I am still alive

Dear friends...

in case you are wondering, I am still alive and still trying to paint. Sadly with my new work, my time has shrunk considerably and on top of that I am having varnish problems... again. I managed to actually finish two miniatures these last two days and even gloss coated them. After giving them a Purity Seal coat though, the paint started cracking or nearly dissolving... I didn't know what caused this, until I remembered that I had added some thinner to the gloss coat (Humbrol). I am guessing this is the reason and somehow the Purity Seal re-activates or reacts with the extra thinner. Or the extra thinner prevents the gloss coat to dry in 24 hours and it wasn't dry yet when I painted it. No matter what the reason, I am cursing this cosmic injustice! With the amount of painting I do at the moment, every miniature is worth so much more to me.

*shakes fist into the air and goes to bed*

Scratchbuilt Zulu Hut for a Bday

A friend of mine had his birthday last Tuesday, so I decided to build him something as a present. After the Tactica he is burning for anything colonial and he is also currently painting miniatures for the Zulu wars like mad, so I guessed that his ca. 150 painted Zulus needed at least one hut.

The hut is built with half a plastic see through spherical ornament that I bought in an arts and crafts store. I covered that with pieces of towel and the ropes are made of simple sewing string doubled and twisted and then stuck into place by super glue. The cow hide is made of greenstuff and was added to stop the plastic ornament from showing. The "entrance" bit is also made of greenstuff. Let me know what you think of it.