Painting a Hill

Painting terrain is a nice break from the usual grind of soldiers. It's possible to blast through in a couple of hours, especially on a nice sunny day when you can dry each of the stages in the garden. I dug out a plastic hill to see just how fast it could be done.

Primed white, then Army Painter English Uniform

Shaded various browns, Woodland Scenics Earth and Windsor and Newton Raw Umber

Rocks painted grey/buff with cheap craft paints

Rocks shaded with grey, stippled blue/grey, final shade with umber gouache

The gouache I picked up in an art shop specifically to use on terrain projects. It's almost solid in the jar, a little goes a long way. Dilute it with water, mix with other paints and apply with a big old brush. The theory is that after it's dry you can wet a brush and remove it, but I just use it as a wet pigment or shader.

In total the hill took me around two hours, some of which was me relaxing on a bench in the garden soaking up vitamin D while the washes dried in the sun. It was a really enjoyable change of pace from the usual stuff.

Desert outcrop?

My original idea was to paint up the groundwork in this way, then add some turf and grass to make it a backdrop for my photography (and use in games of course). However, I realise it almost perfectly matches my desert terrain mat. So I could just stop here and use it in desert battles.

Some of my figures actually don't mind this barren feature and look quite at home on the hill terrain, but most would prefer a bit more foliage. I think I will sleep on it, maybe get a few desert games out of it before I cover it with flock and turf. My next batch of figures to be painted will take me a few weeks so I have plenty of time to decide. At least this dwarf is happy at the moment, no doubt there will be grumbling when the grass starts to grow.