glue one of the narrow long edges of the 2mm-thick plasticard to the middle of a thinner strip, creating a very long T-shape. See Fig. 1. Leave to dry.
4) Glue another thin piece of plasticard to the other side of the 2mm-thick strip, creating your girder. Repeat until you have three girders for each tank trap you mean to make. See Fig. 2.
5) You are now going to glue the girders together, which is made a lot easier by having more surface area. Glue a few small offcuts of plasticard in the middle of two girders, see Fig. 2 again. Then glue them together at this point, so they form a cross. See Fig. 2 yet again. Leave to dry.
6) Take the third girder and glue this between the two girders, see Fig. 3. Leave it to dry, or hold it to dry if you cannot get it to sit still happily. Once this has dried you will have what is effectively a tripod.
7) At this point you can either paint the finished tank obstacle or you can base it. If you do, I offer again the option of basing a pair of them on an unwanted CD. If you place them right, you should be able to fit a HW Team in the empty space of the CD. See Fig. 4.

8) If you decide to base them, superglue a bit of card on the CD to cover the central hole. Use a hot glue gun to secure the tank traps to the base, then apply a coat of dilute PVA and tip sand over the top. Once this has dried apply another coat of dilute PVA, wait for that to dry and then set to painting.
9) I undercoated everything black, and then painted the tank traps with an obsolete GW Foundation Paint, and drybrushed them with the remnants of a pot of Boltgun Metal, then splodged on a few bits of Mithril Silver. You can apply some more washes and inks at this point if you like. Then I painted the ground in my preferred colours. See Figs. 5, 6 & 7.

As usual, apologies for Blogger's reordering of my photographs. They are numbered so you can see what I mean despite the blog's attempt to sabotage me! Happy gaming, folks!

Terrain Tutorial: Simpler Mini Bunkers for 40K

Some time ago I offered up a tutorial on mini bunkers which can enclose a single HW Team. I noticed two things about them that could be improved on. First, they relied on a store of plasticard, and on laminating it. So this has been replaced  with foamcard, which is easier to cut to shape. Second, they were designed only with Imperial Guard models in mind. I realised that just adding a little height would allow them to be used for taller miniatures, such as Space Marines toting Missile Launchers, opening up a wider vista of opportunities for these little fellas. So now they are more versatile! Ever the recycler, I have re-used some pictures and text from the earlier tutorial. Here's how you make the simpler bunkers.

* Plasticard sheet (0.5mm thickness)
* Plasticard rod (of whichever size you feel best suits buttons, rivets and door-hinges)
* Polystyrene cement
* Cardboard
* Foamcard (5mm thickness)
* Green Stuff or Milliput
* Superglue
* Sand
* Paint
* PVA glue
* Spare CDs or other things to use as bases
* Hot glue gun and sticks
* Ruler
* Pencil
* Knife

1) Grab yourself a bit of cardboard. A cereal box would be fine. Mark yourself a square with sides of 3" (75mm), and cut it out. Find the midpoint of each side, mark half an inch (12.5mm) either side of this, so that there is an inch (25mm) marked in the middle of each side. Trace lines between these so as to create a slightly irregular octagon. Cut along these lines to create such an octagon. Using superglue, secure this template to the centre of your CD, remembering not to put glue where the hole will be, accidentally gluing it to your work surface! For a plan see Fig. 1, and see Fig. 2 for the cardboard glued in place.

2) Cut a strip of foamcard that is 45mm across. If you want a taller bunker, just increase this measurement. Cut three 25mm strips. See Fig. 3.

3) Using the hot glue gun, glue the three strips to the perimeter of your card template and try to ensure they set in a vertical position. Then trim some more pieces of the foamcard to slightly longer than the gaps between them, and dry-fit them in place. Trim them to size with your knife, and then use the hot glue gun to secure them. For the front of the bunker, do not add the very front wall until last. First make your rough cuts of the front left and front right sides. You should have an angular C-shape and reversed shape. The bottom of the C should be 14mm, the top and side 10mm. Glue them in place with the hot glue gun. See Fig. 4.

4) Cut a couple of pieces of foamcard to fill the gaps in the front of the building, and with the hot glue gun, secure them in place. See Fig. 5. Now trim down the odd protrusions and smooth out the sides of the bunker as much as you can with your knife. Cutting a lot of foamcore may blunt it, so do change the blade if you need to. Now you can, if you, like, add a layer of 0.5mm-thick plasticard around the outside (and inside) of the bunker, and fill in any empty spots with GS or Milliput. I only had GS at the time. See Fig. 6.

5) Now use a bit of plasticard and knock up a door for the back of the bunker. Apply rivets and a handle or control panel and superglue it in place. See Fig. 7. You can compare the two different designs of bunker in Fig 8. The walls of this newer bunker are a bit thicker, as you can see. Turn the bunker upside down on a sheet of foamcard, and trace around itsedges. Carefully cut this shape out of the foamcard, trim it a little, and you should have a perfectly fitting roof.

6) Now grab a  load of sand and some slightly diluted PVA glue. Apply the PVA liberally to the bunker, and to the roof, and apply sand atop this. Remember to scrape off any sand that gunks up the door. Wait for this to dry, then apply a coat of dilute PVA over the top of it for it to dry. Then undercoat as you wish, and set to painting. See Figs. 9 & 10.

Some of the pictures below are out of numerical order. Blogger seems to enjoy doing this. Attempts to move them always result in a mess. They are labelled with the correct numbers, so you shan't get too lost! Happy gaming, folks!

Terrain Feature: Bunker Variations

Hey up, folks. The other day I promised you some variations on the "bunker fit for a squad". There are three varieties of bunker here. All of them share a common feature: I trimmed off the top of the plastic tub, which is a thin lip that rests on the gaming table otherwise. The first of these is a modification of the original Squad Bunker. As I mentioned in that tutorial, you might get opponents raising eyebrows about LOS from any HW Teams in the building, as the guns cannot poke out the openings. This version of the bunker solves that problem, not having vision slits so much as gaping holes out of which regular infantry models and HW Teams can both draw LOS to models outside. As well as this, I have painted this model so it seems to fit a "Red Planet" theme. Anyway, see Fig. 1-3.

The second and third versions are both designed with HW Squads in mind. For both of these the foamcard is glued on externally, leaving enough space within for three HW Team bases. If the foamcard were applied internally, there just would not be enough room. Anyway, one is modelled to allow the HW Squad to have one gun of the Heavy Weapon Squad pointing out to cover most of the approaches to the bunker See Figs. 4 & 5. To be honest, I am not sure how LOS works in the current incarnation of 40K, so this might not be that helpful. But if that is so, then the third iteration is the one you want. I have carved out the front of the bunker, creating a "vision slit" which gives the three HW bases excellent forward LOS and pretty good side ones, too. If you have enemy coming at you from the font and simultaneously sweeping around your sides, this is the version you want to give your HW Squad the best protection while allowing the best field of fire. See Figs 6-9.


Stay tuned for more terrain updates, folks!