Hi Everyone, I'm having a total brain fart, I can't remember if I posted these to you or not.
This is a 88 bunker, it is Tamiya's 88 kit and figures. The bunker and stairs are scratched from the blue insulation board, and the sand bags were made from clay, but as they dried they cracked a bit, oh well. I know there's probably a million things that aren't accurate at all with this, it was really more of an experiment in using the insulation board. I'll say this though, that 88 kit isn't the friendlist to build!
-Kelly

Kelly: I think the diorama looks great (although some of the figures look a bit shiny, maybe the picture?). Could you give an explanation of how you built the bunker with the blue insulation foam board?

Keith

I think it's a really superb piece of work... What really calls the attention is the bunker itself - Brilliant!

I'm not however, a great fan of the figs... Personally I would look for some alternatives - adapting some TriStar ones? It's not your fault, aren't these the ones with the kit?

One thing that I would check out, did the gun have shackles on it when emplaced? those four holes in the cruciform carriage were for putting spikes into the ground to keep it in place - was a similar arrangement necessary in emplacements?

All in all (apart from my niggles), a really nice piece of work...Thanks for sharing it with us!...Jim

Excellent job

The bunker is absolutly great.

The sandbags look great, though a little flat on top

Thanks guys for the comments! Yes the figures came from the kit, and they are shiny, very much to my dismay, I put on three coats of Humbrol flat, and they still came up with a sheen, I think it was an old bottle that had separated. I may go back again, and try to add some of the Vallejo flat and see how that works.

As I said this was an experiment with the blue foamboard, the board is two inches thick stock, I ran a piece through the tablesaw, and then marked out two 45 degree angles, and used my compound mitre saw to cut th angles. This stuff is easy to cut with the saws, you get a fairly smooth cut, and if you want can sand it smoother with sand paper. I did this, and then I cut the upper barriers out of the foam, and glued them in place with white glue. Then I used Creamcoat Quaker Grey acryllic paint and brushed on three coats. I then hit it with a straight black artist oil wash, and as soon as I added the wash, the effect was perfect, it gave that rough concrete appearence. Then I just added some drybrushing and pastels to finish it off. Oh, and before painting, I took a knife and gouged out some holes here and there for a more of a broken effect.

Agreed with the others, the bunker looks excellent.
I'd reconsider the placement of the spotter and rangefinder. I don't think standing under the barrel of a gun during a firing exercise would be a great idea. I'd move them off to the side, even if they leave an open space in bunker. Unless this is supposed to be the beach, I'd darken the soil and add some grass.

Very nice diorama I like it a lot. I like that you scratch built the majority of it too. Well done.

The bunker is awesome. When I initially read that the bunker was made out of foam, I went "oh no, this can't be good." Then I looked at the pictures, and "WOW!" Amazing. The small indentations, holes, and the overall texture is very good. I will however, say take some of the sand and dirty up the bunker floor. After living in Florida for many years (or any place with a beach), my parents (much to their dismay) found, through me, how much sand gets EVERYWHERE. I can't comment on the figures, they look fine to me. But then again, I don't do many figures.

Jeff

the bunker is really great, especially the spilled oil effect on the steps. However, I agree with AJLaFleche on giving more info on the setting. If it is a practice session the men should be a bit more relaxed, and if it is in combat you should add a bit more environmental stuff, and maybe some trees to counter the 88's increased visibility due to the raised bunker.

however, as you yourself said, details aside, it really looks amazing.

Im with the others..very nice bunker work!

I kind of wanted this to be a beach setting, and I had some craft sand kicking around, so I decided I would put it to use. Al, you're right about the two guys in front, I wouldn't want to be under there when they fired!
Budget restricts me from going nuts on the AM stuff, so I'm content to use what I got LOL I'm awaiting pics from my current dio with a panzer IV J, soon as I get 'em, I'll put them up.

looks great

Nice diorama. 8.8cm Flak 36/37 lookes awesome. Figures are good too ! Your bunker is done very well for scratch-built.

Cheers !

Alpen

I don't recall seeing this bunker before but even if you did post them before, I'm glad you posted them again. Fantastic work

Kelly,

Pardon the redundancy, but I must reiterate what has already been said, great work on the bunker.

Jay

That really does look like concrete. Great job.

the bunker really looks like REAL concrete! Excellent job!

oh yea, the picture on the rifle...i think it is really dangerous to place a rifle down pointing straight at someone! In the army no one does that! They try to keep the rifle upright... just a nit pick

Hey,nice beach dio kid!

This is very well done diorama Kelly. Congrats
The details are excellent. The base looks great. You can add some color nuances, or shades to the sand.

Thanks all for the kind words! Its funny how you think you've got every possible detail put into your dio, others comment on this and that, you go back and look at it again and go D'OH! why didn't I see that?! LOL
I'm really pleased at how the "concrete" turned out, people in our club couldn't believe it was foam!
Russ, you should put a few pics of your little beach bunker up here as well!

Indeed it came out fantastic. I too cannot believe that it is just painted foam. If you hadn't said anything I would have guessed that the foam was covered with some type of a plaster and then painted. Excellent job!

Ok Kelly,in keeping with the theme of bunkers on this thread here is the idea;

and this what I came up with;

and...

and finally the overall picture.

Well you certainly put those chunks of the foam to good use Russ, it's as close to the pic as you can get, and a great subject, very different. Awesome work as usual!

Fantastic work KellyZak. If this is what comes out of brain fart then I'm looking forward to more.

For me it was the wash. It really made the bunker which itself was good work and made it great. Nice weathered down effect on 88. Just to be nitpicky if this is a beach scenario you might see a bit more rust on the metal parts as any exposed metal parts tend to rust even after a couple of days at the beach.

Talk about bunkers galore, that's an excellent one too SAS from the debris inside the bunker to the cigarette.