WOOD BARRELS – AK BASING BITS

A prop that works in every period

A wooden barrel is one of the few props that suit a scene from antiquity, from the Middle Ages and from the Second World War alike. Water, wine, oil, tar and fuel were all carried in one, and it stood everywhere something was stored or transhipped. On a base under a figure or in a diorama it will therefore fill an empty space without tying the scene to a particular year.

Where to stand the barrels

They look best in an irregular group, not in a row lined up with a ruler. One barrel standing upright, a second laid on its side and a third leaning against a wall give a scene movement. A barrel at the feet of a figure moreover works as a sense of scale and tells a viewer at first glance how tall the figure is. Under a lying barrel it is worth suggesting a mark in the earth or a wet patch, so that it does not look as though it had just dropped from the sky.

Painting the wood and the hoops

• Choose a subdued base, as a deep brown wood looks like chocolate at scale.
• Set the individual staves apart with a slight change of shade, so that the wood does not look uniform.
• A thin wash will run into the joints between the staves and draw them better than a brush.
• Set the metal hoops apart and put rust on them only in the places where water runs down.
• Dirty the bottom of a barrel with pigment according to the surface it stands on.

Terms of supply

The barrels are supplied on their own. The base, the figures, the model, the paints and the glue are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise. The number of pieces and the dimensions are given by the manufacturer.