"Bullets striking the ground" Topic

Hello, how to make the look of bullets striking the ground? Currently my Marines at Tarawa are under fire from a Japanese machine gun. I have tried various ideas on how to do it but they look to phoney. Most dioramas showing action are too clean, no debris, no smoke and no bullets hitting the ground. The same goes goes for incoming shells. Marines at Tarawa received intense heavy mortar, artillery fire along with small arms fire. How can I make my diorama to show this action? Thanks for your time.

Hello, how to make the look of bullets striking the ground? Currently my Marines at Tarawa are under fire from a Japanese machine gun. I have tried various ideas on how to do it but they look to phoney. Most dioramas showing action are too clean, no debris, no smoke and no bullets hitting the ground. The same goes goes for incoming shells. Marines at Tarawa received intense heavy mortar, artillery fire along with small arms fire. How can I make my diorama to show this action? Thanks for your time.

Little tufts of cotton dyed or painted a suitable dirt color, same as you would so smoke but at a much smaller level…?

I agree with your statement about dioramas. As a model builder I don't like to do "in action" dioramas but prefer to show either the routine of military life, or something on the cusp of action (before the bullets start flying).

Damon.

I doubt bullet strikes on ground are worth modelling, myself.

Search for shell splashes modeled for naval games? Use same technique but size to scale and paint to match dirt not water.

Stretch bits of plastic sprue into tiny golf-tee shapes, decorate them as dust, glue them in rows for MG fire or place them singly for single shots.

Now if one can only figure out how to do tracer rounds in flight…..

I think a line of bullet strikes, as in Yellow Admiral's photo, would make a great 'Supression' marker.

You might look at Armorcast muzzle flashes. Those might work.

armorcast.com

Check out this YouTube video of musketry training in the US army prior to WW2:

youtu.be/3EYP_vRtLD0

Specifically the sequence starting at 24:40 minutes into the video, where you can see a sequence of bullet impacts. The movie is quite grainy but it should give you a good idea of what to model. These impacts were used in both musketry and machine gun fire for monitoring direction and range. When you see photos of an MG section, you often see NCOs with kneeling with field glasses. This is one of the things they were looking for when the team opened fire.

Robert

I made some markers for MG barrages in WW1 games. I just put tiny bits of kapoc/hamster bedding teasd into little puffs of smoke on a standard base. It looked OK.

Peter Pig has pinned markers that are a row of bullets striking the ground. Item 293 in the Civilians and Markers category.
link

As you know the tide was misjudged at Betio so the Marines had to wade into the beach in chest high water with the MG's from the emplacements raking them. You could use epoxy resin for waterfalls/water effects to tease it upwards as it slowly solidifies or build it up over a small clear plastic peg used as a foundation over which to place the epoxy as needed. On the beach Magic Sculpt with embedded sand or added to the surface after it hardens with PVA glue and then dry brushed should be able to produce a similar effect of a bullet striking the sand. One thing that strikes me of some modeled and gamed scenes of Betio is the pristine depiction of the palm trees. This could not be further from the actual scenery during the battle. Most of the palm trees sustained considerable damage from the bombardment with many having the trunks severed without any canopy or what remained of the palm fronds were rather badly frayed. There are plenty of photos available for reference. Tarawa Toughest Battle In Marine Corps History – Staff Sergeant Dick Hannah Marine Corps Combat Correspondent has some nice photos. I doubt your local library has it in their stacks but possibly available through inter-library loan. Best of luck with your diorama. Post a photo when you finish. I hope this information is of benefit.
Tony

Great idea using epoxy resin, never thought of that. I've got the Palm trees fixed so they are not nice and pretty, picked up various sizes,sm, med, and lg through Amazon had to adjust them to be messed up. The pic is great, doesn't take the Marines long to mess up an area, I know I was lucky enough to spend 24 years in the Corps. Thanks all for the help.