The bunker is done!
The bunker languished for a bit, but I pushed ahead and
finished the damn thing.
The top of the structure required grass/foliage to give it a more realistic look; plain mud wouldn’t suffice. My original plan was to
use Woodland Scenics static grass, but after a few test shots and a serious zap
from my static grass applicator, I went with Plan B — AK Dried Sea Grass. It
comes in small, tightly packed balls of some seaweed/plant that needs to be cut
or pulled apart. I cut it with a small pair of scissors and found it difficult
to get anything longer than a few millimeters. I applied a coat of Liquitex
Matte Medium and sprinkled the Sea Grass quite heavily over it. I’ve used Sea
Grass before, and it always lies flat when used in this manner. This time, it
looked more like static grass. Lots of it stood upright. Perhaps because I used
a lot of it, along with the Matte Medium? Who knows, but I’m not
complaining. I let it dry overnight and then
airbrushed it with Tamiya Flat Earth XF-52, followed by a grass green
concoction mix from Tamiya Yellow Green XF-4 and Flat Green XF-5. It turned out
to be too bright (almost Day-Glo), so I mixed in some Flat Earth and sprayed that to give it a Fall/Winter look.
After this, I added some small pieces of plant root on the roof to represent dead weeds. I gave the ground in front of the bunker a coat of Liquitex Gloss Medium with a small amount of Liquitex Matte Medium mixed in, and then sprinkled small pieces of plant root to add to the general chaos of the scene. Finally, I used a Green Stuff World 1/35 Leaf Punch to make a bunch of dead leaves. Through prior experimentation, I found that the thin brown paper from Amazon packaging yielded the best leaves. I painted a few sections with burnt umber craft paint and started punching away. I glued them down on both the roof and ground with Liquitex Matte Medium and then gave each one a glaze of either raw umber craft paint or VMC #819 Iraqi Sand. I also added a German mess kit and ammo pouch from Tamiya to add to the clutter. When I came up with the idea of using a door for the bunker, I wanted some junk hanging out. I used Tamiya two-part epoxy putty (smooth version) to sculpt something resembling a piece of clothing/uniform. I used the leftover putty to create small, wadded-up pieces of cloth, which were placed in several spots on the base. I used lead fly-tying wire to replicate cables hanging out of the hatch opening. I think I should have used real wire instead of lead; they look too thick. Now that the bunker is done, it's time to paint the figure.
RJH
