17/06/2016

Hiding in the bunkers

Not the warmest of places, my winter entrenchments. Years back for a big game I quickly knocked up some entrenchments using air-drying clay, these were quite successful so I textured them up and they've been used for many subsequent games. So for this project I started with a final outcome in mind. Clay was rolled and shaped to a basic trench shape then horizontal strips of rattan and some sandbags were embedded in the clay. Once the clay had dried (two days) I added uprights and carried out my now normal winter basing. In the back corner is a Blotz pig-pen that was finished at the same time.

There are two styles of entrenchments - linear which take around four figures and hexagonal for a heavy weapons team. In theory the earthworks could be placed back to back to be complete, but in reality only one side is ever used. Compared to my past efforts I had some trenches crack and had to be glued back together. I think this was due to using old clay, which had to have more water added to make it properly malleable, and I don't think I mixed it up enough.

2 comments:

KEV. Robertson. said...

The Works looks excellent WILL - very well done! Regards. KEV.

Chris Kemp said...

Nice trenches, Will. I'm delighted to see that I'm not the only one gaming winter as the summer solstice approaches!

Regards, Chris.