Bunkers on a budget

If you ever feel like setting up your own Siegfried or Maginot Line or an Atlantic Wall to storm from the Normandy beaches, or simply find yourself in need of bunkers, one solution which I have come across which is both cost-effective and produces structures of acceptable realism is to use the styrofoam that comes as protection with TVs, computers, printers, etc. It often comes with round corners and colum-looking shapes which resemble a concrete structure. With a little bit of spray paint and cutting a couple of firing slots you can have a fairly decent-looking bunker in very little time and for almost no cost (other than the new TV!). Here are a few examples that I built a few years back.

Sometimes the challenge is finding something to cover the openings in the front that looks acceptable and provides protection to the defending troops.

Some of them also have pits on top which make great observation posts.

This one has some nice lines and shapes.

They are also fairly sturdy. This one shows quite a few marble impact marks from all the attempts in past battles to knock out the guys inside.

This one is not the prettiest, but one day I found myselft with eight of these and well, they got pressed into service.

This one had a hole on top which got filled with an observation tower, or perhaps it's a chimney stack? This building has also played the part of a factory at Stalingrad. Note that a small piece of cardboard acts as a platform for the firing slots on the second level. 

Click here to see shots of Waffen SS troops defending some bunkers.