Wednesday 31 July 2013

A Forest...

... or at least a small copse!


If you are reading this then my scheduled post has successfully launched itself whilst we enjoy a restful break with the family; my apologies if my absence has been noted!

The impending '7ombieTV' scenario calls for a small wooded area and as I scratched around in the bits box it soon became apparent that I would need to buy or make some of my own; the onus being on making as these things tend to be rather expensive!  I had had a degree of success fashioning some Silver Birch trees in a previous post entitled, 'The Wood for the Trees', but felt I needed at least a couple of trees resplendent in their foliage to fit this bill.  Now as luck would have it at around the same time that I was considering the forestation of 'Awdry Towers', I came across a couple of posts by erstwhile bloggers that inspired what is to follow.



Phyllion at 'Diary of a Gaming Magpie' had discovered the incredible versatile '4 Ground' tree bases, these instantly appealed as I liked the idea of mixing and matching the terrain, whilst retaining a sense of stability and, of course, they were cheap!




Meanwhile, Andrew Saunders of 'Loki's Great Hall'  had been running a series of posts devolving some of his secrets regarding tree armatures and foliage.  Andrew really does know how to put together some fabulous terrain and I found myself following his guide almost word for word.



Unfamiliar items to me these days I'm afraid, but important to keep your foliage attached!

So it was that by using a combination of these two ideas and taking advantage of some half price armatures from Model Zone in Eastbourne I was able to fashion together some half decent trees.  Clearly a huge vote of thanks needs to be extended to both gentlemen whose inspirational ideas and discoveries led to my success - thank you Chaps!

"if you go down to the woods today..."

Purely as an aside, but one that at least pertains to the manufacturing of trees, Scott from 'Scott's Wargaming' has also been fashioning foliage only his involved the use of bottle brushes!

(Check out his results here.)

As luck would have it this post shares a title with one of my favourite cure songs, so enjoy a little holiday entertainment on me; hopefully back to the brushes earlier next week.







38 comments:

  1. I like all that you have to say on the subject but remember most wargamers and model rail guys fail to represent trees at their full height so I would dearly love to see some that are full scale height, and I don't mean Bonsai!

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    1. Scale for trees and buildings is something I've been thinking about a lot recently and it's a tricky thing. Either you have something that represents where a tree or building could be, or you only have about three pieces of terrain on the table.

      If you compare the 4Ground houses to the one on Scott's blog (http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/victorian-terrace-wip-13-building.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ScottsWar-gaming+%28Scott%27s+War-gaming%29) there's a massive difference in size between the two. Scott's looks awesome, but would be a real pain on your gaming table. Having said that... I still want that house :D

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    2. There's a line in the movie version of Porridge about a wooded glade called a copse.....full of copse!

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    3. Remains one of my favourite programs to this day.

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    4. Now you've got me worrying that they are too tall! I suppose they are only there as a representation.

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  2. Yours look great I'm envious of you terrain-fu. I'm lazy when it comes to terrain though as my home made stuff just doesn't look that great. I like building it i'm just unable to paint it that well.

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    1. Thank you Simon, I have to say that I'm enjoying the break from the miniatures at present.

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  3. Those are some great looking trees!

    Christopher

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  4. A very nice wood, great looking trees!

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  5. Nice trees!IMO. one can never have too many trees.

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    1. I think you may be right Jay, trees are wonderful things!

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  6. A tree in the Hand is worth more than...er?....or was it, a bush is worth two ....nope, not that one either. . Anyways..nice trees.
    The cure.. Good choice that man.

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    1. Thank you Paul, looking forward to putting the old feet up.

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  7. Great work Michael! Remind me on my own topic "making a tree"
    http://peterscave.blogspot.be/2012/03/making-tree.html#comment-form

    Greetings
    Peter

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Peter, and I had forgotten about your wonderful tree.

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  8. Really like your big trees - I went much too small for my first efforts and definitely want to add some bigger ones. Luckily, the removable bases makes this a doddle. Your groundwork is fab too, the flash of colour is great.

    Cheers for the shout out too!

    Phil

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  9. Very nicely done! Great big trees that look the part for 28mm. Which reminds me, I really do need to upgrade my 28mm trees.

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    1. Thank you Monty and of course if they prove to be too big then I can always swop them out for smaller ones.

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  10. You can never have enough model trees! Very nice work Michael. Thanks for the bump. :-)

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    1. My please Scott, the bottle brush trees were inspired.

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  11. Branching out I see mate! I'll get my coat... ;-)

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  12. Really excellent Michael. Fine trees AND an excellent Cure track - doesn't get much better, does it?!

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    1. One aims to please, now if I can just shoehorn, 'Charlotte Sometimes' in somewhere. ;)

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  13. Nice job on those trees there Michael and thanks for the Cure too, one of my favourite songs on theirs

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  14. Wonderful trees Michael and nice and big. I hadn't taken much notice of the '4 ground' tree bases before but now that I have seen yours I am tempted to purchase some.
    Cheers,
    Pat.

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    Replies
    1. They just seemed like a useful addition and been reasonable priced I thought, "why not?"

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  15. Michael,

    After a pretty rough few days, seeing the hairspray actually made me burst out laughing. Thanks mate.
    Pip pip

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  16. Well thank you Andrew for the inspirational tutorial.

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