Russian Village

Here we go with the last of the Russian stuff and then it will be on to pastures new.

This and the next image are of the type of well called a "well sweep", typical of parts of Russia, but common in many areas of the world. There is no rope or handle; instead the bucket is connected by a stick to a large counterbalanced beam, pivoting on a fork-shaped upright. The user grabs the stick and pulls it down until the bucket takes in water and then lets the counterweight do most of the work of pulling it up. Obviously this kind of well only works in places where the water table is close to ground level.

This pic illustrates what I immediately noticed was the downside of my lovely new photographic backdrop: the long static grass looks lush and natural. but doesn't give under the slight weight of models placed on top of it. Hence they seem to "float" on the tips of the grass, emphasising the edge of the base, which I would much prefer not to notice. I'm not a big user of emoticons, but 😖. I was thinking of building my wargames board with a static grass finish, but it's back to the drawing board on that one...

I didn't make this store/ shack myself, just painted it. It's really only here for completeness.

And finally two pictures of the village assembled.

And to finish today's festival of self-deprecation, I notice this shot reveals the "edge of the sky". But if I crop that out, you wouldn't see how the fence elements can be arranged to suggest individual plots behind each house, so I'll leave it. Never mind.

In a few days I will be photographing some models from a very different place, so I'll see you all (virtually) when they get posted.