British infantry & making rice paddies

 I finished converting my British/kiwi infantry for the Italian campaign and had lots of figures left over so accidently started, or should I say returned to, another project- 14th Army in Burma. I converted a section of Sikh troops and as with the Italian themed force used a mixture of the 8th Army and Late War British sets from Warlord games so there is a mix of shorts, battledress trousers and jackets as well as short sleeves. They turned out pretty good and I've painted them up in the jungle green uniform of 1943 onwards- no photos as of yet. 

British/Commonwealth infantry for the Italian front

Anyhow, so that got me thinking about suitable terrain and how I need some (probably in time a lot) of rice paddies for games in Burma. So, tonight I have done a few test pieces using MDF, foamcore for the berms as well as polyurathane for the water effect. Once dry I'll add blobs of static grass as the rice growing. 

The three stages of making the basic paddies. Once I'd cut out the MDF with a jigsaw I added foamcore berms and then used permafilla to create the banks. 

Once this was dry I textured with some local beach sand, sealed it with another layer of watered down PVA (a critical step to seal the sand so it doesn't chip or flake off over time) and then spray painted a dark brown followed by a drybrush of a light brown colour. 

Once that had dried it was time to add static grass and finally I poured some polyurathane I had lying around as the water effect.

Once it has completed dried I'll probaby add rows of static grass as clumps of rice. But I'm happy enough with progress so far. 

Craig