Tank Entrenchment

Many years ago, I created a static tank entrenchment for an Axis & Allie’s Miniatures game called, “Oil for Panzers”. I needed an entrenchment to place a guarding armor piece by a critical roadblock into American lines, and I wanted something a little suggestive of that, without getting bogged down in a true rendition… mainly, due to time to create. I decided to use something simple, rather than casting molds in home made jigs, and that something simple was “Sculpey”…

 

Sculpey is basically an Oven Bake Clay, which when, as you guessed it, bales in the oven, hardens to a very hard rubber-like shape, with no noticeable shrinkage. I used an old baking sheet I whined to my wife for, which worked very well as I recall… I just placed it on the non stick sheet and it worked without having to prep the surface. I do remember it had a strange smell to it while it bakes… nothing toxic, but my wife was like, “What the hell are you doing now?!?”.

I rolled out a thick rope of clay and pulled the ends to form a thinner diameter to almost a dull point, and then formed a crescent shape. Then, I used my thumbs and fingers to press out very crude “sandbags” bumps. This was followed by using simple clay shaping tools bought at Michael’s Craft Store (where I got the Sculpey) to start carving out and delineation of individual sandbag shapes.

It was at this stage that I also created a rough “ground” plate, on which the tank would sit with a slight raise to the front gun. The “sandbags” crescent was pressed onto the ground plate and then the seams created by both objects was smoothed to join them together smoothly.

 

These sandbags were to be covered with netting and shrubbery so, I just needed the basic look and outline

 

Note that I used one of my 15mm Flames of War tanks, with their superior white metal tracks, to imprint tank tracks in the ground

 

Once everything looked the way I wanted, it was popped in the oven and baked according to the instructions on the package!

For the netting, I was aiming for netting that would sit atop the sandbags and aid in its depiction of holding foliage in place. Simple cheesecloth worked perfectly for this.

 

Cutting the cheesecloth into strips, it was simply applied to the clay with Elmer’s School White Glue, applied with a cheap art brush bought at Ocean State Job Lot, a bulk merchandise store that sells a little of everything at bargain prices, including cheap art supplies.

 

An acrylic wash of a concoction made for such craziness was used atop the netting as a start to weathering. Drybrushing of a Folk Art Acrylics mixture for wet-ish mud, and then Desert Sand for dust was applied; and while wet, some white glue was dropped in and fine sand sprinkled in, along with strategically placed pebbles (see if you can find them!). Lastly, some shrubbery was added, with Scenic Landscapes model railroading material.

 

The tracks imprints where darkened up a little for effect.

 

When baked, as mentioned, there isn’t any noticeable shrinkage, but the edges could probably have been stretched out a bit flatter… but any curl is easily hidden with landscaping material.

The finished product…

 

 

And with a Tiger I

 

 

 

 

Sculpey is amazing stuff! I love using it for the odd need on a game table or model… another example of what I’ve used this on was musette and medical bags on a personnel carrier model. Give it a try!