I'm having trouble with what color aged sandbags should look like after some time on a tank. Where talking about an M4 105 with HVSS in the ETO. Is it a shade of gray or am I even close?

All help is much appreciated and thanks!



Jeff

Sand bags are simple burlap bags. Not entirely "sand tight". They begin to take on the color of the sand/soil/earth/dirt that they were filled with. I'd go for a tan/dirt color.

Just to piggy back on what Sabot has said, they will take on whatever color the fill material is, I have seen them turn almost white from exposure to the sun as well. You could vary the colors from a light tan to almost a dark green or brown. Don't forget oil spills, weapons cleaning etc, which will discolor them as well. Just my .02 worth. "Q"

I used Tamiya's Khaki drill as a base coat but used a bunch od washes of black and earth colors to vary each bag a bit ..I also used some pigments to show earth spilling from some of the bags..


Rick

Hey Jeff! Think for good contrast you should have a majority one colour, but have a handful one or two shades different. Hope this can help...
Oh, and by the way Richard, what are the periscope guards you used in that pic? PE I'm guessing, but they look pretty accurate...

Hi Bradley ..those periscope guards are from the Eduard set ..They are the nicest P/E ones out there in my opinion.

Rick

Hey again Richard
The only Eduard set I've seen in the flesh for the M4 contained heeeaps of stuff including sandshield strips etc. Is this the one you used? Or is there a smaller one with just guards etc. like in the Dragon M4a2 for example?
Brad

i use permanent ink of sepia color diluited with turpetine to give the shadows and then for the lights i mix permanent ink with the color of the bag of this way looks like dirty and old.

Hey Bradley ...It was the big set but I have so many different sets of P/E for Shermans I just pick and choose different parts from different sets..What ever looks the best !

Rick