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