Free trees 4

More progress on the 3 tree bases, pictures at the top show supports added to the bases of the trees, to help give the trunks a more natural appearance. The Bottom to pictures show the trees when they were just inserted into the holes cut into the bases. £ picture from the bottom up shows the trees with added bases from art card with the spaces filled with poundland filler and smoothed into the base. Then PVA and sand is added to cover the filler and they are painted to match the light grey of the trunks.

On the procurement/shopping front I have managed to find some Matt Black car spray paint in my local poundland, after this was mentioned on a blog. Sorry no idea who it was that original mentioned this product on their blog. I will let you know how this product turns out.

TTFN

Airhead

Forest update

Slow but steady progress on the forest front, the top picture shows two of the CD size bases I'm using for my sedum tree stands, made from foam board on CD's with holes cut in for the trees to slot into. The base on the left has had filler and PVA and sand added to smooth out the contours of the foam board.

The other three pictures show progress with the mod-rock base which fits over the top of the soft hill. I hot glued the twigs into position for tree trunks and then small pebbles and rocks to create the look of broken ground. The first picture shows the expanded polystyrene in position to create the tops of the trees, this will be covered with green sponge flock. I've undercoated it with black acrylic paint to make any gaps in the flock less visible.

I had a good trip to the WMMS show at Alumwell last weekend, picked up some pre-ordered kit from pendraken (FIW & WW1), splashed some cash with Mr Pig as usual, four Zevezda models for £2.50p each, 3 Russian trucks which will stand in as Japanese for my Pacific set up, and a PzII, and some bargains on the book front. Most amusing sight, chap with a small bag of sand and gravel. Lots of great demonstration games to look at, a great WW1 trench set up and lots of others.

TTFN

Airhead

Free trees 3

Good progress on the sedum trees, I've started to make the 3 CD size bases the trees will go on. 4-5 of the Sedum trees per base with some smaller trees and shrubs as well. The bases are made from foam core board with sand PVA and small stones, I'm trying to make the bases terrain features in their own rights with the ground work consisting of small hills and gullies on the bases. I'm trying to re-create the type of terrain that I remember from watching the Last of The Mohicans film. Lots of running up and down terrain as I remember it?

The trees have now been spray painted with grey matt primer spray and the tops with matt black, this all helps to make the sedum's more robust. Then they have been dry brushed on the tops with a combination of green acrylic paints.The thing that makes the most impact regarding durability is the combination of PVA and sand applied to the branches of the stem, I have done this up to 3 times over the same parts to increase the strength of the branches. They will never be the most robust of terrain items but with sensible handling they should have a reasonable life span on the table top.

The top picture shows how the top leafy part of the trees look after the PVA and sawdust has been applied and spray painted.

Right of to pre-order some 10mm Indians and Rogers ranger from Pendraken to pick up at the WMMS show on Sunday.

All the best

Airhead

Free Trees 2

Steady progress on the sedum trees, the top picture shows the first three stages, the bare twig on the left, with added masking tape on the central one. Bound round the trunk and once bulked up the last strip of masking top put on vertically running up the trunk to reduce the visibility of the tap bound round the stem. The last picture on the right shows the trunk and branches with PVA and sand applied a number of times. I did think about spraying the seed pods on the top with a PVA and water mixture, but in the end went with the less subtle method of dunking the top into neat PVA in a small tub.

The middle picture shows more PVA applied directly to the top of the tree, which is then spread out with a paint brush, then covered with a scattering of saw dust. So fare its worked quite well. Once dry I'll spray the trees with grey primer paint and then the top part with the saw dust I'll spray that bit black, then it will be down to dry brushing on a number of different shades of green. Then its down to thinking about how to base them.

TTFN

Airhead

The Old Town 2

Down town old Asmara finally taking shape, after posting the original design sketches in January 2010, how can it be that long ago? well they do say time flies when you are having fun. I still need to add some more detail, such as outside steps and more clutter to the roofs. I also need to have a look at creating the roof inserts from the original sketches, to bring the buildings into the 21st century, with sat-alight dishes and air-conditioning units. The next stage will involve moving on to the shanty town section of Asmara.

Trees for free!

A great idea I came across about 3 years ago on the Gentlemen's Wargames Parlour forum. Posted by a member going under the name of "jaeger". Trees made from a plant named Sedum Telephium. Which we have growing on the estate. This year I finally got around to harvesting the dead sedums before the weather totally trashed them. Just got to them before the snow arrived, I did keep the link to the post on GWP but the pictures have gone, with just the dreaded photo bucket icon in their place.

The harvest has been gathered in and is currently in storage drying out. The very rough outline of the technique involves using 2-3 stems glued together, or in my version bound together with masking tape and covered in PVA and sand. I think I'll then spray them with a water and PVA mixture all over to strengthen them some more, and then I'll experiment with saw dust and PVA past applied to the seed pods at the top to create the leaf cover of the trees.

These trees will be a key part of my French India Wars skirmish project in 10mm scale, and the idea is to produce a board with lots of tree cover, the sedum trees being the biggest, but also involving some pine trees based on this great tutorial from the invaluable Matakishi's Tea House. One of the best gaming resources out there. Finally a big thanks to Jaeger for posting the original idea.

Mod Rock - Rocks

A project to extend the usability of my soft hills using mod - rock (Gauze bandage impregnated with plaster). The idea is to create a moulded section of terrain which will be shaped to fit the top of the hill. And will be able to be positioned on top of the soft hill and have a small wood or cops on it.

I started with a basic soft hill as made in my post from June 2009 I then covered this with cooking foil and then wrapped it in cling film, this protects the base soft hill model. I then placed the wet mod - Rock over the top in multiple layers and left it to dry. More to follow on this project.

TTFN Airhead