Making terrain for 1st Corps 28mm WW2 Operation Kutosov

  We've always tried to put on a good looking demo game, so when we decided to do the Operation Kutosov participation game  we thought we'd try something new.

  Phil from the C20th wargames society volunteered to run the game and came up with the rules and scenario.

  We'd seen some impressive looking gaming tables using 'teddy bear' fur so thought we'd give it a try.

The fur would prove to be perfect for the long grass and wheat fields needed for the game.

The colour we chose you use as our base  is called wolf hair, great for the wheat fields.

Roads cut into the fur with a pair of sharp scissors.

  We tried using clippers to trim the fur but found scissors worked far better,if a little hard on the fingers.

Next step was to brush out the loose fur, this helps it stop matting together when the fur is painted.



Brushing out the loose fur.

Testing the acrylic sealer.

As we'd never tried this before we thought it would be a good idea to do a small test piece.



1st Corps 1/48 T34



The sealer we used was from our local hardware shop, it must be an acrylic sealer that will  accept paint. We havn't tried watering it yet, something for the next terrain project.



Roads added.

We used a paint scraper to smooth the sealer onto the roads.



 

Roads and tracks added.



While the sealer was still wet.the surface of the roads were scored with the end of a brush to look like wheel ruts and cork bits added along the edges of the roads as rocks.



Corgi 1/50 Panthers on the move

Ready to start painting.

Using our fingers, wearing rubber gloves we added the paint along the edges of the roads. It takes a bit of working in to get the paint in deep. The paint we used was a forest green fence paint.Its best  as the paint dries to keep brushing the fur so it  doesn't matt together and look clumpy.

The fur along the edges of the roads was trimmed down  prior to painting so the fur didn't overlap the roads.

Once the edges were done we filled in where we wanted green fields leaving areas for the whet fields.

More on finishing the terrain in the next entry.