I am not sure if anyone else noticed but a lot of figures in dioramas produced by the VP Studios are missing slings on their machine guns and rifles. I have just recently bought Verlinden Publications' Building Military Dioramas Vol. VI and figures in four different dioramas do not have any slings around their weapons. Could this be an oversight or was this done on purpose? Shouldn't all the rifles and machine guns have slings?

I don't know about All small arms and slings but 98% should have them in some form or fashion. It may be just to hard to produce for a resin kit, don't know why really.
Lead foil stands in nicely. Get the foil from a wine bottle or yogurt cover and you're set for a while.

I often use either thins cuttings of aluminum foil, or thin strip of styrene plastic (Plastruct or Evergreen) found in most hobby stores. Don't forget to make chin straps for your helments too! I find a lot of photos, (especially US) of soldiers with chin straps dangling from the side of their headgear...

Hey guys, I am not questioning the technique of making slings rather the fact that they are missing. I am just surprised that someone like Verlinden would decide to build figures and not include gun slings. I find this to be very peculiar.

Hi Marty, I always add gun sling's/strap's on my weapons if recquired, and although I find that it add's realism and look's great, there are some modelers out there who just don't want to take the time to make them OR find them neccessary to use. So like some techniques ... this to is a matter of personal preference. But I find with this subject , that it is better to use it - than not to. Like what you said, I also find this peculiar for someone as the talented Francois Verlinden, not to add gun-sling's to his weapons. I'll have to look in some of my VP book's, and see if they're also missing, because honestly I never took notice.

- ralph

Verlinden is 'famous' for having packs and bags stuck to the sides of vehicles with no obvious attachment point. Missing slings are par for the course.

I guess the idea is to make things with only what's in the kit! Usually there are no straps etc., so that's what VP show you.

I think they make some nice looking dios, but the details are often lacking.

Cheers
Andy

I do like VP dioramas but without certain details they seem...uhm...incomplete.

Verlinden dioramas have always been detail challenged.....but I would highly doubt if those dioramas are even built by Verlinden anymore...he has many students of the "Verlinden Way" who do it now to show off "his" products....mostly mastered by model builders who are never named for their work....this has always annoyed me....I would like to know who mastered the model I'm thinking of buying as it would help to know if it's going to be good quality or not....as we all know....quality control in Verlinden products change from one model to the next....that's because there are many different people making the different models....but their names are never given.....so it all looks to the novice like Verlinden must never sleep he's so busy making all of "his" products.

Another usefull item for making slings, etc. is the little aluminium tubes that acrylic paint comes in or toothpaste tubes. Just wash them out when finished and give them a good rolling over to remove creases. Dont throw away free items like this.

Another great source for foil; If you have a good art supply store around check if they carry any metal embossing foils. I paid about 5 bucks for a sheet of heavy duty aluminum embossing foil about 1 square foot in size. It is great to work with, easy to compound around different surfaces or to cut to size for slings, etc. I use it on almost everything I do. Thinned out fenders, slings, gun cleaning tubes, etc. Check it out, you can find lots of great stuff if you poke around a bit.

Coop

I do agree that most soldiers should have slings on thier rifles ..but take it from me an old hunter ...The minute I walked into the forest I would take my strap off my rifle...They are always snagged in something ..So I can believe that there must have been quite a few soldiers who had the same thoughts and removed that sling before heading into combat ...Again this is only my opinion though.

Richard