Khmer Monument

As I still do not have any scenery or building that would be appropriate for Siam (Ayutthaya) at the moment, I have to fall back on an Angkor-Wat inspired piece. This is an aquarium decoration representation of the Angkor Thom Gate that I happen to have in my stash. It won't work for Siamese battles of course but will at least be appropriate for the Siamese campaigns against the Khmer.

Compare the photo above of the real thing and those below where I added some small "forest elephants" and a 1/72 figure to show the scale of the model. Based on the relative size of the human figures, I believe the aquarium decoration to be about 1/144 in scale. Even so, the model still has quite a commanding presence for 1/72 even at half its actual dimension.

So far I have only modified the piece by drybrushing it with a tan/mud color. I will put in still more weathering and highlights later on.

First weathering step done...

25mm or 1/72 Three-Arch Stone Bridge

Made by Hudson & Allen, this sizable bridge model is 20 inches long. It is nicely cast in foam resin. I had to hollow out the foam resin from underneath the arches but otherwise the model comes in one piece and is already ready for primer and paint.

I sprayed a grey automotive primer on first. Then I dry-brushed the cobblestones in dark grey, the stones in mud and light grey, and painted the area under the arches in green black. The whole painting process took about 15 mins, which is as close to instant gratification as I can ever hope for. I may still want to seal with a matte varnish and then weather/wash with some oils. If I am truly ambitious, I will even paint in variegated stone colors as well (I may experiment with using oil washes for this).

The two tallish 1/72 figures in the picture show just how large and long the bridge is. It will certainly work for larger (28mm) figures as well.

Siamese Army and Elephants - minor updates

I will be using some of the rather small first-issue HäT 1/72 Indian elephants as forest elephants for my"tribal troops."  These will carry a mahout and two archers each (and no howdah).

I am resculpting the ears and replacing the tusks with tapered styrene rods. I will also redo the tails on some of them.

For size comparison, see one of these smaller elephants next to one of the proper Hät Indian elephants.












The elephant parasol in progress.... and further below is a command group for the tribal levies.