A Second Tour in Afghanistan

metal yes!

plastics, NO!!!!!

          Ages ago I began a project for my good friend, Zhodani Commando, wherein I undertook to build a base for some Afghani buildings that he had purchased. This project had moved along nicely until I sprayed the nearly completed base with a matte clear coat that I had been using on minis for a couple of years now. This product is a solvent based automotive finish that is very flat and extremely hard-wearing; unfortunately it is also a lacquer-based paint and contains an extremely high amount of powerful solvent. A bit of thought would have had me waiting for a restock of Amory Matte Sealant at my local brick-n-mortar but I was in a hurry and thought that the thick coating of Durham's Water Putty and vinyl spackle would protect the vulnerable polystyrene foam that formed the body of the work. How wrong I was! The solvent penetrated the thin spots and dissolved the underlying structure leading to a collapse of the entire thing (I won't say what happened next but I will admit that I lost my temper in a rather significant way). The upshot of all this was that I had to start the project again from scratch (the wooden base having disappeared during the fire).


       So here I am (thankful that I kept all of my planning documents) back at the stage where I start adding surface detail to the groundwork. This time I'm only using water-based paints, I swear!

 

the horrific color is just a coat of standard latex housepaint, 

I buy gallons of "mistint" whenever I spot a useful color on the rack

 

 

I will admit that it does look like some sort of

 insane wedding cake covered in chocolate fondant

 

next comes rocks, gravel then sand followed by some drybrushing