Terrain Project

I've always been lacking in terrain, partly due to 10 years in the wilderness, during which time I never played, so this year I have decided to rectify that. I'm great at starting projects, but struggle to finish them off unless there's a specific purpose or deadline that I'm working to. So, with the terrain project I have set myself the goal of putting a complete 6x4 table's worth for ValleyCon.

The plan when I started was to do a Sicily-themed table. I then found out that the competition will be Early War, so that doesn't fit, and it doesn't even vaguely match the desert army I've decided to take. Such is life. I've decided to continue as I am, just so I can say I've finished a project. If I'm lucky I'll have time to do a desert table later.

The constraints I've placed on myself are as follows:

1. Suitably sized for Flames of War's footprint. Just thinking about things like buildings that can comfortably fit a number of medium bases, area terrain big enough to hide an infantry platoon, roads which are wide enough for large bases, etc. 
2. Transportation and storage. I love modular terrain boards, and there are some fantastic examples on the internet of them being done really well. Unfortunately, I'm a bit restricted in storage space and I don't think they're really an option for me, so the aim is to go for a traditional solution using a drop cloth and scatter terrain, that can be boxed up for storage, easily modified if it doesn't play as expected, rearranged to give some variety in future, and potentially extended to make an 8x6 table.
3. Reasonably balanced for gameplay. This is tricky, as missions can be played across or along the table, by armies ranging from static to highly mobile. I want a good mix of bulletproof cover, some difficult going, sensible options for objective locations, and a few areas with decent lines of sight without the board being dominated by them.
4. Cheap. There's a lot of wonderful terrain pieces commercially available, but they're expensive. I wanted to scratchbuild as much as possible to try and keep the cost down. 

Here's the basic road layout I'm starting with. The large black area on the right is going to be a town, with the smaller black area on the left potentially being a bridge. Not sure about that: a river makes sense for the setting, but can have a big impact on gameplay, so I may end up doing something else at that end instead.

The roads are made from railway ballast and coarse turf, glued onto a brown felt backing. I think it looks okay, it's flexible so can mould to contours, and is easily patched up when damaged. 

To try and get a Southern European feeling, I've added stone walls lining the roads, vineyards and olive groves.

I have no idea what Italian vineyards looked like 75 years ago, so mine are modelled on what I know: Marlborough. Sufficient space between rows for medium bases, and space in the headland for large bases. 

The olive trees are made from Woodland Scenic armatures. They're detachable to make storage and moving models through the groves easier. A couple of ideas tried here: one grove has the trees plugging into their bases as they're supplied, while the others use magnets. Not sure yet which way is better. 

I've tried to put lots of gates in so that the walls don't cripple vehicle movement too much. I don't think I have enough yet along the roads, so will build some more. Probably aiming for one gate every 18" of wall.

Still need to make buildings, and there are a number of things I need to decide: how to do hills, on top of the cloth or underneath it? What material to use for them? Do I make a bridge and put a river in? Luckily my eldest minion is pretty competent at FOW, so we can test a few ideas out in trial games and adapt the layout if it's not working.