RandKL's
GI Joe Modeling Page
Sandbags
One of the easiest projects you can do to give your diorama that personal touch. Tons and tons of sandbags.
You'll need a few yards of some cheap white cotton linen and a sewing machine to do these. Scissors and cotton/linen craft string will be used to finish them so have them handy.
First step is cloth selection and preparation.
Go to your local wallyword and buy about 3-5 yards of the cheapest, thinnest white cotton linen you can find. An old bedsheet works perfectly fine as well.
Next step is to spread that cloth out and rub it down with some medium grit sandpaper to give it texture. You want it rough and worn-looking but not *too* worn. Skip this step if you don't care about the final "look". You can weather them later with some tea or paint.
Next, you tear that cloth lengthwise into ten inch wide strips as long as your fabric is.
Next step is to fire up the old sewing machine and hem both of the long edges about 1/4 inch with a single running stitch. Just fold each of the long edges over about 1/4-1/2 inch and sew. It can be done by hand but you defeat the purpose of making fast sandbags that way.
Next, we fold the strip over right down the middle with the long seams on the outside and put two rows of stitching every two inches. That's two inches of cloth and then two rows of stitching approximately 1/2 inch apart.
Once you've done the entire strip, go back with a pair of scissors and carefully cut the individual bags apart between the double rows of stitching.
The second to last step....use your scissors to carefully cut each corner off the hemmed end as in this pic.
Last step is to use a blunt yarn-type needle and thread the cotton/linen thread through the top as the drawstring....then turn them all right side out.
After the first couple of strips as practice, you can easily turn out dozens of them in an hour.
You can "weather" them by dunking them in a coffee or tea stain. One tip....when filling them, don't use real sand. The scale difference will make *any* sandbag look fake. Instead, go to your local craft store and buy a five pound bag of 600 grit rock tumbling media and use it as your filler. The extra fine grit will make your bags lay better and look more realistic.