HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN TERRAIN:
Deciduous Trees

• Spray glue. The strongest stuff you can find.
• Black spray paint.
• Fine sifted sand. Grey or light brown is best.
• Heavy electrical wire with a solid copper core. Preferably with grey or brown isolation.
• Metal wire of 0.3 to 0.5 mm diameter.
• Steel wool. E.g. the sponges used for cleaning pots and pans.
• Ground foam for foliage. Several shades of middle green, not to coarse. The kind you can find in model train stores. Do not use painted sawdust for this. It is normally coloured using water based dyes and the colours tend to fade in sunlight.

Deciduous trees are easy to make and the most common on the wargame table.

Sizes given below give good trees for 15mm wargame tables, or small trees for 25mm. You can easily make larger or smaller trees should you wish, by reducing the length of the wire and clump of steel wool.

1. Cut off a 10-15 cm (4"-6") piece of electrical wire.
2. Strip 6-7 cm (2"-3") of the isolation.
3. Use pliers to bend the stripped part into a loop, and bend the isolated part perpendicular to this loop. This loop will serve to glue the tree to a support.
4. Cut off two 10 cm (4") pieces of metal wire.
5. Put one piece of wire on each side of the `trunk', so they stick out 5 cm (2") on each side.
6. Using your hands, twist the wires together on both sides of the trunk, tightening the metal wire around it. Using pliers, continue until the wire is pressed securely into the isolation material.
7. Bend the metal wire upward in the shape of branches. Then bend the top ends so all four pieces point upwards.
8. Take a piece of Steel wool and stretch en pull it apart until you have a airy clump of steel wool, roughly in the shape of the foliage of the tree type you want to make.
9. Pull the steel wool over the trunk and branches. Secure it by bending the tops of the branches towards the trunk. Make sure the ends of the trunk and branches are inside the clump of steel wool.
10. Spray some glue inside the steel wool clump on the trunk and branches to make sure the steel wool won't come off.
11. Use some old scissors to cut off stray strands of steel and bring some shape into the tree.
12. Spray paint the whole tree black and let it dry. Make sure the steel wool is covered adequately.
13. Spray glue on the trunk and branches that stick out of the foliage, and sprinkle sand on it. Let it dry thoroughly.
14. Spray a liberal amount of glue on the steel wool and sprinkle on the ground foam until the whole outside of the tree has a layer of green. Do not put on too much. The trees should have some airy feel to it. You can secure the foam by gently pressing it onto the steel wool.
15. Let the whole thing dry. You can secure the trees with clothes pegs on a piece of card while drying.

To make the bases, you need the following:

• Thick card. 1 mm is about the minimum
• White glue
• Spray Glue
• Earth colour paint. Muddy brown or the colour of rotting leaves
• Black spray paint
• Sand
• Steel wool
• Ground foam. The same colours you used for the trees and maybe some brown

1. Cut from the card an irregular shape. Don't make it too large. You should not put more than three or four trees on one base. If you want to make a forest, place more bases next to each other. Make some bases for individual trees.
2. Paint the card an earth colour and let it dry. Maybe you will need to wet the other side of the card to keep it from buckling.
3. Glue the trees on the base. Vary the size of the trees on each base and vary some in colour. Have a look at a real forest to see the effect you are aiming for.
4. Cover the base of the trees and the rest of the base with white glue.
5. Sprinkle on sand and ground foam and let it dry.

   This gives you good looking forests and if you wish you can stop here, but by putting in a little more time, you can make them look even better.

6. Take some small clumps of steel wool and cut them into scrub shapes (whatever that may be).
7. Spray paint them black.
8. Spray on the glue
9. Sprinkle with ground foam and leave them to dry.
10. Cut off a small piece using scissors, so you have a flat side, and glue the scrub to the base. Place a fair number of these scrubs on the base, around the tree trunks.