"Large Forests - How to Create them Economically?" Topic

I suspect I will be needing a lot of ground foam to represent forests in Europe.

I'd like to cover some hills/low mountains with the stuff, and buying by the small, premade, pre-colored bags just doesn't seem to be very economical, even if they sell larger bags.

Looks like I'll need to go the foam route, and find/buy an older blender, to cut it up.

I know about painting/dyeing the foam, pulsing the blender, and drying on wax paper, but just wanted to check to see if there are any other decent alternatives before pressing forward.

Using evergreens and other real trees is out, since I don't want to have to set up/break down all of those, and they'd probably be too costly anyway.

Some of those raised canopy forests that have liftoff sections might work for the lowlands, but not for the hillsides/mountains.

Any other thoughts on options that would create a clump foliage effect over large areas, on the tops, and sides of mountains/hills?

I haven't come up with any others, really.

Being able to drape the ground up, clump foliage might be nice, to speed setup/takedown, but in other cases, that may hinder some things as well. Perhaps a mix of the two techniques, with the clump foliage glued to a fabric covering for some areas.

How do others deal with this, for your various scales of minis?

Looking to do 1/300th – 1/100th scales, primarily, but it appears a couple of five gallon buckets of clump foliage may be required, to cover a 6' x 12' table, or larger.

Ideas?

Using 15mms I use green felt on area and then sparsely use trees in that area.

Xmas cake decorations for pine trees, either with snow, or re-sprayed various greens

I think the classic model railroad solution is to use horse hair with clump foliage glued on the top. You can look at Micromark's site under "scenery" to see their products for this approach.

Buy the bags. Making your own isn't that much cheaper and the big bags go father than you think.

How much are we talking here, anyway? What kind of ground scale/size of board?

Buy the bags. Making your own isn't that much cheaper and the big bags go father than you think.

Times 2.
One large bag will last you forever.

WAAAAAAAY too much work for very, very little savings.

Also look on Ebay for those cheap trees made in China. You can get dozens for cheap and tart them up a bit so that they look acceptable.

Period matters, too, if modern – very regular and groomed forests. And what part of Europe? Deciduous or evergreen? If latter, visit dollar stores at xmas time for lots of fairly cheap trees. Deciduous are more challenging. I think the simple answer is to use lichen – you can get in many colors these days for cheap and then keep them in sealed plastic bags. And they won't dry out if you use the simple expedient of dipping your fingers in water and flick a few drops in the bag before you seal it. I have lichen twenty years old that is still soft and flexible.

Imitating Christmas tree. Keep your eyes on skips after Christmas probably get one for free.

Yes, it's hard to respond without knowing the intended scale and size of board.

The lift-off canopy approach might be efficient for you. Basically you make a base with a lot of tree trunks going up a standard height (2+ inches above model height), thickly populated at edges (for looks) and sparsely inside (so there is room to place models). Over this you lay a continuous top representing the forest canopy, that isn't attached. Lift it off when you need to get at the models.

Looking to do various scales, in Germany (West Germany – Cold War, primarily), and perhaps Belgium and France too (WWII). For West Germany, around Fulda, and the other rolling terrain near there, hills/mountains, with lots of valleys to negotiate and add interest.

I did list the scales and table size in the original posting, e.g. 1/300th, 1/144th, and 1/100th, so it'd be ideal if I can use something for all of those. That's why I was thinking about the clump foliage route, for the hillsides and hilltops.

Would like to cover a 6' x 12' table, but may need only about 20% – 25% coverage in forests. Might be able to stretch the clump material out a bit to maximize coverage, but still, that's about 15 – 18 square feet to cover (perhaps a bit more, if you consider the vertical area of the hills as well, and any woods/forests on the valley floors too).

I've purchased a bunch of the snow-covered, Christmas evergreens, so am in decent shape with those.

Using trees on the hillsides and hilltops would be difficult, without sticking them into the foam hills I'm considering using, since otherwise they won't stand upright, and I suspect that option would probably be too costly, and time consuming to set up temporarily.

From photos I've seen of the area, clump foliage appears to be a near perfect solution, and the hills are really slated to be pretty much impassable anyway.

Sure, infantry could traverse them slowly, or hunker down in the forests, on the hillsides and hilltops, if desired, but that pretty much takes them out of the fight, for all practical purposes for the scenarios I have planned.

Depending upon what you mean by large forest, there's an idea that I've been working on.

Take a toilet paper roll, cover the top and bottom of it with cardboard after filling it with a rock on one side and the rest just to reinforce it. Basically paper mache to make spreading roots and the basics of the shape beyond the core. Use hot glue for the bark texture. You can easily base on a CD for one of them, or multiple on larger (though you could cut it down in size for the base with other options as well, even cardboard.

I'm thinking of making several in order to create something approaching the redwood forest size tree, but making the full trees are difficult to do entirely. It's to large to easily play, and having the direct look by having a relatively level "top" level, it works to make people think they're representing a far taller tree than you're sculpting for it meaning that things like the ground battles on Endor in Return of the Jedi can largely be done more easily, and you can make the bottom sections of a rope latter or stairs/ramps circling one of the trees to show where you would be able to go upwards.

Mako, my apologies for missing the scales in your original post. Sounds like you have thought this out.

Revisiting this again, and thinking of foregoing actual trees, to just use dark green clump foliage laid loosely over the fabric terrain mat, and/or possible glued to lightweight foam hills/mountains, instead of using actual trees.

See the pic below, for reference.

I think that'll work best, instead of using actual trees, which are problematical on slopes, unless glued into, or stuck in the foam.

Just laying the clump foliage in place, over the fairly good sized hills, loosely, should give the desired effect, I think.

The hills will be made of foam or other items just placed under the felt game table cover.

Seems to me like the most flexible, least expensive option for low rolling hills and mountains.

Will probably use actual evergreens down in the valleys.

Thoughts?

link

Might be able to do something with this

Just laying the clump foliage in place, over the fairly good sized hills, loosely, should give the desired effect, I think.

For the scale you are looking at I would think that would work. A conifer forest might be a little harder to replicate.
If you are looking to completely cover a 4x6 table then it would get expensive but I don't think you would want that would you?

For those scales, you can actually do it rather easily. Get a sheet of felt, glue, flock, and chunk up some upholstry foam.

Cut your felt into the shapes of the forests you want, and use the shredded foam ontop of it, then use more glue to flock it.

They look pretty well for 6mm and smaller scales as covering for their areas.