Magnetic Sandbags And Circus Tents – The Pitfalls Of Stowage Without A Plan

I’ve been looking at a lot of photos of dioramas over the past month, and that includes a number of builds that are highly rated and a few that have featured in magazines, and one thing I’ve started to notice is a trend toward adding stowage for the sake of stowage with, what appears to me at least, little thought given to why it’s there, what it is, and how it’s supposed to stay there.

Those who know me well know that I am a bit of a perfectionist, and often my own worst critic, so I also tend to see flaws in other peoples work that most won’t see. Generally I know that I’m being overly anal so I don’t stick my oar in. But I do see this becoming a trend, particularly the use of random tarps to cover loads, excessive use of rolled stowage, and items stowed insecurely or in a location that seems rather impractical.

Normally I’d throw a few photos in to illustrate my point but I didn’t want it to appear that I was picking on one particular build, because I’m not, rather I’m just out to emphasise a point, and that point is – when you add stowage put yourself in the position of the crew, think about what it is, why it’s there, and how it should be stowed.

Don’t just add twenty rolls because they “look good”. Don’t just throw a tarp over everything because everyone else does it. I’ve looked at thousands of wartime photos and I’ve yet to see one with a casually flung tarp half covering a load on a tank’s engine deck, and only a few with a nicely organised tarp completely covering a stowed load. I’ve seen builds with enough large rolled stowage to errect a three ring circus tent and some with rolled tarps that would scale out big enough to cover a cricket pitch during the rain delay.

Ask yourself why your vehicle has a tarp in the first place. Is it the vehicles own tilt cover ? Is it the crew tent ? Is it a camo net ? A large tarp to string between trees ? Where did the crew get it ? Was it stolen from the supplies depot ? Tanks don’t generally come with covers and tents are usually dealt with by the support units. But granted they may have stolen one, no problem there. But six of them ? Gear bags yes, boxes yes, I’ve even seen photos of a tank with an armchair on the back. But really give thought to what is there, why it is there and how it got there. Don’t just put it there because it was in your spares box and it “looks good”.

Also consider should it be there ? Is it blocking a vent ? An air intake ? Is it in the way of the turret. Is it tied on ? I’ve seen builds ( and I kid you not ) with sandbags stuck to the vertical sides of a tank with no apparent means of attachment. I’ve seen .50 cal ammo boxes and jerry cans just sitting on an M4A3s rear deck. Try sitting them on the boot of your car and going for a drive across a paddock and see how long they stay there for. I’ve even seen a truck with a gas canister just standing on its own in the back. Only if your driver is Cletus Spuckler.

And on the subject of the magnetic sandbags stuck to the sides of tanks also keep in mind that rucksacks, helmets and water bottles are also not magnetic and don’t just adhere to walls. The biggest villain in this instance is probably spare track links which get glued on anywhere with nary a thought as to what actually held them there. Sometimes it was a proper hanger, sometimes a bolt, and occassionally no doubt some were welded on but if you’re going to add them at least think it through and try to show what’s keeping them there.

Then there’s open and haphazardly stacked loads in trucks. It may look nicely disorganised but ask yourself, why does that truck have six fuel drums, a bunch of ammo cans, a few jerry cans, a bunch of randomly stacked boxes that would all fall over at the first turn, open boxes with ammo belts hanging out and stray panzerfausts rolling around ? Supplies people were generally organised, petrol trucks took petrol, ammo trucks took ammo. In the case of petrol the germans transported it in drums which was then put into jerry cans so the drums could return, the yanks did it similar but put it into jerry cans for the move forward so the trucks usually carried jerry cans.

I can understand something like a retreat from Stalingrad type scenario where everything gets thrown into the back of a truck, but at the same time that same truck woul be piled high with troops blagging a ride. Load your truck the same way you would in real life, in a way that means things won’t be falling over, rolling around or falling overboard. And tie it down. And here you can use a tarp.

So really it just comes down to simple common sense, think it through, put yourself in the position of the crewmen of the vehicle. If there’s reason, if there’s logic, if there’s common sense then add it in, but if it’s just there as filler and it doesn’t actually have a purpose that you can explain without sounding like me trying to convince the wife why I need to be working at 1am then does it really need to be there ?

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