SUPER PACK DESERT & ARID BATTLEFIELDS

The dust that clings to vehicles in the desert

Dry battlefields from North Africa through the Middle East to Afghanistan are bound together by a fine pale film. It settles on the horizontal surfaces, runs down the sides of a hull and gradually knocks the saturation out of the base finish. This set of eleven products builds such a surface step by step, from the first dirty layer to the final dry dusting of the edges.

What you will find in the box

A pair of washable acrylic paints in the shades RAL 8000 and RAL 8020 form the lower layer, which once it has gone off can be partly wiped away with water to reveal the tone beneath. Two modeling pastes give the build-up on the running gear real volume. Three effect liquids cover settled dust, dry earth and parched steppe, two pigments serve for flat dusting, and two oil brushers fill in streaks and greasy smears.

The recommended order of steps

• Apply the washable layer over the whole surface, let it go off and reveal the raised detail with a damp brush.
• Lay the paste only where mud would really get to, that is at the wheels, on the tracks and under the fenders.
• Put the pigment on dry and fix it right at the end, so that it keeps its flat look.
• Stir both the pastes and the effects before use, as the filler in them sinks during storage.

The scope of the set is aimed mainly at ground vehicles, but it serves just as well on crates, figure equipment and the terrain around a model. Anyone building a scene on a base will above all appreciate that the same products tie the vehicle and the surface under it together. The model then does not look as though it had only been placed on a finished diorama afterward.