How to paint a Zuzzy mat?

[cheetor]

Does anyone out there have experience of painting a Zuzzy mat? 

I took the plunge recently and bought two 6x4' Zuzzy mats.  As I had hoped, first impressions are stellar: they really do look fantastic even just in plain grey.

I am looking for any tips that people may have picked up while painting theirs in the hope that their insights might help me to get a better finish.  I also hope to avoid any pitfalls that could screw up a rather large chunk of my gaming budget.

Any takers?



Some details:

One mat is the Broken Blacktop, which will be used for modern and sci-fi urban games:

I will be going for a grey/black asphalt look on this one.


The other mat is the Scourged Forest which will be used for post-apoc, sci-fi western and alien desert games:

As I have been gaming these settings for a while I have accumulated a lot of terrain based with a vaguely sandy yellow ochre colour on black (I cant remember the colour name right now). To some extent I will be painting this mat to match that colour as shown on my current painted wallpaper surface in this shot:



Zuzzy do a pretty in depth, but quite specific tutorial here.  It is interesting and useful, but doesnt really pertain to the maps that I have.

[elysium64]

I have been looking into these, and from my understanding the mats need to be painted with a series of washes, followed by dry brushing. to match your current table, i would use a mix of various brown to black washes, then dry brushed in the various colours from your original boards, it is important to avoid any large blocks of colour as these will crack and peel.
Sorry I cannot be more specific, I hope this helps.

[cheetor]

Sorry I cannot be more specific, I hope this helps.

Dont be sorry, it all helps   Maybe my Google-fu is weak, but I didnt find a whole lot online about how people painted these so any advice is welcome.

As the mats are supplied in a primer grey like colour, I am likely to paint the Broken Blacktop predominantly with dark washes directly over that, to hopefully end up with a road/asphalt like colour.

My plans for the Scourged Forest involve some drybrushing of the yellowish, deserty colour and some detailing followed by a dark brown wash or two I suspect.  Maybe a further stage of drybrushing, but I am not sure.

I am considering trying to (very) lightly spray on a couple of other colours before the drybrushing stage, to break it up a little, but I have had little success with this sort of thing before, so I would love some input.

Also, before I get stuck into the painting I hope to hear from someone who has actually already painted one, just to try and get some pointers.