We recently received our new Zuzzy mats in the mail. We ordered them months ago and they took a long time to come but I think it was worth the wait because even unpainted they look great! Teddy and I each picked one out and those are our projects this week.
I have spent the past two days painting and I’m guessing I still have another day to go on this bad boy, but I will update our progress as we get closer to finishing. This is “The Moorlands” Zuzzy mat which I am painting to look like a forest floor. The first thing I did was grab my citadel paints (no primer necessary) and a large drybrush. Zuzzy says you can use any acrylic paints but I prefer Citadel, and I had plenty on hand.
The Zuzzy mat is made out of latex so I was a little skeptical about how well the paint was going to adhere but I used the test swatch they gave me and tried to rub my sample colors off and they stuck tight. The mat was still really flexible and not a single bit of paint flaked off. So, I began painting the 4′ by 6′ mat we have on one of our gaming tables in the store. My entire base layer is Loren Forest. In the picture above you can see where I started painting the different splotches. There are two different textures on the mat which are hard to see in the photo but the spaces that are already green are more of a grassy looking area while the parts that are still gray I am going to make look more bare with rocks and dirt.
I finished painting the entire mat Loren Forest but you can see how just the textures make the paint look different shades before I even started the ink washing process.
All together it took me about 4 hours and 7 paint pots to get the amount of coverage I wanted over the entire mat. I was really happy with the results, and after I let that dry, I started adding the ink wash. We really wanted to differentiate the two textures so Teddy and I agreed on a nice deep green for the lush grassy patches and a brownish green for the flatter spots.
Again I went to my trusty Citadel paint line and grabbed Biel-Tan Green and Athonian Camoshade. As I started with the green I thought it might be a little too dark, so I started trying to spread the ink a little further. This was rather difficult as there are sooooo many cracks and crevices for it to get into, but I was able to manage and as it dried the color toned down a bit.
I am about halfway done with the wash and so far I am really liking it. Once I finish that up, I can move on to dry brushing!
I can’t forget to mention, Teddy has been very busy too. He picked out “The Wounded City” Zuzzy mat and has been working on it pretty quickly (although his is far less work than mine, just sayin’). This mat is a huge part of Teddy’s city fight themed table. Parts of the mat have brick showing through the asphalt. He used an old Citadel Foundation called Mechrite Red, which of course, they don’t make anymore. Sorry. Then he started washing the entire mat in Nuln Oil, which we used to black wash pretty much every piece of terrain on our tables, no joke. Anyway, here are some photos of his progress and I will post an update of our finished tables very soon.
**Originally posted 10-28-2013
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