Finishing Trees

Some thoughts on making trees. Besides wanting these trees to be robust, as in clumsy fingers proof, wanted them to look really sharp. 

So the amount of work they took to get them to this point is pretty hardcore, amounting to several hours per tree. Probably more than the average wargamer would likely want to spend making trees.

For anyone foolish enough to want to make more realistic trees, I suggest getting Modelling Trees by Gordon Gravett, from Wild Swan Books Ltd. He hand makes the trunks by twisting wire, and uses photographs to replicate specific tree.

He makes me look like a shortcut taking slacker.

So, while there's still some work to do on the bases, and the sabots they will sit in, what I've done so far can be summarized as follows:

Summary

1. Twist up a trunk (I used Woodland Scenics product)

2. Mount on a base (I added a coin for weight)

3. Prepare seafoam branches with hot glue gun

4. Glue seafoam to the trunk using either a contact adhesive, or hot glue gun

5. Texture tree with flex paste, then spray or dip the tree into Plasti Dip, or PVA (I did both)

6. Prime tree grey-green-brown (or other colour to taste) 

7. Spray tree with hairspray and sprinkle on ground foam/tea leaves, whatever works for you (repeat as needed, but don't over do it if you want a lacy see through trees)

8. I sprayed the foliage green, then sprayed a lighter shade of green, followed by a light dusting of yellow (to achieve desired colour)

9. Spray with Yacht varnish (super strong sealant)

10. Spray with mat scenic cement (belt and braces)

11. Admire your finished tree(s)

Notes:

I bought three Würth 500ml Universal Pump Spray Bottles (they have metal inserts in the nozzle) for this project. The ratios for the PVA and mat medium below are more like guidelines, adjusted them as necessary.

PVA was thinned as follows: 6 parts PVA, 4 parts water, plus five drops of glycerin (acts as a flow improver for PVA).

Mat scenic cement. You can use Mod Podge, but I made my own as follows: one part isopropol alcohol, two parts water, and then add three parts matt medium.

Plasti Dip thinned using their thinners, 50/50 mix as recommended by the makers, to make the product sprayable.

Stages of Making Trees WIP

 

Making trees has turned into a torment for Tantalus. I could post every week another update on progress and setbacks. I am being tasked and could even rename the blog to Lost in Trees, or something.

However, that would be boring.

And for those of you wondering how long it took me, or why I spent so much time making these trees, all I can say is that I'm not as good a model-maker as I would like to be, but I'm stubborn about learning from failure.

So, here's a post showing the stages of making a tree.

 

In the picture above, left-to-right, shows the process.

The first tree in front Seafoam sprigs glued to an armature next to pair of tree done earlier after flex paste has been applied to blend both together.

In the background is a one armature waiting for me to apply Seafoam sprigs to its branches, and the other is a partially finished tree.

And a picture from above. Note how one can see through the trees.

At the rear and to the left is a tree armature that I fabricated using three pine tree armatures glued together. I wanted to make a Birch tree, but it's really only an approximation because I've taken liberties with its form.

The right rear you can see the tree that I had finished building in a previous evolution, which I was not happy with.

I decided it needed to be be remade, and this his shows how I inserted new Seafoam into the structure to rebuild it. The next tree post, see what I did there, I will break down the how and whys I did these tree the way I did.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Can't see the Forest for the Trees

So, here it is, the big update, sort of. A breakdown of how my process in making these trees has evolved. Some thoughts and comments, and where I'm going next.

First up. After stripping my previous builds I had to repair one of the trees; as you can see below.

In case it's not obvious, the trunk was covered with homemade liquid Greenstuff (a fifty-fifty mix of Milliput and Greenstuff diluted with methylated spirits to make a paste), and then I glued a Woodland Scenics deciduous tree on top (making a taller tree in the process).

Once I glued the parts, I wrapped some micropore tape around the joint, spread a thin layer of super glue on top, then sprinkled some baking soda on top.

And here is the complete tree repaired in all of its glory.

Below shows how I used hot glue to strengthen the stems of the seafoam. It works, but it is time intensive, and requires a bit of skill to tease the glue along each of the branching stems.

Click to embiggen

And it's not accident proof. I broke a stem when I dropped my tree off the table onto the floor.

However, I then remembered I had some Woodland Scenics Flex Paste, which is some sort of acrylic or silicone paste. It dries hard, yet remains flexible! Worth a try.

