Thursday 13 September 2012

BLOCKHOUSES/BUNKERS

HOW TO MAKE SOMETHING FROM VIRTUALLY NOTHING!



You know the feeling. You've been slaving away on that ball-busting, six month mammoth model building project and suddenly you come to a standstill and decide that a short break is required before your brain goes into total meltdown. Still in "the modelling mood", you look around the work area for a short term creation that will fulfill your yearning to model "something' worthwhile and to take that well earned rest from your current "bigger than Ben Hurr" monstrosity. Your weary eyes catch sight of a pair of styrene foam packing "thingies" that have been occupying the top shelf for a number of years now and something gnaws at the back of your mind that, yes, they can be turned into something useful after all.

After taking a short time to think about what can be done to turn polystyrene foam blocks into some kind of blockhouse/bunker buildings, you begin by adding small sections of leftover cardboard sheets to cover the various faces of the blocks.

Some strips of Evergreen are added to neaten up the adjacent walls, while scraps of plastic edging create interest to the front face. Doing the roof is easy - just find a table tennis ball package and split it in half, along with four light switch wrappings and glue them on top. a few minor pieces of cardboard, some more Evergreen edging and they're ready to prime.


A quick spray with an off-white and they start to resemble what they're supposed to look like - generic blockhouses that could be found in the background of an airport or secret military base. After the addition of some stick-on numbers and letters, followed by some panel lines drawn on with a permanent marker, the weathering is quick and easy - consisting of rubbed on graphite from a lead pencil. A few minor touches and they're both done. Time taken - about 10 hours. Cost - about $2!



































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