Ringing Cobra Island are these small sentry gun stations, acting as Cobra's first line of defense and warning of impending invasion. Manned by a two-man team of Cobra troopers (one gunner, one spotter/loader/radioman), each station is built out of cheap, lightly reinforced concrete, wooden beams and a corrugated metal roof, and is meant to do little more than slow an enemy long enough for more powerful inland defenses to line up on them. Most lack any form of camouflage and are highly vulnerable to air or missile attack. Each is equipped with radios and retrofitted AA guns of World War II-era vintage; the refit allows them to chain fire 40mm grenades capable of doing serious damage to approaching infantry and light vehicles, assuming the sentry station (and crew) survives any initial attack.

Roof: Two sheets of balsa wood over 1/2" balsa wood "beams", with 1/2" balsa wood supports

Walls: 1/2" balsa wood beams, cut and glued together; this was overlain with texturizing medium, which was then smoothed to give a rough look like concrete and painted. The reinforced corners use flat strips of balsa wood overlain with texturizing medium, which was then smoothed and painted over with a mix of paints to simulate old, rusted steel. Last but not least I used small rocks and reindeer moss to simulate the landscape around the edges.

Base: 3/16" thick foam core, painted with texturizing medium, then overlain with a paint mix to simulate grass and dirt (darker on the inside so it would look more heavily trampled).

Radio: BBI Elite Force (Target Exclusive) figure

Gun: The gun is a PTE Mk-19 grenade launcher and belt; the base is built from wood: a round wood disk, a basswood mount, and balsa wood "reinforcing" planes, all glued in place with hot melt glue, then painted storm gray and dry-brushed with gunmetal. The gun itself uses the original swivel so it can be moved up or down, left or right, but the base is glued (using hot glue) to the ground. Not that it holds very well.

Flag: PTE, with the hard plastic flag trimmed off and replaced by a Cobra flag from the Imperial Procession Set.

Overall, I didn't have as much fun doing this as I thought I would. Diorama stuff is hard! It also requires more patience than I have. In the end it didn't come out as bad as I thought, but it has kind of served to show me I'm better off sticking to figures. Have to admit, I did enjoy building that gun, though, and I was glad to finally find a use for it!