Zariba, zariba!

Or, More Fun with Rubberised Horsehair.

This is becoming the summer of terraining, as I finally put sand and paint and horsehair together to make these two zaribas/zarebas, or makeshift defences. A zariba was simply "an improvised stockade constructed especially of thornbushes and used for defense in parts of Africa". They were constructed by British forces in the Sudan from acacia bushes to protect encampments, supplies and pack animals.

Ok, it's a tight squeeze with my big ridge tents. Time to buy some renedra bell/dog tents...

I used two large vehicle bases I grabbed on a whim from Warbases at Salute. I'm a sucker for paying a quid to save me the time it takes to draw out and cut my own shapes and I've also found that the mdf is much less prone to warping. These were really easy pieces to make, I just sandpapered the edges, built up some height using wood filler and leftover cardboard and coated the top in PVA and sand. Once thats dried, I painted it with two watered coats of emulsion and wash/drybrushed to achieve the right colour. Then just rip/cut the rubberised horse hair as before, tease into bushy clumps, dab on the same stone-coloured emulsion and hot glue gun it onto the base.

With the KRRC manning the defences - they were built to fit an eight-man tray.