The Statue
by James Holloway

As I began to plan my Combat Zone terrain, I thought it might be nice to have some open space as well as the usual crowded urban landscape. In a city, that probably means a park. A big square of grass would be boring, however, so I decided to add a few details. The first thing I began work on was the statue, clearly commemorating some now-forgotten benefactor. The figure itself is a souvenir from a friend's trip to Massacussetts, and is intended to represent 18th-century American statesman John Adams. I've got a second figure around here somewhere: I'll give her the same treatment and put one at either end of the park. In any case, I began by undercoating the figure black. I was a little concerned not to make him too shiny. If you look at bronze statues, they're not really the orangey-yellow colour that bronze miniature paints are, but a deep brown, to say nothing of the verdigris. I mixed a healthy dose of dark brown into my bronze paint and laid on over the black undercoat, then drybrushed it with uncut bronze to bring out the texture and applied a couple of black and brown washes until I was satisfied with the appearance. However, I still felt it looked a little too neat, as if it had been sitting in a museum rather than being out in a park -- especially in a world of collapsing social services where it wasn't likely to be cleaned regularly! I wanted to give the whole item a feeling of neglect, so I brushed downward from the hat with a mixture of white and off-white paints. I'm not completely satisfied that I got the appearance, except for some streaky areas on the back of the hat, but it gives a suitable appearance of neglect.

I painted it grey, then drybrushed it to give a weathered appearance and affixed a small plaque made from card. Streaks of watered-down dark brown paint give the appearance of rust from the plaque. The base was built up with putty and flock. I ran some of the flock up the sides of the plinth to give the appearance of creaping moss, and added some debris. The soda can is made from a section of the sprue the em-4 Troopers came on, while the tall grass is Woodland Scenics field grass. And there you have it -- the statue provides some hard cover and visual interest in an open area, and looks not bad considering that the parts were essentially free. If you have an appropriate figure knocking about -- and who doesn't? -- it's a quick, attractive, and easy project. Personally, I think that the Tinpot Dictator figure would make a wonderful statue, with his fancy uniform and heroic pose. He looks like just the kind of person who would build a heroic statue of himself with a straight face.