I began by cutting a hole the size of my trench in a piece of 6mm expanded polystyrene sheet before fixing the polystyrene to a 20cm square of 6mm MDF (as per usual with all my terrain tiles). I cut a strip from a Ratio N-scale corrugated sheet as a corrugated-iron liner for the trench. I glued this at right angles to a strip of card and glued the construction to the side of the hole in the polystyrene. I covered the card with coloured grout, plastering the grout around the hole in the polystyrene and down the sides of the trench – also modelling something of a crater on the same terrain tile with the grout. I glued very fine sand to the MDF showing through the hole in the polystyrene for what would be the bottom of the trench where the figures would stand. I had learnt from experience to use a very fine grade of sand for small flat areas intended to accommodate troops as so many not-so-fine grades contained the odd lump that had to be painstakingly picked out. I used Milliput modelling putty to model a row of sand bags along the top of the trench. I painted the trench area, corrugated iron and sand bags first before covering the flat ground level of the tile with watered-down PVA and scattering on the usual grade of sand before leaving the tile to dry overnight before shaking off the excess sand. I then painted the sand with emulsion paint and finished off the terrain tile in the usual way by sprinkling static grass over the paint before it dried.
Overnight drying of sand glued to the trench terrain tile: I couldn’t help thinking that the excess sand looked like very realistic desert terrain!
I made what was my first attempt at a 10mm trench made especially to accom- modate the base size I had decided to mount infantry on (see Post 7). I needed a string of trenches for my Dilbar project – however, I only had enough time to construct one trench model for the game I put on at Lard Day (see Post 8).

First Trench

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