Afghan Lowlands Part II, the project approaches completion!

 

fields and canals is where we left off 

       Having double-coated the clay-ball "boulders" with a thinned solution of Titebond and allowed it to dry I began the next stage in finishing the Lowlands; Paint. I had added a couple of small hills to the "back forty" because it just looked too empty, and this is intended for a tactical game (we have all seen Gallipoli, running across open ground is just a bad idea!). The whole thing got the inevitable coat of chocolate brown paint and things proceeded from there.

 

at first I was going to keep the river bottom clear of paint 

but I decided that I didn't care for the color and uneven distribution of sand

 

in the end I just went ahead and painted the whole thing, 

aside from the walls

 

as a peace-offering for the undue delays in production I knocked together some

 extra buildings and garden walls, they are the standard foamcore 

and hotglue so I won't bore everybody with how I built them

 

the hills got the True Grit treatment 

 

once that was dried the excess was knocked away and the painting went ahead full-steam, the entire surface got another coat of chocolate brown, into this wet paint was sprinkled sand for extra texture

 

while that was drying I enjoyed lunch and then wasted an hour and a half watching "Fortress" on Amazon Prime; pretty sappy standard fare ' B-17s bombing the Nazis" but the CGI was decent

 

when I returned it was dry enough for the next stage

 

a good drybrushing with medium brown

 

I attempted a little artistry painting the plowed field to look like furrows

 

it will never appear in the Louvre, but it is a start

 

next came the highlighting, 

to ensure that the roads lined up correctly I brought out the Highlands board

 

the poppy field is artificial grass that I picked up at Menard's as a sample, 

I will have to go back and get a few square yards, this stuff is really rather good

 

a glance at the conjoined boards

 

time to plant some shrubberies!

in the areas that had a layer of foam on it I just stabbed a Phillips

 head screwdriver through the surface to make a hole for the stem,

the Lowlands required deployment of a proper drill!

then I planted the shrubs all over the place

 

I am torn as to what to paint the poppy field areas,

 shiny dark brown clearly isn't the best choice!

 

perhaps I will extend the plowed field look over them all

 

the two boards with the village on the Highlands

 

the buildings are not attached and can be deployed into the

 empty areas on the Lowlands board for more tactical challenges

 

I may need some more highlighting on the Lowlands board

 

looking down at the river from the Highlands

 

of course there is nothing to say that this board is trapped in modern times, 

Afghan building techniques have changed little since Alexander visited

 

the patrol advances behind a screen of skirmishers

 

where are those Afghans we came looking for?