Base, terrain & vegetation! (Patreon)

My friends, today was a nice change from yesterday's epic fail with figures. Creating a terrain must be one of the most relaxing things! (As usual, photos are in reverse order)

Now if you feel like the vegetation feels somewhat "dead" (the trampled grass, just a few tufts here and there), it's no coincidence. This time we're going for a scorched earth vignette! Now it's probably more understandable why I wanted that sad tired soldier in the scene. 

I'm actually recreating a photo, but not a historical one, it's actually a picture of some car driving through a rutted dirt road, while the grass around it is burned. My original idea for this model was a scene with corduroy road, but since the suspension is straight, I'll keep that for another model. Scorched earth was a frequently used strategy on the Eastern front and I haven't seen many dioramas or vignettes depicting that... I can't think of any actually! 

So the photo I recreated was just one of several reference pictures for burned up land. I'm not completely done with the construction, I want to add a few small dead bushes and some twigs on the ground. Painting will be interesting... I have a rough idea on how to replicate the burned ground, but if it's gonna work... we'll have to wait and see 😁

I also tried AK's crackling terrain paste, it works great but takes forever to dry and crack. I hope the texture will remain visible once it's all painted up!