"Making 28mm forest" Topic

(third time trying to post, TMP can be a cranky beast sometimes, though I think I fixed the images)

Hi TMP,

I suddenly had the urge to upgrade my 28mm forest terrain. I think I got bored of painting miniatures. I wanted something that would thread the needle between pretty and functional. I out together a proof of concept piece that came out looking like this:

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The process is pretty simple so I'll outline it below; just so that I don't get accused of using TMP simply to direct traffic to my blog.. : )

Cut out your bases from Hardboard or MDF or whatever material you want.

Cover the bases with ground texture (I used a mix of ballast and coffee grounds). Add anything else like rocks that will be painted later.
Prime it all black

Paint them. Dry brushing is fun and easy except when it's not.

Flock the bases and plant the trees. I tried making trees with this technique:

Prune and shape a Woodland Scenic tree armature.

Glue on poly fiber to make the canopy.

Kind hard to show in pictures, but spray glue over the poly fiber and then drizzle it with flock, it creates a nice leafy effect. Put the trees in the bases. I had some planted on the terrain and some based individually.

That's kinda it. The main take away is: if a no talent hack like me can get something that looks pretty good then anybody can, and I want to encourage others to do so.

If you are inclined for further reading, you can follow these blog links, where I go into more detail and attempt to be funny (and quite successfully I might add…)

Part one is here
link

Part two is here
link

Part Three is here
link

-Stew

Looks good.

You can also use fine steel wool instead of the poiy, if desired.

"Less is more" in the flocking department, for more "realistic" trees.

Thank you, Stew. Those are marvelous tutorials. I appreciate you sharing them.

EB47

Great stuff. Thanks

Very nice – I use a similar technique but mine are not so pretty – lots of good tips and thanks for sharing

Thanks for checking it out. Glad y'all liked it. 😀

Looks good. Thanks for posting.

Awesome – I have a huge stack of trees to base. This was very useful.

And as far as directing TMP traffic to your blog – don't worry about it. That is a good thing. I have found so many interesting wargaming blogs because people directed me there from their TMP posts.
Cheers
Brian

Great terrain, and i really enjoyed your blog.

Thanks again folks. I really do hope the posts are informative and entertaining.

-Stew

A great way to 'seal' the trees and bases is to make a spray mixture from acrylic matte medium/pva glue/water. Maybe 1 part matte medium, 1 part glue, 5-10 parts water. A few thin layers will start to harden and hold everything in place.

I've also used frameless, washable air filters cut to size. A 2' by 3' piece runs about $10. USD

I did see that there are spray cans of oil based clear polyurethane. I may try this in the future to test it out.

These look great. Keep up the good work.

Very nice. Pretty pictures are always an inspiration.

Thank you both!
Glad you liked it. 😀

Really nice work!

Hey everyone,

I've made ALL the forest bases using the methods outline in the top post. Here are the results:

The 'smaller bases'

the Larger ones that the small ones will sit on:

All together now for the full effect:

I think it all came out pretty well, if I do say so myself, which I just did. : )

If you like, there are more pics and fabulously funny prose on the blog:
link

-Stew

Beautiful! On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being green felt for forests, and brown felt for roads, and a 5 being uber-nice, as realistic as possible, I would call these a solid 4.

IMO, the higher the scale of the terrain, the more difficult it is, for me, to use in a game -- beautiful, but cumbersome to move mini's around them, on the table. They're gorgeous, but I aim for a solid 3, on the scale of presentation. The canopies of the trees would impede me in moving my mini's beneath them. Your ground cover/base techniques, however, are very useful to me. Different strokes, for different gamer folks. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

Thanks very much Slag. I agree about terrain: I have some very pretty forest terrain bases made by AoW (now out of business) but they are very hard to game with. Basically excellent looking forest but don't go in there.

With these, I was attempting to thread the needle between being functional and pretty. : )