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WW1 Trench how?


Harrier/ViperFan

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Most I've seen begin life as blocks of polystyrene which can be easily sculpted with a sharp knife check out the WIP section I know KP Nuts

has a WWI theme build on at the moment.

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I'm thinking of something similar. Depending on the size of what you are doing I would have a think about the trench layout. I have a small book I bought years ago which has loads of aerial photos of German trenches. If you are going big enough it would be useful to think about things like the zig - zags, communication trenches, saps etc etc.

This is a picture I picked up from the www.

One thing that will definitely help is a bad Costa habit! Those wooden sticks will be essential! Good luck!

 

Aerial_view_Loos-Hulluch_trench_system_J

 

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Personally I'd use polystyrene. (Are polystyrene ceiling tiles still manufactured?????)  Use PVA to glue blocks to the base and to each other. You could carve them into shape with a scalpel, but that can get messy. You could just pull chunks off then finalise the shapes using fillers. (Polyfilla, Rapid Drying Cement, etc)

I'd then skim over the entire thing with Polfilla and apply textures where required.  If you're going to be sticking fence posts, wooden shoring etc into the dio, they'll penetrate the polystyrene easily... but remember to use PVA as a fixative and not liquid poly as the latter will dissolve the polystyrene. 

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

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  • 1 month later...

I'm a big fan of insulating foam board. We call it blueboard over here I think you guys call it Cellotex?

It can be had in thicknesses between quarter inch and four to six inches thick.

 

Easy to cut, lightweight  and heat will do interesting things.

Easy to make trenches and craters in the stuff too.

 

To illustrate:

 

iwo02wb.jpg

 

samledio18wp.jpg

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Trenches are not just trenches.....They were constructed differently depending on who made them, which front and/or time period they were made in and of course the terrain they are dug in.....This site might be of some use to you:

 

http://www.landships.info/landships/fortification_articles.html

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