Hi all. for my next diorama, I would like to make a Pak 40 emplacement with a small trench/foxhole for the crew. I have never made a trench or a foxhole and I was wondering whats the best way of going about it? I was thinking of carving out thick styrofoam and then working over that perhaps?


-Joe

Hi Joe,

Personally I have never built a diorama that had a trench system, but I have read a few techniques on the process. You could use Styrofoam sheets; you then cut out the outline of the trench and then add the wooden parapet then cover the rest of the base and the bottom of the trenches with celluclay. The other technique is to put up the trench walls on the base, and then add balls of crumpled up newspaper around it and then use tape to keep it together and to give it the desired shape, then you can cover it with plaster or celluclay.
I hope this helped, and I hope that my explanations are clear.

Regards,

this might be handy,

http://www.allworldwars.com/German%20Field%20Fortifications%20on%20the%20Eastern%20Front.html

As a (german language) book:

Feldbefestigungen des deutschen Heeres: 1939 - 1945 (ISBN 978-3895552120) is mostly schematics and few pictures.

Hey Joe. I do dio/vign and in my experiance ( not the only one or maybe even the best ) I use the styrofaom method. I layer the sheets or block down whith white glue and use a marker to outline the foxhole or trench and any depressions needed for the scene. I then carve out the area and to fine tune it I use a soldering iron. Just let the heat get near, don't touch it to the foam, and detail it. Be very, very carefull about breathing the fumes, not good for your health, keep a fan blowing it away from you. Next step for me is any supporting parts for the dug out system. Then I use pre-colored plaster about 1/4 inch thick. Go from there on your seting up of guns, rocks ect. When you place rocks in the plaster, push them in a bit more than you want them to sit and then gentely pull upwards with a slight wiggle. This will give you the natural look instead of having them look placed on top of the ground.The 1/4 plaster layer allows for the addition of trees and such latter on without massive drilling through the stuff and the pre-colored plaster will never show white if you chip a part off. The styrofoam gives a solid base to work with and is better if you add a lot of stuff without the hollow spaces created with wadded up paper. Just for that fact alone I use it. This is how I do it but there are many ways and you will find the best way for you as you go along. Cork sheets work well too, but the styrofoam is free for the picking. Hope this helps you.