Peter - very kind. Not a patch on your painting skills though!
Tim, Steven, Steve - thanks
Jim - I scratch built the plinth in plastic card then moulded it. I can just cast them off whenever I need one now
last night I made up the base
for speed I used VJ sandy paste (it dries quite quickly) for the ground and pressed in some WWS static grass with ground scatter - appears to have worked ok
what I forgot to do was prime and paint the plinth first
so that could be fun trying to do without ruining the grass
the eagle eyed will see that I have repainted the oil drum - I wasn't happy with the rust as it was too close in colour to the leather jacket and it all sort of merged together
the barrel is now red with an attempt at the Shell aviation spirit logo painted on the rear
still need to finish off the flesh areas and his shirt