I'm getting my FPW projects going again, and I'd like to use the same lads for both July and January battles. So no green fields or snowdrifts but something not totally naff in either.
Suggestions? Pictures? Not just FPW, if you have something that works for wwii east front that's great too; I'll steal any good idea.
This is a screen capture of the Gorze ravine to the south of Gravelotte.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/2nd%20and%204th%20Division%20VI%20Corps/Gorze.png) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/2nd%20and%204th%20Division%20VI%20Corps/Gorze.png.html)
The issue is going to be geology and seasons for basing. The ground round Saint-Privat, Gavelotte, Mars-La-Tours is yellow sandstone (full of tiny fossils) so comes in at a shade of yellow ochre, which I then highlight with a 50/50 white yellow ochre mix. The Loire is a more fertile brown, which became a muddy grey once the rains set in. Worth has brown sediment in the valley bottom, but red sandstone at the heights. The winter of 1870/1 was long and cold, so snow lay on the ground in drifts for weeks!
I went Saint Privat-Gravelotte ochre for mine, with Spring green flock.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/2nd%20and%204th%20Division%20VI%20Corps/006.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/2nd%20and%204th%20Division%20VI%20Corps/006.jpg.html)
You may want to just go for a neutral shade with flock patches?
Every base I paint for whatever terrain piece or army are all done in the same combination of colours to match my boards, whether it is supposed to be the steppelands of Mongolia, the African deserts, Europe or the Americas. This may be a tad confusing but it has a certain immutability to it and it works fine for me. Plus, if necessary I can interchange figures from other armies without any embarrassing base faux pas.
MickS