I brushed it on all over the seafoam stems and the tree trunks.

I would've used this before, rather than make my own liquid Greenstuff, if I had remembered earlier on in this project that I had a bottle of this tucked away. But, I forgot, as one does.

Besides, I've been working on this project for a month, and my build process has evolved. And this is as far as I've got.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Seafoam Branches

The box of seafoam arrived, and I made up two bases with five trees. I used E6000 Plus to glue the seafoam pieces to the branches. The trees didn't turn out as well as I wanted, because I had to cut the seafoam into very small branches to get them to not drop off while the glue set.

Starting again, I did another two bases with eight trees.

This time I used spray impact adhesive. This was much better for attaching the seafoam to the branches, but was both smelly and messy. So, while this batch were better, after flocking the trees still weren't working for me.

So I stripped the trees bare, managing to salvage four trees (three seen here), and started again.

I used a hot glue gun this time round, and while the glue doesn't grab as well as the impact adhesive, and can create strings, it is the least worst option for me in a small flat that I don't want to stink out.

So, after a lot of faffing finding the best method to glue the seafoam to the trunks.

Here is as far as I've got. Next I will flock and spray the foliage green. This project has totally kicked my ass.

Forest Full of Trees

I've assembled some of the large deciduous trees from Woodland Scenics. These trunks still need texturing, which is just brushing on texture paint/gloop.

Super easy to do, barely an inconvenience.

And these are some pine tree armatures, along with a deciduous trunk I've butchered, and three underbush saplings that I'm making as an experiment.

And below is  is my forest, all the trunks painted and based ready to apply the seafoam branches.

Great Birnam wood is one step closer to arriving and delivering the prophecy.

Types of Forests

Click to embiggen: a perfectly cromulent word.

I always wondered what was the difference between a wood and a forest, or a jungle. So now I'm making a forest I thought it might be good to go and find out for myself.

I now know far more than I ever thought I needed to know about woods and forests.

1. Temperate Coniferous Forest 

Found where warm summers and cool winters and enough rainfall to sustain the trees. Species found including cedar, cypress, Douglas fir, fir, juniper, pine, podocarpus, spruce, redwood and yew. The understory also contains a wide variety of herbaceous and shrub species.

2. Sub-Alpine Coniferous Forest 

Conifer forests are typically found on steep, rocky, north-facing slopes.

3. Freshwater Swamp Forest 

Either permanently or seasonally flooded by freshwater, they can be found in a range of climate zones: boreal; temperate; sub-tropical; and tropical. Normally found along the lower reaches of rivers, and around freshwater lakes.

4. Lowland Equatorial Evergreen Rainforest 

These forests occur in a belt around the equator, which receive with more than 2000mm or 80 inches  rainfall annually.

5. Secondary Forest (Second growth)

This is where there has been re-growth after a large event: fire; insect infestation; timber harvest; or wind throw, after a long enough period has passed and the effects are no longer evident. One sign of this is that the trees are spaced closer together and they have less undergrowth.

6. Mangrove Forest 

These consist of salt tolerant trees and shrubs that grow in coastal saline or brackish water that thrive in low oxygen (anoxic) waterlogged mud.

7. Boreal or Taiga Forest

Mostly coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches, and aside from the oceans these make up the world's largest biome.

8. Peat Swamp Forest

These are forest wetlands in tropical and subtropical areas with poor drainage and waterlogged soil, which prevents dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing. 

And below an illustration of the typical profiles of temperate versus tropical forests.

Also, click to embiggen.

I, of course, want a generic enough forest that I can use it for tropical and temperate set wargames. So my plan is to swap out specific trees using the bases in my previous post. I'm currently waiting on some E6000 Plus glue so that I can start applying seafoam to the trunks I've prepared.

It's a cunning plan, and we shall have to see if it works.

Forests

Oh no, what have I done? I looked at my old work on these trees with clump foliage and decided they weren't up to snuff. Do many hours later after dipping them in hot water and peeling off the clumps I'm back to square one, bare armatures.

But, the trunks are all based, textured up with gloop, and ready for the next stage.

So what is the next stage?

I've ordered some dried seafoam, and started saving tea leaves for foliage. I've also ordered some Woodland Scenics TR1125 large deciduous tree armatures, some coconut palms (because why not), bamboo shoots (because I didn't have any).

