ISRAELI CONFLICTS PIGMENT COLLECTION

The dust of Sinai, the Negev and the Golan

The Middle Eastern conflicts were fought on terrain that changes color every few dozen kilometers. The Sinai desert has a different shade from the light sand of the Negev, and the basalt slopes of the Golan a different one again from the cultivated soil to the north of them. The collection builds on exactly this unevenness: five powders let you mix a deposit so that it matches a particular campaign rather than a general idea of a desert.

The contents are Middle East dust, Sinai dust, Negev sand, Syrian earth and Golan soil. The lighter pair suits the underside of the hull, the wheel arches and horizontal surfaces, where stirred-up dust settles. The darker earth tones belong in the corners, under the skirts and in places where damp lingers longer. By combining the two groups you get a transition that a single shade will never give.

The pigment is a dry ground powder. It is picked up with a soft flat brush, worked into the surface, and the excess is tapped off. Until you fix it, it can be moved about at will, which is invaluable while you are looking for the right amount. A fixing fluid is not part of this collection, so reckon on it in advance.

It finds use not only on armored and wheeled vehicles but also on the terrain around them. A base dusted with the same powder the wheels carry holds the whole composition together more reliably than the most careful painting, because the eye accepts at once that the machine and the ground belong to each other.

The fineness of the grind lets the powder be worked even into engraving and rivet lines, where a thicker material would not reach. Vertical surfaces need a considerably smaller amount, because only a fraction of the deposit will stay on them anyway, while horizontal surfaces will carry a markedly thicker layer.