No jungle today.  I sprayed it all black yesterday and then slapped on some brown paint.  In the afternoon I went to start on the green base coat, but the brown was still wet.  No progress possible, so I decided to knock up some of the jungle buildings I had purchased.  Here’s one from Warbases which is rather swish.


It’s a nice model and I really love the stilted look as it reminds me of the Airfix jungle outpost I had as a nipper.  That said, as with all MDF buildings, I did fancy tarting it up a bit, just to get a unique look.  The first step here was to change the planked veranda to a bamboo floor.  This I did with cocktail sticks stuck on with PVA glue and, when dry, trimmed to the right length.

This was quick and easy.  I just snipped off one end and then plonked them on the deck.  If I were to do this again, I would cut the sticks to the correct length rather than trim off later as whilst more time consuming I think it would give a better and more irregular look.  You live and learn.
Next, I wanted to change the roof from wood planking to a more traditional plant fibre.  I want to create a mix of corrugated iron, plant fibre and possible thatch on the roofs to get variety.  Here for the plan fibre I wanted to et the look of irregularly placed material.  I used two grades of card, one from a cornflake packet the other a lighter card, or heavy paper, with the consistency of blotting paper.  If anyone remembers what that is like.  I had some lying around in the workshop so that was what was used.
Snipping the card/paper into long lengths about a quarter of an inch wide, I then tore these into lengths of about an inch.  Tearing four or five strands at a time gave a more twisted and irregular look to the resulting bits which then gave a more irregular look on the roof.

Tearing four or five strands at a time gave a more twisted and irregular look to the resulting bits which then gave a more irregular look on the roof, as can be seen below.

This is a simple process and actually pretty quick to do, surprisingly.  When the whole side was done I applied a wash of 50:50 PAV and water to tie the whole thing together.

Here’s the finished roof this morning.

And a snap of the decking trimmed to shape.  This was a bugger of a job and sections came away when being trimmed.  To be fair they could be glued back in place with ease, but trimming the sticks to size before applying would have been a better idea.  As can be seen, the trimming resulted in a ‘pudding basin’ hair cut effect rather than a more irregular finish.  And yes, it is bloody well annoying me.  Ho hum.

Okay. what’s next?  I reckon the walls of the hut itself need a bit of texture.  Clearly I can’t slap on the usual Polyfilla mix as I want to retain the look of woven fibre.  My plan is to add some random sections of the cut paper to the walls, not a lot, but enough to show some variation from the universally flat surface.  With that doneI will replicate the frame structure that you can see (the vertical and horizontal lines as opposes to the diagonal ones) with wood to really give the model some depth.
Today, Christmas Day, is likely to be a non-runner when it comes to modelling.  We’ve got both daughters home so the four of us will be tucking into a big dinner and then PLAYING A GAME, something we never do as a family.  Number 2 daughter bought a card game called Cards Against Humanity which looks like a good laugh.  So, let me take the opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and raise my glass to toast all who have made the Lard community so much fun in 2018.  Cheers!