I've always wanted to make one of those, now there a competition for me to put it in action, here it is so far..



I'm thinking a drone sentry turret base for the gun, anyone have one of those that could see if how the tau skyray turret fits on it?

I like it. I am working on a similar one using the FW upgrade turret. That turret is an exact size match for the sentry drone base. The skyray turret is a little bigger but also fits. It is on par with the regular cap so it overlaps a little but still looks good. If you do combine the two I would make the bars for the outrigger feet longer. This will help stabilize the model and make it more stable. Even better would be to model a second tower attached to it with some antennas and something that looks like a generator top to act as the controller/power supply for the guns.

Thanks for the suggestion and input, I will then go ahead and get myself a turret and finish the project. I was thinking a larger lower round fire base enclose the turret like the image shown in the WD when it was introduced. I was thinking of putting a imperial bastion hatch that I have left over and put it between the 2 circles. It will act as if the control and power supply is underground.

This is the progress so far, I am waiting for the FW turret for the main gun which will sit in the middle of the bunker.

It looks pretty good, mate. My only critique is that the emplacement feels too big... Or the guns are too small!

ye, i would like to say the same,
the inner ring looks perfect in size but the wall is ust to big,
maybe if you take away more or less the entire lenght of the barrels of the burstcannons,
and keep the lenght of the "houseing" and 1" i guess?
and also maybe add some hight to the middle circle so the guns get some hight,
and maybe do some oval chape to it. awesome idea though.

I am still waiting for the Forgeworld turret, the main gun will sit on that, so the height of the gun is not an issue. I had wanted to do a canopy but the gun can aim up so high, plus its more of a AA defense, so canopy would be in the way of sight and aim.

The wall is so thick because its suppose to be thick, the hatch in the image goes on the back end of the way leading to the underground control and command station for the gun.

Progress updated, I am waiting for the tau turret from FW, then I reconfigure the gun on it and paint it. Any other suggestions on modeling and painting?

After looking at it for a while, I must say I concour that the bunker may be a bit too big or the guns are too small, I will make a 3rd attempt on this project, hopefully it will come out just right.

Impressive piece of terrain!

I think it is just perfect-sized as it is, and am going to go against the grain of the recent suggestions (including your own).

Don’t reduce the size of anything and go with original idea – gun size compared to wall thickness etc. is very realistic compared to many real-life gun emplacements, I have visited. And that wall looks like it could actually protect against direct hits from fairly heavy ordinance, something which is sadly lacking in many “defensive structure” terrain pieces on game boards around the world.

Also, due to the size of your emplacement, it can easily hold an entire 12-tau team of Fire warriors (think of scenarios with a heroic stand of a team of Shas’La holding the position against hordes of Gue’la or Be’gel aliens!). This is a good thing - I am firmly in the “Bigger terrain pieces are better”-camp – and your area denial node definitely fits the boot.

Anyway, regardless of where you choose to go with your great piece, I am definitely adding it to my “terrain inspiration” portfolio .

Thanks for the input mate, I am going to reduce the size just a little bit, the image of the superheavy is 12' in diameter, I plan to reduce it by 3', and reduce the bottom piece to a foam board instead of another foam which it makes it a bit too tall from the outside. I also will try to add a camo net over the whole thing once I get there.

That looks amazing, I'm hugely impressed
Can I ask what is the bunker material made out of? It kinda looks like polystyrene but how did you get such perfect circles?

Cant wait to see how it looks when its finished

Looks great!

Can a standard Tau model see over the wall? If not, I would think about putting in some firing steps in a few spots, definitely behind the burst cannons.

Yes, the material is polysterene, it was bought pre cut at the local Hobby Lobby. The models can see over the walls on their bases. My 3rd attempt so far..

Nice work, keep up the good work.

What do you all think? with or without the camo netting?

I would say without the camo netting unless you are able to make it look like this IMO:



The way you have the camo netting on the cannon is more for camouflaging infantry weaponry than an "artillery" weapon.

wow, looking really good with that turret base. looking amazing really, and id say without most deffenitly.

I really like your third version of the node, too. The turret base, the choice of colours and everything works great together.

But I have to agree with E’nigma on the camouflage netting. As it is now, it looks out of place and very unrealistic. Reminds me more of small pieces of netting, which a trooper would wrap around her sniper rifle, than of large sections camouflage net draped on top of guns or other equipment.

Perhaps you should keep the guns “clean” without the netting instead?

In all other regards, this is still a great and inspirational piece

Thanks for all the input, I have organized and erased the unnecessary photos, so that it wouldn't confused viewers that want to build their own Area Denial Node. I will take proper photos in the future and post them.