"Large Forests, Revisited" Topic

I inquired about this issue, about a year ago, but apparently wasn't too clear in my original posting, so I'll try again.

I'm looking to recreate some rolling hills/low mountains terrain, for the Fulda, German region, and other similar areas, for modern wargaming. I need lots of "trees" to cover the hillsides with, to make the game table look nice, and to mimic the local terrain there.

I'm a multi-scale gamer, so want something that can be used for 1/285th, 1/144th, and 1/100th minis. The technique I'm considering will work best with 1/285th scale armor, obviously, due to the clump foliage's size, but I think it might be passable for use with other scales too, as you can see from the photo attached.

Since the trees are off in the distance, and the hills/mountains are largely impassable by most forces, excepting those on foot, they really just serve as a scenic backdrop for the mechanized forces moving through the lower valleys, along the road and trail network.

I'm planning on using a felt/fabric tabletop cover, for flexibility, and will be placing objects underneath to create the hills/mountains adjacent to the valleys.

It seems to me, from looking at various photos of the region, that just using loose, dark green, clump foliage would work well to represent the "trees/forests" covering the hillsides. No need to go to the high expense of buying individual trees for them, since I'll need a lot to cover a 6' x 12' table (probably about 20 square feet, or more, give or take).

Of course, bagged clump foliage isn't cheap either, so was thinking about buying some soft foam sheeting, and trying to find a garage sale blender to grind it up in, and then to soak in paint, or dyes to make a few gallons of the stuff. Probably need 10 gallons, or so of foam, at an initial guess.

Some have recommended just going with the clump foliage, since it's already complete, and not too expensive. I suspect the soft foam sheeting isn't cheap either, so will have to consider that too, not to mention the mess of grinding up and painting/dying all that foam.

So, before I go to all that trouble, wanted to check to see if any of you have other ideas for using something else, other than ground foam (lichen would work too, but doesn't look quite as realistic, IMHO, compared to ground foam)?

I may use actual evergreen, and/or deciduous trees for down in the valleys, for smaller copses of trees there.

Thoughts?

In the UK shops selling foam often sell offcuts cheap.

I've "painted" 1/32 scale foam tanks by soaking them in dilute emulsion paint – it needs a long drying time and two gos, the final result is stiff, not flexible.

I've made small wooded areas (a few inches across) by carving foam into the right shape, tearing bits off the top to give an uneven surface, soaking it in dilute green emulsion, then when dry painting with dilute wood glue and sprinkling with course green scatter.

But the clump foliage. Making your own takes an age and even going garage sale won't save you much in the end.

I like this idea for woods.

6mmacw.com/forests.html

Way back in 1975? Phil Barker suggested this but, instead of foam core, he used sheets of foam. You tear the edges and pluck the top of the foam so it is irregular then paint it. It will require a base but he also suggested putting the base under the fabric, pushing the toothpicks up through the fabric. Then, as above, you just drop the foam sheet on the 'tree trunks'

You won't need clump foliage since the foam presents an irregular surface

For those scales Model Railroaders just used bulk 'lichen' with a front edge of modelled trees. I've seem photos of some very good 'N' and 'HO' layouts with extensive forests made that way.

Contact Woodland Scenics for a quote on a five gallon bucket of ground foam. Seriously. Might put a limit on color choices but you can deal with that with a can or two of spray paint.

One of my wargaming mates uses thick carpet or doormat cut into hex shapes and then sliced further as required. He got them from someone else, so I'm not sure where they originated. They seemed to work pretty well for our most recent 6mm game when he brought them round to mine.

Original post here: link

He had another method too, as seen here, similar to the one posted above by Bashytubits.

link

original post here: link

And another, using brown doormats cut up and flocked, as seen below:

link

His original post here: link

Not sure how well they'd work for larger scales though.