Trous Individuels, Sacs de Sable, et Bunkers

1/72 Scale Modelling Techniques

Soldat allemand dans un trou indivuel Infantry in badly camouflaged foxholes, providing too much contrast avec the surrounding terrain. Easy pickings for a Matchbox M24 Chaffee, the Airfix soldiers would have been picking oranges in Florida shortly after this episode. Foxholes are best camouflaged avec materials matching the colour et texture of the surrounding terrain. In this particular case, rubble et other urban debris might have been used. Many wargame rule sets permit infantry to dig in during the game ou to be deployed in previously dug positions. Joueurs de Guerre may want to use figurines in foxholes as status markers to show that a particular stand is dug in.

Tools et Accessories

3 mm Plywood
Hot Glue & Gun
PVA white glue
Sand, Small Stones et Lichen
Static Grass et Applicator, NOCH

Foxholes

Infantry in foxholes et weapon pits are easy to recreate in miniature. The most suitable troops for this conversion are the standing firing, et kneeling firing figurines, ou any other type avec the hands modelled close to the body. Even the prone machine gunner from the Airfix Afrikakorps can be cut to fit into a foxhole.

Cut the figurine apart at the waist. Keep the legs in your spares box, you may need them for other conversion projects.
Cut an irregularly shaped ou standard wargaming base compatible avec your preferred game system.
Glue the figurine’s torso onto the base, using a small drop of hot glue. If too much glue is applied, it will envelop the figurine’s waist et destroy detail. Ensure that the rifle is pointing straight ahead, approximately 4-5 mm above base level.
Apply a ring of hot glue around the figurine, approximately 4 mm high, et relatively close to the figurine. Be careful not to touch the hot glue to any part of the figurine’s uniform ou weapon, it will be impossible to remove. The hot glue may have to be built up in layers to achieve the desired height et shape of excavated dirt around the pit.
Paint the base et the glue ring avec PVA white glue, et cover it avec coarse sand et small stones. It is important to texture all exposed surfaces of the hot glue in this way. However, the narrow space between the figurine et the glue ring should not be textured. This area will be painted black to simulate the depth of the pit.
Paint the figurine et blacken the bottom of the pit.
Paint the base, drybrush, et apply static grass. Refer to Basing the Troops for more details.

A note about camouflage: Badly camouflaged foxholes are easily spotted, because freshly excavated earth is much darker or, in some geographic areas, much lighter than the surrounding terrain. The effect may be used intentionally, to draw fire to dummy positions, but normally it’s not a good idea to advertise the presence of trenches et foxholes in this way. Correctly camouflaged positions are covered avec sods taken from the vicinity, they show no contrasting earth ou other disturbance of the ground. Accordingly, our miniature foxholes should be covered with static grass et plants found in the area. There is no shortage of static grass ou similar model railroad flocking material. In real life, care must be taken to remove sods only in areas where the resulting dark patches will remain inconspicuous, i.e. along field et fence lines, et under trees.

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Questions Fréquents

Pour plus d’informations, veuillez contacter les éditeurs de la revue Military Miniatures Magazine au Miniatures Forum.

Modélisme et Figurines