@ Thanks GamesPoet!
Hey guys, sorry for the absence. I was trying to get a bigger update on the project, but I kept getting side-tracked.
Anyways as I was saying – It's time to get some trees done!
Now there are many ways to approach this subject. The easiest way is to obviously go out and just buy some from model railway companies. There is a ton of options, the simplest are the stylized trees made of bottle cleaners, which we all well know:
Very self-explanatory, the bristles of the brush work as branches, you spray the entire thing in glue, dip it into flock and job done. GW used to make these, and I remember always wanting to buy them as a kid.
In fact I did buy a set of conifer trees similar to those and they have been kicking around my gaming tables for the past two decades. And they really do look like they have been kicked, punched and mistreated in all possible ways, since by now they have virtually lost all their flock. They’ve kind of transformed back into bottle cleaners at this point.
Poor things!I decided that they can be pressed into service once more, after I’ve replaced the flock they lost. So out comes the Fast Tak spray and some coloured sawdust I had lying about. The sawdust is ancient stuff, but I feel it looks pretty good on conifer trees – not so much for deciduous trees (more about that later).
This is how they looked after being sprayed and receiving several solid sprinkles:
I decided to use different colours in order to make them look more natural. After they dried I sealed them using a scenic glue recipe I’ve nicked from some of the youtubers – essentially 3:1 PVA glue and water and some washing liquid. I tried securing the flock using hair spray and artists fixative, but for some reason they had a reverse effect from what I was going for and my test tree lost all its “needles”. Perhaps it’s the solvents in these particular spray cans, that reacted with the spray glue? No idea. Anyways the watered down PVA works okay, although some of the flock is still coming off annoyingly. Perhaps I should do another coat? The glue can leave some white marks if there is too much of it, so I am somewhat hesitant to try it a second time.
Like I said in my original post, I’ve decided to go for individual bases of trees, instead of sticking them all together on one big base. I know this doesn’t look as nice, but allows me to use them separately and of course allows units to move through forests. I just went with MDF bases, that I cut myself (since I’m a cheapskate with a jigsaw and didn’t feel like buying):
I was really pondering on how to texture them, as I wanted to go for a slightly different and more “foresty” type of ground, to differentiate from the other terrain features I’m doing.
So then I stumbled upon this video:
https://youtu.be/ToF1Do_HPag. I wholeheartedly recommend watching it, as this guy’s attention to detail puts my measly efforts to shame! The end effect is spectacular, although the amount of work is also pretty staggering. I decided I want to do something similar, but also simpler.
I figured that I would try adding some exposed roots first. You can often see this effect with conifer trees, as they root themselves pretty shallow. I used DAS for sculpting, which is an air-hardening clay, roughly rolling out some of it and pushing it onto the bases. To make the roots stick to the MDF surface, it is necessary to dampen it first by brushing on a bit of water. After I was happy with their general shape, I let it set for 24h.
Next was the groundcover. Like in the film above, I did my muddy groundcover by mixing filler with various materials to increase volume and add texture. I essentially used chinchilla sand again, but also blended wood fiber (also from the pet store), which I dyed using inks and water first. Three different types of dried moss were also chopped up and thrown into the mix, with a couple drops of raw umber and a bit of green for good measure.
[/url]
After all was thoroughly mixed, I applied this messy substance to the bases using a putty-knife.
Here’s how the bases looked after they have dried:
I also should mention that I did paint over them with watered down PVA so that they wouldn’t chip. I should’ve probably roughened the bases first, to help with adhesion, but I didn’t think about it really.
Painting up next. Since I’ve already added paint in the mixing process, this went pretty quickly. I was able to get some pretty good colours using simple glazes with watered down paints. A pretty random mix of craft store black, dark browns, reds and greens to be precise. I drybrushed the bases using a sandy Vallejo colour. The roots were picked out with Reaper Volcano Brown and highlighted in Reaper Ashen Brown.
I think for a spooky dead forest this would’ve been enough. But since I’m doing more of a summer theme, I wanted to build up some resemblance of moss patches, by sprinkling the fine turf blends onto selected areas. I also added little twigs (made from dried roots), and a couple of clumps of static grass. I knew most of the base was gonna be obscured anyways, but I was just curious what effect could I get with a little bit more work.
With the bases done, it was time to drill little holes and mount my trees at last! WHEW!!!
And here they are, the first batch of trees all done!!!
The final pic didn't turn so well - I will do a better group shot soon!
They still need a coat of matt varnish, to kill off any glossiness there might be from the various glues etc., but otherwise I’m pretty happy with how they've turned out. Time to get started on the second batch. Gonna need building some deciduous trees from scratch, as I don’t have many of those lying around. I have some ideas already.....
