I got some neat Z-scale trees off Ebay for dirt cheap. Because I wasnt sure how I'd store my terrain if the trees were attached directly, I decided to mount the trees onto little 5/8" washers using Pre-Mixed Concrete Patch.
Since I would be mounting 1/2" adhesive magnets that I custom ordered from Litko to the boards, and the bases of the trees were done in concrete patch, I wanted some way to tie in the tree bases and where they would go.
I found that US pennies were the size I needed, and hot-glued some push pins (sans the sharp pointy part) onto them. Then I placed the pennies on the templates and dropped the concrete patch around it. After lifting the penny off, little neat circles were left, inside of which I will put the self-adhesive magnets.
Here are the templates with some additional MDF mounted for variation, with the process of isolating the tree magnet locations:
A close-up of the process as Im doing it:
Tools used:
After the concrete patch dried, I watered down PVA glue a little and applied ye olde Beach Sand to the bases. Maybe the beach sand was a TAD too textured, but I thought if I used my nice fine hobby sand that I wouldnt get the drybrush variation I knew I'd need later.
I let that dry overnight and then painted the first layer.
I had gone down to Home Depot over the weekend and had some paint matching done. This first color was Vallejo Beasty Brown, done in the Behr Premium Plus Ultra, which is a Flat Interior paint with primer built in.
You can kind of pick out the places the magnets are going to go.
The next two layers, also matched at HD, are Vallejo Earth and Bone White (the astute among you might realize I am also, in effect, using GW Beastial Brown, Graveyard Earth, and Bleached Bone).
BUT:
I want to put at least one dirt road through this forest:
It will be on that larger template with the building in the middle, and will cut straight across.
Do I paint that road lighter brown, maybe skipping Earth and going straight for Bone White, or do I assume gravel is more grey and through a lighter grey in the mix?
Assume the whole base will be brought up using the standard 3 browns, but needs to have a distinguishable dirt road. What colors would you use?
No one offered anything on the road so I took a stab in the dark. Ideas?
