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Sandbags at Dawn - Dysartes | |
Despite what you may hear to the contrary, I am convinced that barricades are the most vital terrain you can have. They're flexible, break up fire lanes and channel vehicles. Not only that, but they are easy to make, and can look great. Its easy to theme them to fit in with your chosen army as well, and I've recently been working on sections of sandbags, such as the Imperial Guard would erect if they didn't have the time or terrain to build a trench system. I've been using a two part expoxy putty called Milliput to craft these, and I've been very happy with the results. Hopefully these will inspire you to create your own terrain, themed to your army. Here's a couple of pictures of ones I made earlier: What You Will Need
The first thing you need to do is prepare your base. I'm using 5mm Foamboard for this, as it is light, sturdy and fairly cheap. It also doesn't need to have the edges filled, my main gripe with corrugated cardboard as a basing material. For a six inch section of sandbags, your base needs to be roughly 6 1/2" by 1 1/2". Once you've cut out your base, mark out the central 6" by 1" section. This is where we will be placing the sandbags. A square edge on the base of a piece of terrain doesn't look right, while a sloped edge helps the model look natural and fit in to the look of the battlefield. Using a modelling knife we need to bevel the edge of the base, using the section we just marked as a rough guide to the top edge. It doesn't matter if you don't follow this exactly, and in fact will look slightly more natural if this is the case. When finished, you should have something like the picture below.  Now we have the base sorted, we need to think about the elements we want to include in the sandbag barrier. Realistically, a stretch of sandbags is likely to include other elements in it, either to make it more difficult to destroy or to reduce the workload the Guardsmen would have to put in. On this stretch of barrier, I'm using an empty ammunition crate from the Battlefield Accessories sprue, as well as barbed wire along the top of the barrier. The crate is there as a reinforcement, while the barbed wire is there as a deterrant. For some smaller detail, I'm going to include an entrenching tool and a discarded bolt pistol - possibly from a previous attacker. Most of these elements won't appear on the model until the sandbags are complete, but the crate and the supporting frame for the barbed wire can be included now. I'm going to put four poles as the frame for the barbed wire, which will be glued both to them and the top of the sandbags when the time comes. The poles were made from lengths of plastic sprue about 3.5cm long, with any extrusions or code numbers removed with a sharp modelling knife. The crate will then be positioned around the poles, as shown below:  With the structure of how we want the barricade to look set up, we can now start to model the sandbags. First off, mix a batch of your modelling putty, following the manufacturers instructions. With Milliput, I tend to use 1/2" of each stick as a batch. Once the putty is thoroughly mixed, roll it into a cylinder roughly 1/2" thick. Now for the fun bit. Using your modelling knife, cut a piece off the cylinder - usually around 1/4" - 3/8" is enough for one sandbag. Using your fingers, mold the putty into a rectangle about 1/2" wide, and about 3/4" deep. The sandbag doesn't have to be very thick, only around 1/4". When you are happy with the sandbag, use your modelling knife to mark a seam around the edge of it, then put it into place. While you can leave fingerprints in the sandbag, I tend to think they look better without fingerprints. You can use your modelling tool to remove these by dipping the curved end in some water and smoothing the surface of the putty. When placing sandbags around the poles we put in as support for the barbed wire, try to bend the sandbags around them. With one sandbag complete, you should have something like this:  With one sandbag complete, we continue until we either run out of mixed putty or we've completed one layer of sandbags. If you have completed a layer first, you probably mixed too much putty. Once either of these conditions is met, leave the putty to set, again following the manufacturers instructions. Once you've completed a batch of putty, you should have something like this:  The second thing the sandbags do here is they anchor the posts down; if you look, even though they were glued to the foamcore, they weren't very sturdy. The layers of sandbags, once they have gone hard, will stop them moving and thereby reinforce them. Once you've finished one layer, and the sandbags have dried, it's time to start working on the second and third layers. Once they're done, you should have something that looks a bit like this:  At this point, I tend to change the way the sandbags are being placed, so that it looks like they're being used to lock down the layers below. In the case of this set, I had to turn sandbags around on two layers, as I couldn't get them to fit correctly between the ammocrate and the fence pole immediately next to it. Next tme, I need to plan this a bit better with regards to sandbag placement. Anyway, once you've positioned your top row, you should have something that looks like this:  The final stage, prior to painting, is to texture the base. For my models and terrain, I use bird sand, which should be available from your local pet store. It's also had a bag of GW grit (the rocky stuff) tipped in, but only because the bag had split and it was going everywhere. I apply a coat of PVA glue to one side of the base at a time, then dip it into the bird sand. Once I've taken it out, I make sure I haven't missed any bits, and redo any areas where bits are missing. Do this to all four sides. Once the glue has dried, shake off the excess sand. At this point, I apply a layer of watered down PVA glue to help bind the sand down, as well as to help protect the foam within the foamcore from the aerosol spray, which will melt it. At this stage I glued a spare bolt pistol onto the ammo crate for a touch more detail. Maybe the Commissar left it there when he went to get his lunch, ready to shoot deserters in the afternoon. Next: Painting the Barricade |
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