I too am a BIG fan of Marks terrain, as well as reports. They are a very fun read but the eye candy is definitely eye catching. While I don't have any of my WWII micro armour, I plan on trying the same techniques with 15mm WWII and Nappy and my modern micro's. Your steps that you took and listed above are a good starting point and something to work on as well.Mk 1 wrote:I am a BIG fan of the "MLuther" method of micro-armor terrain. Mark has posted so many compelling battle stories, and I have been quite inspired by his AARs.opsctr wrote:It was posted last year by Mark Luther, another member of the forum.
I have never done a winter / snow board, not with MLuther's techniques nor with any others. But I have studied his approach, and tried to learn and implement the basics of his techniques. In my experience they apply equally for desert or temperate terrain, and I expect them to apply equally for winter terrain. It takes a bit of experience to get it all working, but here are the basics as I have understood them:
1 ) The starting point is a cloth. MLuther uses plain, cheap bed sheets. I have tried some other, heavier cloths. I think I will move towards bedsheets, as he still seems to get better results than I do.
2 ) Elevations go UNDER the cloth. Use whatever you want for elevations. Cut styrofoam seems to be the easiest, although I mostly re-use the cut corrugated cardboard that I have been collecting for several years (originally for use ON TOP of my game cloths, but now applied UNDER per the MLuther method).
3 ) Use spray-paints to break-up the uniformity of the color of the cloth. Two or three variances on the base color. If a green cloth, use a lighter or darker green, and maybe a tan or earth tone or a yellowed tone. For a snow-scape maybe some light gray and some mud-brown. Lightly spray in uneven blotches. Better to use coloring/shading around your elevations (rises get greener or browner, whatever). It is semi-permanent, but don't worry, 'cause you actually want to have a mottled color over time.
4 ) Use pastels for specific terrain features of each game. Roads, rivers, marshes, rocky/crumbled dirt sloaps, etc. Consider putting pastel colors around elevations and/or depressions to highlight these terrain features. After stroking on the pastels, rub them a bit with your fingers to smudge them up and make them less distinct. A pack of 20 pastels from the crafts store serves very well for many games. Use three or four shades for each terrain feature, not just one.
5 ) Put lots of stuff on top of the cloth. Fields of grain and crops are mostly remanents of interesting cloths from the fabric store. Tree lines are made on coffee-house stirring sticks with painted/flocked bases. Add buildings, etc. Don't be shy to put some pastels around your added foliage and structures.
That's what I've learned so far. Still building my collection of game cloths and crop cloths.
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Still not sure on the fields that Mark uses though...I've been on woodlands site and there's some there, but still not sure yet.
. I will get that winter ground foam and trees, time for some fun!
and i will also have to get some buildings from GHQ and pfc cinc which have some very nice buildings like modern era factories and stuff which i will need because if you see the FULDA layout there is a paper mill which is a heavy building, obviously it is a factory. I thought because its Germany snow would be good because in Germany it snows alot it seems, this may prove expensive for the buildings and forces but it will be worth it. Iw ill try get pics MK but the way you described how to do it on photobucket it seemed a bit daunting to me being lazy haha But its all good wish me luck 
