NW Frontier Gaming Board/Terrain help

[guitarheroandy]

The context for this query is as follows:

I want to do some 2 foot x 4 foot boards for NW Frontier gaming. Just very simple, as I have little or no room to store sculpted terrain tiles, so I'm aiming for a flat board which I'll cover in sand, then paint and add some grassy patches.

I also intend to then prep some freestanding contoured hills in the same way, although adding slate chips to make them look a bit more 'mountainous' and provide cover for the tribesmen to snipe at the Imperial troops...

So, the idea is that it's the kind of set-up I can take to my wargames club on a Monday night - a couple of large 'Really Useful Boxes' full of hills and rocky terrain, three 2x4 foot boards and enough models to do some  T&T scenarios.

I am after a fairly arid by not exactly desert kind of look, so the key question is what colour paints to use for the boards and the non-rocky bits of the hills... Plus, what colour flock/static grasses for the grassy bits? I don't want it too 'lush' but equally, a bit of green won't be a disaster. Has anyone got any suggestions (and ideally pics to help show me what your recipe looks like,) please?

Many thanks in advance...

Andy

[FifteensAway]

Not my idea, of course, but follow the link below to an excellent - and affordable - means of recreating the Northwest Frontier terrain:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080705040111/http://zeitcom.com/majgen/24mtsc.html

Doing something similar but more durable and a tad bit more versatile is on my work bench to do list.

[Driscoles]

Have a look here please :
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=58905.0

cheers
Björn

[guitarheroandy]

@ FifteensAway: Thank you. I'd seen that before. Interesting idea..

@ Driscoles: Thank you: I'd seen that thread before! Fabulous set-up! My problem is that I'm rubbish at colour-matching so have no idea how I'd go about ordering shades of paint to get close to that...I'm in the UK and was wondering whether to go with cheap-ish artists acrylics or decorating paints...

[FifteensAway]

I'd go with cheap craft paints for terrain - and just get a couple shades of tan and a couple shades of brown and maybe one or two red browns and a sandy color or two and just sort of slop them on, from darkest color in a heavy coat on through to the lighter coats, each coat a progressively lighter touch dry brush.  Don't need to be any kind of artist to create good terrain.  Just follow this simple rule and you'll get workable results.