Making Wargaming Terrain: Bunkers and Trenches

Crossfire games can feature Bunkers, Entrenchments, Minefields, Barbed Wire. Actually these aren’t unique to Crossfire games … any WW2 or moderns rules will feature these.

Bunkers, Pill Boxes and Hard Points

My Crossfire bunkers are foam board on card board in a similar fashion to my generic building sectors.

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The concreate parts are undercoated in black, followed by a heavy dry brush in dark grey, a dry brush in mid grey, and finally a light dry brush in light grey. The ground areas use standard Flock effect.

The roofs are removable so I can put stands inside. The front has a firing slit and the back an exit. I have 1 squad, 2 squad and 4 squad versions.

The last photos are of a commercial bunker. I got it, painted, from John Mclennan. He probably picked it up on ebay. It’s quite nice but has the major drawback that it is solid so you can’t put troops inside.

Entrenchments

Entrenchments are relatively rare in Crossfire but you do need them for the occasional game.

I’ve experimented with a variety of entrenchment styles. Some represent earth banks, some sandbags, and some a combination. Any earth uses standard Flock effect. See my Sandbags page for suggestions on how to make and paint them.

My wife rather unkindly, but perhaps correctly, thinks my Earth and Sandbags look like teeth.

Barbed Wire

I originally tried something more elaborate with spiky wire, but I’ve ended up with barbed wire sections that are just normal wire rolled around a pencil and glued to a Flocked base. I sometimes wash the wire with a reddish-brown paint to suggest rust. My original wire sections had wooden posts but in the general move to simplicity I’ve abandoned those as well.

Minefields

Most minefields are not represented in Crossfire. You only need a minefield sector if your minefield is in the open as opposed to being in a terrain feature. My minefield sections are just Flocked bases. There are no visible mines.

Historical: usually. Simple: yes. Bit dull: also yes.

I’m now contemplating putting some above ground mines on the sector to make it more obvious what these are.