I decided to try out a modular terrain board. This was mainly because my old citadel grass mat being paper had torn after years of use but also in order to try and achieve something more natural to fight over. I bought some Ziterdes Modular Terrain boards from Germany. Service was very fast and they soon arrived. An alternative would have been to make some with styrofoam, but I thought these would save time and perhaps be more durable. Another option I looked at was the Realm of Battle board, which looks good for storage but is quite expensive.
The Ziterdes boards are basically blank sculptured plastic coloured brown with some texture and features added like hills, rivers or a marsh. There are a good few options so I started with 10. They come with clips to hold them together during battle that work quite we I purchased a Citadel Scenery Painting Pack (contains lots of flock) and a Woodland Scenics Landscape Learning Kit as well as lots of PVA Glue and set to work.
A river source
To start with I dry brushed all the boards with ochre from the scenery pack. On some of the boards I added sand and rocks (litter and slate) to add more texture and painted those areas black. The cliffs I also painted black. I then highlighted the black areas with shades of grey.
Stage One
Next I followed the instructions on the Landscape Learning Kit. This involves painting the board with PVA Glue (Scenics make a nice expensive one) and then dusting this with Green Blended Turf. Spraying with Spray Scenic Cement I then applied Fine Turf in different colours. This adds shades and highlights. Finally, because many of my figures are based in this way I added further layers of static grass from the Citadel Scenery Kit. First the dark green and then the lighter shade. Subsequently medium clump foliage and fine clump foliage is added. The scenery cement spray and pva glue being used to bind everything together. For the marsh piece I used the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water. The water was deeper then recommended so I had some problems with shrinkage as it dried. Maybe I should have used the resin option. I also added Woodland Scenics Field Grass to add some reeds to the marsh.
The final pieces to complete where the river and mystical Hill of the Spring. These were completed in the same way as above with sand and slate being added to river banks to give texture and then painted grey. Next the water was painted using a mix of blue, green, brown and black artists acrylics blended together to create the illusion of depth. A sort of Prussian Blue with a darker centre. This was then painted with Realistic Water effect once dry (folllowing the instructions on the Woodland Scenics video from their website) and then allowed to dry. You have to do the water last to avoid getting flock in your water so it is a bit daunting. I experimented with Water Effects and White Paint on the waterfall but that was not so good on the first try so I had to start over.
After adding fine turf, static grass and medium shrubs.
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Very beautiful board, well done!
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