Humans are squishy, fragile creatures who leak profusely when punctured. Knowing this, combatants typically are inclined to hid their more vulnerable bits away from the sharp pieces of metal flying through the air. While the First Industrial Revolution featured columns of well dressed fellas marching towards the sounds of guns and exchanging volleys with equally brave soldiers opposite them, there are instances of trenches and emplacements being used in sieges or to protect less maneuverable artillery pieces on the battlefield.
Moving into the Second Industrial Revolution, the descendants of survivors from the aforementioned battles fully embraced the value of fighting from holes in the ground during World War One. The topic of “digging in” continues to the modern era as any contemporary Soldier or Marine can attest to. On a typical wargaming table, dug in fortifications or emplacements are more of an exception than a rule. Players tend to prefer skirmishes and battles of maneuver rather than a bloody, typically one-sided siege or assault.
However, scenarios based on historical engagements frequently have one side defending and the other trying to destroy or root the defenders out. Therefore, it may be useful for a war gamer to have a few emplacements available to meet the needs of specific scenarios. My inspiration comes from the Bolt Action campaign books which often allow the defender in attacker-defender scenarios to utilize emplacements. Being crafty (read thrifty) I decided to make my own.
My emplacements are designed to serve as the standard 6″ emplacement found in Bolt Action scenarios but since we’re building them from scratch you can adjust the steps outlined below to meet the needs of whichever system or scale you use. You could even take these steps a bit further and make yourself some fun prepared positions for weapon teams, vehicles, or big guns.
Measure out your block of Styrofoam. I was able to find a block at Walmart that was conveniently 2x4x6 inches. Using a ruler, measure out parallel lines 1″ wide across the width of the block.
Cut the block into 1x1x6 inch pieces. I started with an X-acto knife and because the blade of my X-acto knife is just under 1″ I had to finish with a butter knife tactically acquired from the kitchen (no one tell my wife that I’m using kitchen tools for hobby stuff). Don’t mind the rough cuts towards the end, those corners will be the slope side in the next step which will clean up the shapes nicely.
Using a foam cutter or knife shave down one corner of the rectangle lengthwise to create the slope facing out from the emplacement. It helps to have a few models or your test piece (bottom left of pic) to help you get the right height. Don’t worry about perfect cuts because a little undulation in the foam helps make the final product look more natural. See the next image for a general idea for how you want to cut your emplacement.
Side view diagram of how I cut my emplacements. Look for the most flat edge and use that as the bottom and the second flattest edge as the rear. The three primary cuts are: one diagonal cut from bottom front to top rear (front facing the enemy and rear facing the defenders), a second smaller diagonal cut from the rear to the top of the first cut, and a third cut rounding off where the two diagonal cuts meet. Make additional cuts to round out hard edges and to add undulations to the piece to give it a more natural appearance. Keep a few miniatures handy to check the height — an entrenchment won’t work as well if your troopers can’t fire over the top at the oncoming enemy.
For ballast I inserted 1/2″ metal woodscrews into the bottom of the piece. [Don’t mind the brown paint or wood planks — this picture was taken out of sequence.]After cutting the foam I’ll find loose strands of Styrofoam. Being too lazy to pick them off by hand I simply apply a coat of 1 part cheap paint, 1 part glue, and 2 parts water to the whole piece. I recommend doing this step in two parts. First coat one half of the piece and prop it up to dry, then the other half. Avoiding gluing your work to your table is probably best.
If you want to add wooden planks to the back of your emplacements you can make some by cutting down wooden coffee stirrers. I measured mine out to 2cm and clipped them with wire-cutters. Keep those wire-cutters handy because we’ll need them for one more round of cutting as we glue the planks onto the emplacements. This is optional and adding wood planks gives the impression that your troopers had ample time to reinforce and cozy-up their fighting position. If you want markers to reflect a more rushed attempt at digging in then skip the coffee stirrers.
If you decided to add wooden planks, use wire cutters or another appropriate cutting tool to trim down your pieces of coffee stirrers to the desired height and glue the pieces onto the back of your emplacement.
Combine water, glue, and paint at a 1:1:1 ratio and slather the emplacements with a healthy coat — be sure to avoid the bottom and the planks. Allow yourself to be heavy handed with the coat to cover the holes from the Styrofoam as best as possible. Once coated, cover your work with basing sand and allow ample time to dry. Some pieces may need to be done in two sessions to give you a non-sticky side to hold when applying the glue. Seen here are the sand covered emplacements (two with planks and three without) after drying overnight and brushing away the loose sand.
Now it’s time to paint. Prime the emplacements with flat black spray paint, base coat the entire piece with black paint, then drybrush layers of brown and beige for the dirt. If you decided to add planks then I recommend dry bushing dark brown then khaki then grey over the planks.
Paints I used. For terrain and basing I typically go with cheap paint from wherever you do your shopping since I go through so much of it. The paints here are lined up from left to right in the order mentioned above.
Apply a 1:1 mix of glue and brown paint to the bottom portion of the emplacements then add whatever flock you choose to use. I chose to apply glue and flock onto roughly the bottom half with the top line forming a random squiggle. I felt the random squiggle was key in helping the piece look natural on the table.
And that’s it! Remember to keep your feet dry and head low in the trenches and always be on the watch for infiltrators. Happy gaming!
