Friday Quick Tip: Tree Templates

When it comes to trees, I've always wanted to do a set that were extremely functional. And when I put together my Autumn Foothills mini-board, I had the chance to make that wish a reality. When I started thinking about how to go about them I came up with a great way to make them look great and remain game friendly by using Woodland Scenics Fantastic Trees.

Some of what you'll need:

• Woodland Scenics Trees
  
• MDF
• White Glue
• Sand/Ballast
• Lichen/foliage
• Flock/Static Grass
• Spackle
  
• Paints
• Tools
  

To start off I used a piece of paper to rough out the size and shape of the template I was going to create. I know it seems like a step you might be able to skip, but for my foothills, space was a commodity I wasn't rolling around in. So using this method helped me be sure my templates would fit the table with ease.


Using the template made from paper I traced its outline to the MDF board using a sharpie. When cutting my templates I usually use a Hand Saw
to rough cut my shapes and a Rasp to help the curves along.


Using a mouse sander I put a nice bevel to the edge to help give it a more 'finished' appearance. I also use the Rasp to rough this step out.


Place your trees and glue them down using some white glue or super glue. Once dry, remove the trees from their trunks. It will make the base much easier to work with from here out.


I used spackle to create a root system and sand to rough the surface. When making the spackle roots, use your forefinger and thumb to squeeze the spackle into the board and drag it along to create 'veins' along the roots. Sharpen the details using a sculpting tool of some sort when dry. After creating the roots, paint on some white glue and sand much of the surface for a nice rough texture.


I used a Bestial Brown color followed by a quick drybrush of Snakebite Leather and an even lighter drybrush of Bleached Bone for the trunks and trees. Rocks were picked out with Codex and Fortress Grey, again drybrushed with Bleached Bone. Woodland Scenics Turf was also added after painting.


All in all the finished product follows much of the same conventions as my hill tutorial. I highly suggest you check that out as well if you've got a bit of time on your hands!!

One upgrade you may consider for this project would be to magnetize your tree trunks. I did this by using a magnet in the trunk and in the tree (making sure their facing the right direction!!) and hiding them using some Testors Contour Putty and sculpting it to fit the details in the tree trunks. They do work just fine as they come though, and I highly suggest the Woodland Scenics Trees to anyone looking for a quick effective forest!

So I've shown my favorite method for creating forest templates, what's yours?

Root Trees

This weekend I was at my local shop and while talking terrain with the owner, he was showing me some things online he was considering doing/getting for the store terrain. One of the pieces that really struck me was an ash waste tree. What made the tree unique was that it was made using the root of a plant! I thought it was absolutely genius and decided I had to give it a try.

Later that night I went out into my backyard with a flashlight and found a suitable sized root that happened to be from a weed. I couldn't help but be amazed at my luck as my backyard as well as the front is covered in these weeds! I cut the root from the plant and got to work!

For the base of the template I used a piece of MDF shaped with a Rasp and an electric hand sander to smooth it all out. The rocks are just that, properly shaped and sized rocks glued into place. The root was placed in the midst of the rocks and some sand was added to help add some additional detailing.



I used White Glue to secure everything, but I believe for the next one I'll end up using some hot glue to get everything in place and hide that with some white glue and sand. White glue just took far too long to secure everything and wasn't very good about me working it at all while things were still drying. I'd highly suggest the hot glue gun for the big pieces.

The sand was given an additional wash of 50/50 water/white glue to help secure everything further, and save my brushes later on when I went to paint it all!

For paint, I primed it all black, and gave it a simple drybrush of a dark grey color. I used some random house paint I had on hand but you could easily use Codex Grey. After this was a lighter drybrush of a light grey. Again, this was some random house paint I had, Fortress Grey would be a good choice of color.



All in all it was an extremely fast project, with the longest part of it all waiting for the white glue to dry completely! For something that normally is a nuscience in my lawn to become something useful like this is a real treat. Now, to make about 5 more of these bad boys!