The bunker again...

After all the shenanigans with the bunker, I set it aside and focused on the hatch/door just to the left of the tanker. The steel door is an old 1/25 Tamiya Tiger I turret loader's hatch that I’ve had in my spare parts box since the 70s. I added some bolt heads (one was from the suspension from an ancient Monogram M3 Lee) and a ring door pull from sheet plastic and copper wire. I painted it with a spray can of Tamiya TS-70 JGSDF Olive Drab. I use rattle cans for little stuff like the door; I’m too lazy to use my airbrush for something this small. I have no idea what color the hatch should be, but green seemed like a viable option, and I also already had the can. As I mentioned earlier, I have several pictures of German bunkers, and no two doors or hatches are the same. To be honest, the bunker was built around the hatch. When I started planning to put this vignette together, I knew I wanted a door or hatch. The Tiger I loader's hatch just happens to be the exact size of two Lego bricks with four studs on the top. The hatch was the perfect candidate; it was big and clunky-looking with some great bolt detail. It also had the added bonus of having the hinge assembly attached.

After I sprayed it with Tamiya XF-70, which, for some reason, dried with a slight sheen, I applied a good coat of Testors Flat to prepare it for the weathering process. I used a heavy coat of my homemade wash (all of my leftover greens, browns, and grays are dumped in a squeeze bottle with some distilled water), and then I went back in and used a diluted pin wash of AK Burnt Umber Pin Wash. The wash from AK is enamel, so I thinned it with odorless mineral spirits. After the  AK wash had dried a bit, I went in with a #0 brush dipped in mineral spirits and cleaned my messy pin wash job. I then used VMC #894 Russian Uniform to highlight the edges of the hatch. I added a sludgy oil wash of ABT 502 Industrial Earth to the hinge assembly and some chipping and rust to the edges of the hatch. 

Underneath the door is a brick step made from pink insulation foam. I have a photo in my bunker reference file that shows a brick step beneath an open door. The bricks were large, almost the size of something you’d see in a backyard patio. I made three; they looked like crap. Plan B was put in place. Why not just regular bricks used in home construction? I made three, picking the one with the fewest flaws.  I sealed it with Titebond II and then painted it with a variety of dark red and orangish colors. I used dollar store spackle diluted with water for the mortar. I covered the entire step with the spackle, waited a minute or so, and then wiped it off using a damp paper towel. By doing this, it leaves the spackle in the spaces between the bricks and also tones down the brightness of the paint on the bricks. After everything dried, I applied a light application of my homemade wash. A gentle touch is needed because the spackle can be activated by water. Later on, I went back and applied a darker wash randomly to break up the color of the mortar.

My original plan for the step was a stack of old boards instead of brick; I was going to use short sections of board staked in at either end to keep the pile from slipping and sliding. I liked how the slats and stakes looked, so I used them with the bricks instead. The slats and stakes are made from sheet styrene with wood grain added using a saw blade and a hobby knife. I primed them with Tamiya White Spray Primer and then painted them with Mig acrylic Old Wood, followed by an application of my homemade wash. I thinned the wash so I could control the darkness of the boards. Some people simply slop the wash on full strength and end up covering the fine detail and altering the color of whatever they've applied the wash to. I got the desired look I was after with two thin applications of the wash.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment.

RH

 More fun with the bunker

When the epoxy putty patchwork was dry, the bunker received a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 White Primer. The next day, it was airbrushed with Tamiya Deck Tan. I let this dry for a day or so and then stippled on a variety of gray and tan acrylics to give the bunker a somewhat weathered concrete appearance. A wash of thinned burnt umber ink (with AK Ultra Flat added) was used to tone down the stippling. I then went in with thinned black ink and used that to shade certain areas.

I have several pictures that show the Germans had numbers painted on some of their bunkers. Seems like a good idea to me, plus it adds some visual interest to a plain cement wall. I used Tamiya tape to mark off a reasonably sized square in the upper right-hand corner of the bunker. I have no idea what colors should be, but I went with a black background and a white number. I used a small piece of sponge to apply the paint to make sure that it didn’t bleed under the tape. As for the number, I just wanted a large single digit. So, in my typical overthinking way, I went through my entire decal stash trying to find just the “right” looking number. After spending way too much time searching, I finally gave up and just looked for a number that would fit the black square. I settled on a white number seven from a set of ancient 1/35 Verlinden WW2 German tank dry transfers.

I cut out the seven and, holding it with a pair of locking tweezers, I lined it up so it wasn’t too crooked or off-center and taped it down with some small pieces of Tamiya tape. I used a worn-down #2 pencil to burnish the number to the bunker. When I removed the tape, it looked good. There were a few spots where the white of the number stayed on the backing film; it gave the number a slightly worn, chipped look. This was a rather nice surprise. I then went in and applied several light layers of a brown wash over the square and number to tone it down and tie it in with the rest of the bunker.   

Even with the number added to the wall, it still looked rather dull. I added a piece of evergreen angle iron with three rivets made with my ever-faithful Waldron Punch and Die set. I glued it over the door as a quasi-awning. It doesn’t look as if it would stop very much rain, but it adds a bit of interest to a bleak section of cement. Even after adding the number and angle iron, I thought it still needed something. I decided to make a bolt or anchor plate. I cut some Evergreen strip styrene into small squares and then punched out large and small discs with my punch set. I then carefully glued everything together using Testors Liquid Cement. I like Testors because it dries slower than other similar model glues; it allows me to make sure everything is aligned properly.

I wanted the awning and anchor plate very rusty; they were just chunks of unpainted iron at the mercy of the elements. They were primed with Tamiya White Spray Primer and then base coated with Golden Artist Acrylics Burnt Sienna. I then added some Jo Sonja Burnt Umber to the Burnt Sienna and created a thick wash to darken everything down. This was followed by several washes of VMC #981 Orange Brown to lighten things up. The angle iron turned out great, while the anchor plates turned out to be a real pain-in-the-ass. For the life of me, I just couldn’t get the rust look I wanted. I must have painted and stripped the plates four or five times before I was happy with how they turned out. I picked the best one and glued it in the upper left-hand corner of the bunker.

More to come…

RH