Just about good enough quick bunkers out of spare cardboard

[Bonehead]

Got some chairs from Ikea, and was left with a bunch of spare cardboard from the packaging. I mean, a lot:

These sheets are more than two feet long. And my recycling bin was nearly full from just the boxes, so i figured I'd try and make a few copies of this bunker that I had somehow managed to keep left over form my teenage modelling years. It's so incredibly simple that even I, a complete terrain novice, and an idiot on top of that, was able to remake it first try after taking just a few minutes to think about it. This is the bunker:

All you need to make it is a measuring device capable of scribing out a 45-degree angle. You can see in the photo above that I've drawn out the necessary shape to cut out. I copied the dimensions from the original bunker, but realistically you can make them any size at all. Aim for the lower line at the base to be around 10cm/4 inches. Then you just use your measuring tool (i.e. a protractor) to draw a line at 45 degrees to your original line, as in the photo. Do that at the other end of your 10cm line as well. Then use a ruler to measure about two inches/50cm at a right angle directly up from your original line, in the same direction as your 45-degree lines. Once you have this distance measured, use a ruler to join the two 45-degree lines with another line that is parrallel to the original 10cm line. This will give you the cut-off pyramid shape that forms one of the four sides of the bunker. This final line will be about 6cm long.

Then repeat the process, using one of your 45-degree lines as a starting point from which to draw another cut-off pyramid shape. check the measurements are the same, then repeat two more times until you get the half-octagon sigil in the image above.

You're about ready to cut it out, but before you do, add a little extra piece to one of the outermost pyramid sections- either end of the four will do. Then cut the whole thing out, and you should get this:

The little extra piece we added on before cutting is the tab that will allow us to glue the whole thing together.

Use a ruler to bend a hard corner into the card at every line that joins the edges of two pyramid sections, and the tab. At this point the entire thing should pretty much just fold up into the bunker shape. Like this:

Chuck a bit of superglue onto the tab, hold the thing steady for a minute, and you're done with the outside.

Next, measure out a square of card that's about 75mm on a side. Roughly just under 3 inches.

Before you cut that out, add some tabs to each side of the square, roughly 1cm/ 1/2 inch wide. Cut the resulting shape out, and bend up the tabs with a ruler.

Put glue on each tab, and fit the square up inside the bunker.

Cut out an access hole and you're done.

Add detailing to taste, paint it, whatever. Make a bunch more. Join some together in a pretty half-assed way using offcuts. The world's your oyster.

Are they good? No. they're not. They're pretty terrible. Do they take about ten minutes? Yes. Can you make them out of old cereal boxes? Yep. Are they better than nothing, for almost no effort? You betcha.

You can vary the design very easily. Make a bigger one to fit more troops in. Make the upper lip and internal floor lower for one that also fits more models in without a larger footprint. These are so simple that once you've made a single one of them you're automatically so much of an expert you can immediately begin to experiment with new designs.

Go nuts. Cheers!

Edited December 4 by Bonehead
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[Bonehead]

Here's some more things that use the same basic design. This'll be the last thing I add here and it's just to demonstrate that with some very minor variations you can create pretty different things. Alongside the two from the post above, there are now three shorter, narrower bunkers- as if the bottom had been cut off and thrown away, leaving a lower overall height. Essentially that turns them from watchtowers more into small defensive positions. Two have been joined to accentuate the idea.

Then to the rear at the left, are three that have been made as if the top had been cut off and thrown away instead. These will now comfortably accomodate nine models on 25mm bases, or alternatively one side could be cut and bended down to create a basic ramp, leading up to a firing platform for a support weapon. You could join them with a low revetment like the smaller bunkers are joined, to make a prepared emplacement for a battery of weapons. Again, once you've got the hang of it you can knock these out in no time.

[N1SB]

I absolutely love this because a.) it looks good and b.) I can sum up my entire life existence as "just about good enough".  I can really relate with these bunkers.

 

But these are way better than just about good enough.  These are really cool.  I'm going to think about this, thanks for sharing.

[Bonehead]

My pleasure. Good luck if you decide to have a go at some!

[Brother Tyler]

These are great! And the same thing can be done with foamcore, to boot.

 

Two additional things you can do to enhance them are:

1. Use wood putty or similar material to fill in the seams and exposed fluting/innards of the cardboard.
2. Use textured spray paint to give the surface a more "natural" concrete/ceramite appearance.

You could probably get enough of both for $40 (USD) to complete sufficient pieces to fill a battlefield.

 

Have you considered posting this as an Article and a Download? This is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for.

[Bonehead]

Thanks! I've become quite the terrain snob after getting hooked on RP Archive, Eric's Hobby Workshop and Rae'chal does Wonders on YouTube. But then I remembered I never built any myself that was worth the paper it was printed on. So I figured I'd start with something simple. Honestly, these aren't really worth the time it takes to get in there with filler and whatnot in my opinion. However, all they need is a quick blast with some black spray and then a zenithal with some grey and they're really good to go for a quick game:

...Or a photoshoot with your fancy-pants LED-fitted vehicles and streetlights, as the case may be. Guitar pedal holding up the black background optional.

They're 100% good enough in the dark, though:

I'm putting this in because I feel that at a basic level, they really are good enough just as they sit, with no further work other than a quick spray job, if you're just after something better than a plain table. But I think that as soon as you start to think about adding more detail, greebling and fancier paintwork, they really don't justify it. There's no interior detail, the measurements are pretty vague, it's all but impossible to glue the floors in properly level and they're kind of prone to warping until they won't sit flat. Well, I say kind of, I mean extremely.

They're better than nothing, but I feel they're a stepping stone kind of project. Make half a table's worth of these, make another half table's worth of city ruins, crack on with the game in the remaining majority of the hours of the day.

The great thing is while you're using them, you don't need terrain urgently so you can really knuckle down and use the experience to step up and get into some proper quality terrain-making. I think if I'd made them with foamcore like you mentioned, then I'd feel like the potential was there to really improve them and have them remain straight and strong enough to last. Card ones, I'm not so sure. Never mind that the one original survived two decades: it never got used, that's why!

I hope that makes sense and doesn't seem too negative- I really do think they're a great entry level project, but they're so simple that they're kind of limiting. You only learn how to make these specific bunkers and they require so few techniques that you aren't learning a lot of transferrable stuff. The value is thart you get results quick and you learn that you can at least build something, so why not try something more ambitious?

Anyway, I hadn't thought of making an article or a download, because I had no idea those were possible! Tell me more about both and I'll see what I think, if that's cool?

 

 

 

 

[MadGamerAK]

I personally love using foam and cardboard to build Terrain pieces, I mean, what GW sells for 60$, Me and my friends use whatever amazon boxes we can find and make some pretty good look pieces. I will probably never buy GW terrain pieces. But anyways, the stuff you made looks great!