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| Tree Stumps | |
| Product # | new item |
| Manufacturer | |
| Suggested Retail Price | unknown |
Back to Workbench
| Revision Log | |
| 7 March 2000 | converted to new format |
| 15 November 1999 | page first published |
Rating: 
Containers for when you need to sideline that project you've been working on, or maybe just not lose the bits you're not ready for yet.
12,198 hits since 19 Mar 2000
©1994-2025 Bill Armintrout
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Readers are always telling me how "hard" it is to add terrain to their gaming table. Well, this article shows you a technique that is so simple that anyone can take advantage of it. Your kid brother can do this...
This time we've got a pack of tree stumps, tan-colored resin pieces about 30mm high, made by Tactical Conflict Systems up in New England (see our Showcase article for more details).
Our first step was to take a heavy-bladed hobby knife - something that wouldn't snap off - and carefully trim the excess resin from around the tree bottoms. For the most part this was a piece of cake, but one of our sample trees had some thick parts that took a bit of work to remove. In the process of working on that tree, we learned to be careful how we used the knife - as we snapped off the ends of two of the roots! (The trunks are sturdy, but the roots will break off if handled roughly.)
We wanted a dark, mildewed look for these tree stumps - and that meant using a black primer, as colors painted over a black basecoat tend to be darker and more subdued. So we sprayed the stumps black, top and bottom.
The detailing on these stumps was rather subtle, so I decided to not do my usual "base color coat / darker wash / lighter drybrush" technique. Instead, I went directly for a final drybrushing. This meant that the final stump would be in just two colors - wood and black - but I thought that worked well for old, gnarled trunks.
So I took a medium wide brush, loaded it with tan paint, then stroked most of the paint off onto a paper towel until I could barely see the brush leaving any stain on the paper, and then I "drybrushed" the stumps. By drawing the brush across the grain, I could leave the paint on the raised surfaces without coloring in the "black" crevices. I wanted the bottoms to shade to black, so I did less drybrushing there.
To finish the project off, I sprayed the stumps with a clear sealer to protect the paint from flaking or getting knocked off.
That's it! Spray-paint them black, and drybrush them brown. Can you ask for an easier gaming project?
