"How big should a 28mm sandbag be?" Topic

I've made them for years from modeling clay, but somehow the size never feels quite right. Google tells me a real sandbag is roughly 24 x 14 inches.

Is this one of those times when "true scale," just doesn't look right? Probably not helped because a lot of 28mn figures are not really true scale – the hands are a little large, the face is not really the right proportion and things like moustaches are exaggerated – all done to make the figure look better when painted.

I'd suggest aiming for what looks right to your eye rather than what is reality. So maybe a real picture of a barricade shows a stack of 10 bags, but in a model 7 bags high looks better.

Do you roll out the clay first into snakes? Then you can control the width and cut the length with a cheap pair of scissors.

Are they "official" sandbags, supplied by the Army, or are they bags that were just "hanging around"?
Don't overthink this.

Mealy bags is another version of ‘sand bags'.

Okay, grabbing a Tamiya 1/35 sandbag and a Tamiya 1/35 figure, I'm measuring the sb's dimensions using the length of the figure's foot.
The sb is: 3 'feet' long, about 1.75 'feet' wide, and 1/2 'foot' thick

Convert to your 28mm mini's 'scale' by measuring using it's foot. (If you are off by a little, it won't matter.)

Hope that helps… ;-)

Up until the mid-60's the bags were made of burlap, which tended to rot after a while. That was when the Army switched to nylon sandbags which were OD in color. And which were referred to as "wash and wear". I seem to remember seeing them worn as headgear (kind of like a c*** cap) a few times in various FB's.

And since they were bags (think pillow case) they were tied off at the open end, not neatly sewn like a commercial feed bag. Since most gamers tend to use the rope method of modeling them you get the feedbag look.

TP – Aren't mealy bags very much bigger than sand bags ? And restricted to colonial Africa ?

Been a while since I've had close contact with sandbags. (I'm grateful.) My recollection is longer than a boot--maybe a boot + a heel? about as wide as a boot is long, and comes up about to your ankle. Maybe a little over. But (a) my experience--US forces 70's to 90's--may not be typical of all sandbags everywhere, (b) you don't want individual sandbags: you want walls or the perimeter of fighting positions made out of sandbags, and (c) a miniature wargame is not a diorama: exact fidelity to scale doesn't always look right. "No, it is not logical. But it is often so."

Sandbags are surprisingly small, as above , roughly 2 feet x 1 feet. Divide two feet by whatever scale "28mm" happens to be this week to get the model length. Many model ones are ludicrously oversized, but as long as they look roughly right, who cares really.

Smaller than you think because they are heavy, especially when wet.

Agree with 20th: When modelling for wargaming (not for a historically accurate diorama), it's one of the rare cases when bigger than scale works better.

I've not heard of the 'rope' method before but, soaked in PVA and flattened, I can see that working.