Bunker / Gun Emplacement scene (25 Viewers)

[fmethorst]

Hi all,

This winter's project is a Bunker / Gun Emplacement scene.

Last years Creek diorama: https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/showthread.php?78224-Creek-crossing-Autumn-scene


To start we used a 40" x 48" piece of 3/4" plywood. While this base is thick and heavy it provides sufficient stiffness to avoid warping by the Celluclay. Since we don't have to ship this anywhere it doesn't need to be modular or light.

There are three elements to this scene:

1. a bunker made of logs, rocks, dirt
2. a gun emplacement (3 ft below ground level)
3. ground work, dirt, rocks, foliage, tracks, etc.

The creek was the difficult element in last years dio. This years will likely be the bunker.

 

[villagehorse]

A great project expected to finish up as amazing, that’s my prediction. Robin.

 

[Woodyskysolo]

Can't wait to see how this turns out

 

[Horus]

Yes can see a lot of thought has hone into this new project and look forward to seeing it progress and new scenes crested when finished.

 

[mestell]

Looking forward to following this thread and seeing it develop . . .

Mike

 

[fmethorst]

A little more progress.

Painting and filing 3/8" dowels create decent looking logs.











We decided to use a saddle notch for the log bunker but we ran into some challenges with tear out. We've ordered a different bit to attempt to remediate the issue.

 

[fmethorst]

Working on the groundwork.

Sanding a ramp into the gun pit.





Adding the first celluclay





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We ordered some different sized toothed belts to help create tread tracks.

 

[fmethorst]

Working on the groundwork.

Sanding a ramp into the gun pit.





Adding the first celluclay





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We ordered some different sized toothed belts to help create tread tracks.

 

[fmethorst]

The new bit arrived. I put the dowels into the vise was able to drill a 3/8" hole through them. This creates two saddle notches.







Testing placement of the log base in the gun pit with a couple of models.





Gluing the logs in place. We'll be adding celluclay ground in the remainder of the pit.

 

[fmethorst]

Building up "dirt" around the edge of the gun pit. This should have come from the material removed when creating the pit. Additional material will be used on the bunker.









Adding raw umber acrylic paint to the wet celluclay. This is done to facilitate pressing rocks into the ground work.

 

[Andanna]

Frank, I learn a lot from this for my own displays. Thank you for the tutorials.

 

[fmethorst]

We've been busy so not a lot of progress. Hopefully over Christmas we'll have some more time to work on this.

So the dirt around the gun pit dried strangely, shiny and dark, and I'm not convinced it's quite high enough once another layer of cellu-clay goes on the rest of the board to facilitate more texture like tracks. That will need more work.

In the mean time we worked on the retaining wall in the gun pit. This was made from a bag of wooden craft picks, cut to size.















The wall will be buttressed with log poles in the corners

 

[OzDigger]

Frank, I'm looking forward to seeing the completion, looks great so far.

 

[fmethorst]

Painting and installing the retaining wall.

 

[MLH13]

Spectacular work so far, Frank! The finished product is going to look amazing.

Mark

 

[fmethorst]

Time to add tracks. On the autumn creek crossing we added a single track. This time I wanted to add multiple tracks of different types to give the impression that an armored unit with multiple vehicle types had passed by.

First up a generous layer of celluclay





A few passes of an Opel Blitz



Next up I used a small inverted toothed belt to represent Panzer III/IV class tracked vehicles. In the past I had used models from my collection but this process is messy and hard on the models so I thought I'd give the belt idea a try. I think from a low angle these will look legit.



This was followed by a wider belt representing Panzer V/VI class tracked vehicles

 

[fmethorst]

Added posts to the corners of the retaining wall and back filled the dirt.







Building up the berm surrounding the gun pit

 

[fmethorst]

Adding the ground to the gun pit.









Adding prime mover tracks





Adding heavy tracks in the bottom of the pit representing the wheels of a Pak43. The closest thing I had to the right width was my magnifying glass, improvise, adapt, overcome. The intent is to fill these tracks with muddy water as this is a low point



A whole pile of Opel Blitz tracks, which fortunately hides the fact my prime mover tracks are too wide.

 

[fmethorst]

Touch ups

 

[Louis Badolato]

Just amazing, Frank!:salute::