All good. And for shits and giggle I ordered a large plastic tree.

I plan to model an emergent tree (a tree that stands above the primary canopy) using the model in the photo.

Yeah that foliage is going to need replacing, which will need a lot of work to make it look good.  But, it has the big advantage of being cheap.

The alternatives I looked at were triple the price. So, cheap is good.

This is definitely a case of "I may be some time."

Desert Oasis and Ruins

Ta da... three oasis bases completed. Look at the reflections on the acrylic liquid water. Pretty pleased with how these bits of terrain turned out.

Below the fallen pillar.

The ruined head of some ancient god. Could pass as a very stylized Anubis or Khnum I guess. Let me know what you think?

And, the next project. The bases for my forest/jungle. 

The one in the center/bottom has had its edges beveled, which I should've done before painting. However, it was only after assembling them and priming did I realize that I needed to do so.

As they say, things are obvious in hindsight.

An Interlude: Trees

Here's where I am so far with painting the palm trees and the oasis bases from Charlie Foxtrot. This small little project that was just meant to be a quickie has turned into a monster made of trees.

As I said I have a whole bunch of trees, so many trees to finish working on. First up, evergreen pine trees.

Followed by deciduous trees of various sizes. All built from Woodland Scenics sprues I assembled many years ago that have sat in a box languishing ever since.

So many trees that need finishing. Above small and medium trees. Below large trees.

Hear the lament of the tree maker for she has bitten off more than she thought.

Catch you all on the bounce (probably while crashing into some trees on landing).

Palm Trees

This is where I'm up to on getting these palm trees, though actually it's a mix of coconut and palm, and other stuff tree bases.

Desert Oasis

While this stage of the project has pretty good contrast, it still feels like the miniatures appear a bit flat. It might as well be monochrome, despite all the different shades of brown, tan, and sand used.

And while painting the desert ruins I assembled the Charlie Foxtrot Oasis bases I acquired in 2021. Amazing how times flies?

So currently the project looks like this. More work to do.

Desert Terrain

I bought this set of terrain so long ago I can't remember when I bought it. Probably pre-covid. The box got put somewhere safe, and then it kept slipping out of 'what I intend to paint next' list, or more truthfully, I forgot about it.

Something about getting older and being forgetful.

So, Gale Force 9 market this as pre-painted, ready to plop down on your table and go, but it all looked a bit flat to me. Hence this repaint.

So first off, paint a brown-black enamel wash (my own recipe: just a mix of left over Mig Ammo brown and black wash into one pot).

While people rave about enamel washes, and they do have their uses, on the whole I'd rather mix my own enamel washes using old pots of left over Humbrol paint when I feel the need for them.

Got to let these dry, which is my main complaint as they seem to take forever to do so properly.

Then I painted black on the edges and in the cracks to increase the contrast.

 And finally I add more texture to the bases.

Still more to do, but now I have to let the texture paint dry. It's a sad life, but it's my life. And I love my life.

Russian Commonwealth Infantry

These are using the same colour palette to go with my walkers that a posted here.

And another two jump-off marker for my SF version Chain-of-Command games.

And that's it until later.

The Jungle: The Mighty Jungle

As you can see, I received a very generous package of jungle terrain arrived from my dear friend Tamsin; a wargame sister of battle whose blog can be found here, or in my blog list in the left column of this page.

She had been building some mighty fine jungle terrain on her blog a while back, and impressed, I commented on her work. To my surprise and delight, Tamsin then offered me the surplus trees as a gift, which I was truly flattered to be offered, and grateful to receive.

The box of trees arrive yesterday.

I took a quick photo, but I was too busy until today to post it. Sorry for not emailing you immediately Tamsin, but I was busy, more like lost in writing my Big Little Wars rules, managing to add a mammoth 2,069 words to the project. Not yet finished, but closer to reaching that goal.

I see a jungle, a mighty jungle in my future. Thank you again Tamsin.

To all my readers, stay safe. Catch you all on the bounce.

Scatter Terrain and Robots

 

First up is some Gale Force 9 Badland Tors, which I repainted because I wanted more variation in the colour pallet. And I think these turned out pretty good.

For good measure I painted my Stone Heads from Dream Pod 9. Nine seeming to be the number that manufacturers name their companies. Just a coincidence, but like adding an X to a name makes it sound cool.

