Grape Huts Grappled

Work has bashed on with the grape huts!

For the thatching on the roofs I took apart the coir fibre rope binding the edge of a mat I got to turn into grain fields. The bunches of fiber were then plunged into very thinned out white glue and stuck to the rafters.

After the first layer dried I added some more to fill in large gaps and cover the beams better. The edges were trimmed and then the sections were given a wash with very dilute burnt umber.

Meanwhile I was painting the buildings. Textured sparkle paint, dark brown latex, then dry brush with some tan acrylic.

After that it was a light spray with some ivory aerosol paint.

I then trimmed the roof sections some more to remove stray hairs and thin them out on the bottom edge were thatching was lifting the sections up from the walls. I also added some tools near doors to provide a feel of being used.

I've also been working on grape mounds too. I had a kilo brick of DAS modelling clay on the shelf for about ten years and felt that it would give a more organic feel then sections of foam core. A night spent with the classic 80s playlist on YouTube had me cutting slices and sticking them on popsicle sticks for strength.

Note ANA figure used for scale

A week or two later I came back to them, realising that once dried the clay would need to be glued back to the sticks. But my grape mounds had all warped!

Cheapo indoor caulking was deployed to fill the gaps and give adhesion.

I was hoping to use the natural clay colour as a base and dry brush over it, but now the caulk will need covering. Once painted the plan is to superglue clump foliage on for the grape plants, but it will take a bit longer to get there.

As a post script, in today's mail a nice package from Elheim Figures arrived!

9 local force Taliban, some more RPG and LMG types plus casualties for both sides. For some scenario variation I also have a downed pilot and a JTF2/SEAL special ops team of 13 figures.

Elheim also sells Wartime 20mm figures, so I got some of their insurgents for pose variation, plus an Afghan trader with wares to dress up the village. I also got the Wartime EOD team with mine detector and dog for my combat engineer detachment.