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Well I just finished off the Tau Manta last week, and have been taking it slow working a bit here and there on other projects. I happened to be at our local Habitat for Humanity store today dropping off some donations, when while walking past some shelves I noticed some random bits that probably go to cupboards or shelving units; looking at them, they reminded me of quad-guns. So, I grabbed a few as well as some other bits and things and headed home to experiment in another bout of creation!

Here's a quick shot of the parts I grabbed. I have no idea what any of them are except for the pipe-cleaners I had lying around. They looked cool, so I decided to use them.


After some quick reference from what actually comprises the Defense Line, I did some cutting of the plastic track pieces and got the barrier wall pieced out in a few minutes.


The next step was making the barbed wire (since I was still thinking on how I wanted to do the guns).
Easy barbed wire:
Step 1: get pipe-cleaners and a lighter
Step 2: go outside and burn off the furry stuff until it's nice and melted plastic
Step 3: wrap pipe-cleaner husk around a pencil or some other similarly shaped object
Step 4: stretch out to desired length, and glue into place. I find that cutting out bits of sprew actually makes wonderful side pieces for barbed wire hazards
That's sprew and pipe-cleaner in that picture, if you hadn't figured it out.


Since there were two different style of weapon mounts that could come with the Defense Line, and I had limited parts, I decided to make slightly different variations on what I had to work with to tell the difference between the two.

The Quad-gun


The Icarus Lascannon (I realize now that the Lascannon actually looks like it's got missiles coming out the front. I hope to remedy this with the power of good painting!)


The comm station I made a while back as a marker token, but I think it fits very well in the Defense Line. I made it from spare Necron and Marine bits glued together on a base.


Finally, here's the whole thing set out similar to the Defense Line in the book. I put barbed-wire on only some of the pieces because I wasn't sure how it would look. I may go back and add more later and I'll probably prime it tomorrow to paint it up at some point, , but for now this is how it's going to sit.


Hope you enjoyed the work of a well-spent afternoon, and if you have any questions or comments let me know!
As always, thanks for stopping by to check it out.

I'm surprised no one's posted a reply here. Excellent ideas. I'm going to have to use the pipe cleaner for barbed wire method.

Question, though... What are the dimensions for the ADL? It says in the rule book 4 long and 4 short, but what comprises "long" and "short?"

I'm wanting to make an Ork version of it but I need to know the sizes.

I have done an ork one similar to this, using a similar method for the the barricades. DIY stores are my heaven for kit-bashing! Good job by the way on the emplacements and the rest of the project

I found the actual dimensions by measuring a defense line from someone else at a GW. Can't recall what it was off-hand... But thanks for the comments!


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Re-measured for you. Sizes are about 5" for the long pieces and 2" for the short.