I am making a diorama that contains a machine gun nest, my question is what colour were german sand bags in WWII, I know they were a tan colour but is something like vallejo iraqi sand too tan?

I went ahead with my own technique of applying a base coat of irqai sand and then a heavy dry brush of burnt sienna. I am looking for feedback as to what people think

Hi Matthew,

I'd would have done it the other way round - Base colour of burnt sienna and dry brushed with iraqi sand for highlights.

Hi Matthew,

They look good so far.

Y'know, I dunno if there was a specific color. I figure that the Wehrmacht/US Army/UK Army, etc., just used the cheapest burlap they could get, the leftovers from uniforms and protective tarps. So long as the bags were an earthy tone and not a color that would stick out like a sore thumb, I figure they were acceptable. Then again, if sandbags were made from leftover canvas used for protective gear, then the sandbags would have been the same color; Wehrmacht seems to have used gray and gray-green (Feldgrau) covers for trucks, etc..

Or maybe they were left undyed and just a plain canvas/burlap color. I am interested in what others know.

Not German but here are some WWII sandbags: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--jA4kVPtrRA/VcC7SrIrOTI/AAAAAAABs9o/zbPqXE7m0Vw/s1600/American%2BTroops%2Bon%2BTarawa%2BAtoll%252C%2BGilbert%2BIslands%2Bduring%2BWorld%2BWar%2BII%2B%25282%2529.jpg

Okay, here's an Armorama post from a long time ago:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/18013

Kris

Any real light earthy tones will do. Even though they hold sand, they leak dust. So your upper surfaces should be a bit lighter than the lower curves.

Shape wise they sag into eachother a lot more than yours. It's very difficult to make windows or peepholes in a sandbag fortification unless they are filled with something more rigid than sand.

Working with sanbags sucks. It's one of the most tedious things I ever did in the USMC. It always takes more of them to cover an area than you think. They don't stack like bricks. What you think will be a 5-inch thick loaf once filled, turns into a 2-inch thick blob. It's the nature of the beast.

Best wishes,

Gaz