Developing a bunker mentality.

Since reading about the the battles for Buna and Sananda in 'A Bastard of a Place', I had been sure that we would need a couple really cool bunkers. I also used the mental images from other books and movies as well, 'The Thin Red Line' in particular.
Any of the defenders in the Pacific used fortifications to good effect, but the Japanese Army brought a legendary expertise to the construction of camouflaged defensive positions. This may have been because of their greater recent experience with modern warfare while invading China and Manchuria, or maybe it was a more recently acquired respect for the Western Allies' artillery capabilities.

 I got an idea for how to do it finally one day. I used my usual pink insulation foam and hacked it into shape, leaving room for five or so stands in the two squad sized bunkers, and room for three in the MG bunker.

 Next I took twigs from my firewood piles made up of trees we had dropped this spring and glued them to an appropriate shaped piece of cardboard which I pulled most of the layers off once the glue had dried.

 I wanted good sized logs to simulate the type of fire that these bunkers had resisted historically, or at least suggest it.

 I painted and added grit to the foam pieces, did a bit of patching of my crude knife work, and glued down twigs on each side to hold up the roof.

 On of the main ideas that helped this happen was Andy's. Use aquarium plants! Awesome jungle looking brush for cheap. He has cranked several jungle terrain sections that we'll use.

Here we see the first few sprouts of jungle.

Finally, they are pretty thick, and starting to suggest the level of camouflage used.

Three is a decent start for our skirmish level games anyway. I've got a couple building ideas as well.
All of these should be handy for our modern games too.
Our tables are going to look super cool!