Sally 4th have recently released a range MDF kits of British pillboxes.
The kit is constructed of slices with pillars for alignment. As some pillboxes were constructed with either a brick facing or brick formers, I thought this would be an interesting appearances.
The method of construction gave me an idea on how to represent the bricks.
I numbered each of the slices then divided them into piles of odd and even slices. Using a razor saw I then scored representations of the vertical mortar lines. The two piles are shown below, stacked on top of each other.
The base plate and slices have location holes, The fit of the location posts is a bit sloppy, so assembly had to be undertaken while the glue of the first slice was still setting.
A glass plate was used for levelling the slices. An engineers square is useful. You can see the numbers identifying the slices. Slice 8 is the last one before the window slices are added.
Here are the pieces that make up the window layers.
Here is the assembled box. The top layer has a locating hexagon glued in place.
The parallel lines at the edge of the faces above and below are the attachment points left when the parts are cut with the laser. William Killian for scale.
With the top removed you can see the internal height. The box is 72mm across flats and 46mm high. The walls are 10mm thick. This scales out at 4.02m by 2.58m and 0.56m thick. This is actually thicker than the shell proof version, but that might not include the brick facing/former.
The body and the top were first undercoated with Halfords grey primer. The inside of the top and the top of the box were masked, as was the door and windows. The two parts were then sprayed with Citadel Roughcoat textured paint. The final coat was Humbrol 237 for the top and Halfords Red Primer.
Two coats of Citadel Agrax Earthshade toned and darkened the rather alarmingly bright colours.
The door was painted with Citadel Deathworld Forest. Citadel Golgfag Brown was dry brushed over the brickwork. The corners were also edge highlighted, Citadel Terminatus Stone provided a top level highlight. This was applied both to the brickwork and the concrete.
Here is the pillbox with an Empress Miniatures FT tank.
Now, during World War 2 the pillboxes were camouflaged, but this one has not yet been painted.
