Thanks for the comments all.
The wood base itself is an Elisna product from Italy. For the landscaping I used Celluclay, and for the detail work course, medium, fine ballast and some static grass (all Woodland Scenic products).
The sides were masked
off with tape. While mixing up Celluclay, I added a small amount of
fine ballast. Before applying this onto the base,
the top was sanded and white glue spread over for better adhesion. To
one side I created a mound and embedded coarse ballast. I also shaped
the ground to a slight incline in the direction the figure would be
running. To the flat surface is added more fine ballast, random
sprinkling of static grass and a few medium ballast.
The whole surface was sprayed flat black followed with an earth
colour for the ground. The pile of rocks was sprayed with a grey and
then some field gray where the grass was. Afterwards I drybrushed with
lighter tones of the base coats.
The nameplate was created in a photoshop program (Corel Photo-Paint). Both flags are images downloaded from the net. As is the the font, Fraktur Plain. The marbled look in the background is also a downloaded pic from a google image search for "old paper".
regards.
Jack