I did a lot of shading with glazes, filter, drybrushing to get that weathered craggy look. And finally, three 15mm robots and a jump-off point for using with my variant of the Chain-of-Command rules I'm still working on.

I need to matt varnish all of these before using them, but just felt the need to show some proof of life.

Stay safe, and I'll catch you all on the bounce.

Newten Town WIP: Weathering

Anyway, after a lot of faffing I got around to working on Newten. All that's left to do now is put down some grass flock and it will be finished. Yeah, I know "all" is a very diminutive word to describe an indefinite amount of effort required. Like the word soon.

So when I say finished, what I mean is mostly finished, as I'll probably want to do some graffiti and add some clutter, like debris, but mostly finished. I'll keep telling myself that, it's good for the morale of the troops. Ha!

And here's a birds eye view. See what I mean about needing some more clutter?

Newten Town WIP: Texture & Paint

After applying the filler and letting it dry overnight, which I showed in the previous post,  I then applied ground foam to the ground using diluted PVA glue, and again had to let everything dry out overnight.

Next I painted the roads with very dilute black, effectively a wash, and then I used a combination of dark earth, chestnut brown, and dark chocolate to paint the ground. Each was again diluted about 50:50 with water, and then I took these pictures before putting the boards away again to dry overnight.

My plan now is to block in the colours for the buildings.

So, with my first post of the year, let me finish by wishing everyone of my readers a prosperous new year.   

Newten Town Phase 3 WIP

To say it has been a while since I last touched these is an understatement. Checking back I see I started on these boards two years ago, put them to one side and forgot all about finishing them. Over the last few days I got them out and did a bit more work on four of the six boards I made up.

If you clicked on the link above you can see what a difference adding the filler has made. I bought brown wood filler as an experiment to see as and when the terrain takes a knock whether it helps with reducing white chips. 

I put two of the boards into storage because they were duplicates, and while in the greater scheme of things this probably doesn't matter, I don't feel any urgency to duplicate boards. This is very much me trying to get back into doing some hobby stuff, and anything that gets in the way is moved aside.

What I really want is enough town boards to fill my table and run a game of Heavy Gear. This may be a vain hope, but again I want to remove any excuses that might prevent me from playing a game or two. As they say, one lives in hope.

As a note. these are 10mm scale building from the now defunct Fieldworks range of resin buildings. However, in my considered opinion or perhaps experience, I find that they work with 15mm figures too.

So the next step is to add Woodland Scenic ground foam.

Newten Town Phase 3

Tally-Ho! chaps here's the first aerial recon shot of my next project Operation Blitz...

Back in the real world, I have made eight town boards for wargaming on.  This is not enough to make up a three-by-three area to play on, and arguably I want a minimum of twelve boards to make up a four-by-three area, which would pretty much fill my dining table.

It would be good to have a choice about what boards to use or swap out to make more scenarios too.  Hence six more board for my Newten Town project. Hence Phase 3.

I've had these hanging around for a while gathering dust and thought it's time to get on with finishing them.  After all they won't paint themselves.  I'm doing dribs and drabs as the mood takes me, but with my Heavy Gear KickStarter models arriving in the foreseeable future I really need to get my act together.

So much to do, so little time to do it in.

Newten Town Grafitti 3

You can't actually see this graffiti as clearly as the pictures allows because I removed the facing building to take the shot.

Chopper and Attention in Russian graffiti.  Chopper, for those who don't read the 2000AD comic, was a character in the Judge Dredd strip who was renowned for putting his tag on the Justice Building in Mega City One.  Apparently, in my far future wargames setting, the 2000AD comic has inspired a new generation of street artists.

I got the inspiration for the Cyrillic from a picture of a warning sign for one of the forbidden Russian cities.  BTW Newten Town translates as Novyy gorod desyat'.

A picture with the blocking building in place. And the final shot showing where the Chopper graffiti resides.

The Scorpion is from my old BattleTech campaign and was Susan's mech ride, with the all important coffee maker custom addition to her machine's cockpit.  From working on revamping the graffiti on these building I've been motivated to take down the other six town boards that I started and plan to start working on them again.  I'll take a picture of them to show the work in progress soon.

Colour me excited with the impending arrival of my Heavy Gear Kickstarter package.