The Great Tree Project, Phase One - Week Two

You can read week one here.

Day Eight (30/05)

Having got the bases to a reasonable point, albeit still far from finshed, I had planned to get on with the trees today. However, when I sat down at the painting table I changed my mind and decided to get the bases done and dusted.

To start I glued two different shades of static grass onto the bases.  I was quite careful with this, sticking patches on to link or break up the flocked areas.

Close up of two large bases with two shades of static grass added

Once the grass had dried I added two different shades of finely chopped lichen onto the bases. As with the static grass this was quite deliberate. I took some care to glue some lichen round any bigger stones.

With lichen added

Next I stuck  some self-adhesive static grass of three different heights and three different shades onto the bases. I used moss, green and battlefield mix all from Tajima. I then finished off by adding some self-adhesive bushes. 

After a break for another cup of tea and another read of "Providence Lost", task four was a final drybrush. I used the invaluable VMC Iraqi Sand to dust over the static grass so it toned it down and also gave a final brush over some areas of the bases to further bring out texture. I'd be lost without this paint.

To complete the day's activities and the bases I painted their edges. The terrain boards were painted in a Dulux emulsion that I'd had made up for me but sadly I'd used up long ago. But using a mix of predominately Citadel Goblin Green with a splash of Coat d'arms Russian Green and a touch of P3 Thrall Flesh I mixed up a close enough match. Two coats did the job.

Five single large tree bases completed

A good day's work. The bases are complete. Time to get those trees finished.

Day Nine (31/05)

First task was to drybrush all the trunks a mix of VMC Khaki, Army Painter Ash Grey and Citadel Khemri Brown. This started to bring out some of the texture that I'd put into the putty. 

Once the trees dried I added a wash which was a mix of VGC Pale Grey, AP Dark Tone and a touch of AP Mid Brown. This really brought out the detail of the trunks and the previous drybrushed highlights.

To finish the tree trunks I added a further highlight by drybrushing a VMC Khaki and AP Ash Grey mix.

And that was the trees completed. My final task was to stick the trees on their bases and call it a day.  

Day Ten (01/06)

Today was just about seeing how the trees looked on their bases and making any adjustments. 

A few needed some tweaking as I'd cut a bit too much wire off the trunks and they didn't bite enough to screw in firmly. I had to cut away a bit of the Green Stuff/Milliput and tape that I'd wrapped round the wire trunks but the root plates that I'd added hid this. I also superglued a few of the single based trees that were a bit wobbly to their bases. This final task didn't take more than an hour. And that really was it. 

I'm very pleased with how they turned out. It was enjoyable to do and they look so much better as well as being versatile to use. And I used stuff that I already had to hand, not buying anything specifically for this project. 

3 tree bases #1-3

3 tree bases #4-6

L-R three single small trees, 3 tree base #7, 2 single medium trees 

5 single large trees

This is just the first phase. I've got a box of mixed sized conifers to do, a load of small trees and a bag of mixed deciduous. But I think I'll do something different before tackling those.