They are made out of 3mm MDF. I put a 5mm high balsa edging to build up a bank and then us permafilla. Once dried (about an hour in the sun) I PVA and cover in beach sand, then once that is dried paint a dark brown and then highlight with a lighter brown (using test pots of British Paints paints I purchase from the local DIY store- usually $5-8 for a 250ml test pot, depending in if they are on special or not).
I then attach woodlands scenics grasses (a mix of green turfs + courser blends) and finally I use Woodland Scenics clump foliage for the hedges (which I attach with F2 glue). To attach the grass I use Cabots neutral water based stain. It dries in minutes and the grass stays stuck for life (unlike my previous experiences with PVA). It also dries a hell of a lot faster than PVA. The ploughed field is simply some corrogated cardboard which is glued down with PVA before the permafilla is added to the base.
Strengthening the Hedges
One of the issues with Woodland Scenics foam foliages is that they compress if something heavy is placed on them (such as can happen in my terrain boxes at times). A solution I discovered on the FoW forums is to coat them with a mix of PVA and water.
Once the hedges have dried I use an old brush and a mix of 50% PVA and 50% water and dab it all over the hedge and allow to dry. This really needs 2 or 3 coats to work well but the glue/water mix is absorbed and strengthens the clump foliage so that it does not go flat if something heavy is placed on it. In my experience you need to ensure that the glue is completely dry before doing a second coat (so I usually leave it in a sunny spot for 24 hours- especially in winter).
Not bad for at most a couple of hours work!
Craig
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