Around Christmas time and Easter, my local Dollar Tree store has little about 1/72nd scale buildings in a sort of ceramic material. They are pre-painted, often with "snow" and glitter in the snow. This set of statues monument was one of them I picked up for only a dollar each. The base and part of the statue was in white with some glitter on it. Using a stiff brush, I brushed off as much of the glitter as I could and then repainted them. The one on the left I repainted with a heavy black wash to represent ash, dirt, ruins, over painting all the snow part. The one of the right I repainted with green and then flocked the green for a more normal look. Having a little bit of green on the monument looks like the maintenance crew is a bit behind on the gardening.
It was a pretty nice monument, I think it says "Samuel Adams" on the front, but it is hard to read. He fits okay as someone who could be on a monument almost anywhere in the world in the last 200 years. This Revell US Army guy shows just how large the monument is, the smaller figures are a chunky 1/72nd size.
Just changing the base really makes a big difference in these to models. And the difference from when they had the snow on them is huge; they really looked like toys before.
Monuments like this can be found in town squares, cemeteries, parks, and in front of great public buildings everywhere. Here a HaT WWII German soldier directs the tour to another interesting location.
I try and visit my local Dollar Tree about once every month or so, just for little gems like this one. A similar monument from a model railroad store could easily be $20 or more. This one was basically pre-painted. I have done similar ones and repainted the stature figures in bronze for a different look. In the next few days I will post a few buildings I got at the same time.
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