Hi there peoples
Knocked up some sandbags on the glacis of my M4A1. Some are brownish from a previous build, but I liked the way they sat, and so sculpted new ones to sit around them. Figure on making the tank from the 3rd A 32d AR, pushing from France into Germany, but was wondering if the sandbag protection was implemented pre-Germany?
Any help/comments welcome

As you can may or mat not have noticed, stupid oaf-boy moi has lost part of the wire periscope guard on the hatch, as well as half the split hatch for the commander, including my finished periscope
Ah well, more building to do...
The sandbags were 'textured' with the Italeri kit wading trunk grille section, pressed lightly into the setting Milliput. Cheers all

I believe Patton did not like his tankers to have sandbags on their tanks- but units had the sandbags from the Normandy breakout-Photos in my Normandy campaign book
Ian

Thanks Ian. I think 3d AD was First army (Bradley) which included 2d and 3d AD, whilst (Pattons') Third army was 4th and 6th AD. Problem now is that First army doctrine was black and OD camo during Operation Cobra, but I couldn't be fagged now...

Hi Bradley:
Maybe for your next sandbag project, these could help (pointers from another discussion thread about sandbags):

1) a soldier advised against the "pillow" look of many modellers' sandbags. In reality, they would fill bags 2/3 full because otherwise, they would easily burst w/shrapnel or small arms fire. Kind of like the idea of putting heavy books in small boxes, not many books in large ones. Given the size of yours, there would be about 150 pounds of sand in each apparently. (next time at the Garden store, look at how big a 50# bag of sand is)
2) once filled, the bags had to be carefully piled on, almost like interlocking Lego pieces. Otherwise the jarring of the vehcile would easily shift them or knock them off. Yours seem pretty large and unwieldy.
3) Avoid the fabric pattern on the sandbags: in 1/35 scale even the heaviest canvas or burlap would fail to show the texture that you've applied to your sandbags.

Please take my notes as just helpful suggestions. I'm not trying to knock your project. I really love Shermans!

Rgds,
RC

Hey do share how you made those sandbags. I have read a few sites on how to make them but its always nice to know if there are other methods out there.

Do share!

Jeremy- the sandbags on my sherman are made entirely from milliput. You then need to roll it until you get, for eg. the rough size and length of a biro, then mark the length of each sandbag along the roll with a blade, then when happy cut through and voila! All same approx. size. You would get half a dozen at a time. Then having studied real sand bags (this helps immensely) you can add all details with a blade to yours including sowed seams creases and folds depending on how they are to be positioned. As Roy has mentioned though, maybe the smaller the better, although this may prove a little more difficult than 'balloony' ones as it would be difficult to make them look 'mostly' filled...
HTH
Brad

Thanks for that Brad. Do you have a picture of how milliput in its raw form looks like? Would it be something you get from a hardware store? Pictures of the tube / bottle would be appreciated.

Ive read in several places that milliput is used for making sandbags but i can never seem to find them in the shops however i have a feeling im looking in the wrong places.

Milliput was originally used as a plumbing product but is readily used by modelers as well. It looks like two sausage rolls of plasticine. You have to mix a piece off each roll at a 50/50 ratio. The better modeling shops in Auckland should have it.

Does the modeling shop at Market Road/ Great South Road still exsist?

cheers
Cliff

PS> I am NZ born and Auckland raised.

Cliff! Say it ain't so! hehe. You living in the right country now though :-)
Brad

Very well built! But I go along with Ian: Patton would think it wasn't "manly" enough to fight with that kind of protection!
Cheers and happy modelling!
Prato

You can get two part exopy putty at your local DIY store. It is a little bit heavier grained than Milliput (which is a brand name for fine grain two part epoxt putty) but it should work fine for sand bags. Like Cliff said, check the plumbing supply section.

I have brand name Milliput that is use for figure mods, etc. and use the generic two part epoxy putty that I bought at Home depot for just about everything else.

Shaun