Wooded areas for small scales

As I've got the number of unpainted figures down to a very manageable level, I'm getting more time to work on terrain.  I'd been meaning to make wooded areas suitable for 6mm games for a while now and chose that as February's terrain project.  

I was inspired by a video from that wargaming stalwart and all-round decent fella, Big Lee Hadley of Big Lee's Miniatures Adventures.  If you're thinking of doing similar I recommend watching Lee's video.  I thoroughly recommend Lee's YouTube channel and his blog.

The materials I used were: MDF bases; scourer pads; 2.5 mm diameter dowelling; scatter/clump foliage material; static grass; flock; sand mix; super glue and PVA glue. 

Here's the steps:

1. Prepare the bases.  For the test piece I used a 90x52mm sized 3mm deep oval base.  I'd roughly bevelled the edge of each base using a Stanley knife with a tough blade and  then sanded each edge to increase the bevel when I'd made the winter trees (here).  The second piece was on a 120x90mm base. 

2. Mark out and cut the scourer pad to size.  I also cut a smaller section to stick to the top to build it up.  For the second piece I cut random pieces of scourer to give a more irregular feel for when I built up the canopy.  You can also stick the two layers/pieces together at this point.  I used PVA glue and left it to dry with a book on top which worked well.  

3. Cut the dowelling (tree trunks) to size.  I cut these at 3cm initially, but felt they looked too long and trimmed them down to 2.5cm.  For the second piece I did them at 2.5cm.  I cut them with a pair of side snips which was very quick to do.

4. Mark and drill the holes for the dowels.  I used my trusted old pin vice for this and it was a quick enough job.  I drilled quite a lot of holes (18 for the test piece and 28 for the larger piece), but just do what you think looks right.  The main idea is to have enough pieces of dowelling at the edges to look like tree trunks and then enough distributed across the base to support the scourer pad.  (You'll see in the photos below my initial marking didn't line up exactly once I started adding the dowels.  Like all terrain pieces you have to keep adjusting as you go along). 

5. Attach the tree trunks to the base.  Because these were a nice tight fit, I just pushed these through and then pushed the base flat against the table to level them all up.  I didn't bother gluing them in place as the next stage would adhere the dowelling to the base.

6.  Texture the bases.  I liberally spread PVA glue all over the bases and then dipped them in my regular sand mix.  I wasn't too bothered if some of the sand stuck to the base of the dowelling.

7. Finishing the bases.  After leaving overnight, I painted the bases and trees in Dulux flat matt emulsion that had been colour matched to Vallejo Model Colour Leather Brown.  When this was dry I gave the whole thing a heavy dry brush of Dulux matt emulsion colour matched to Citadel Khemri Brown.  I then added some short (2mm) static grass, flock and small pieces of clump foliage at the edges.  I also added some clump foliage to the upper side areas of some of the outer trunks at this stage so they'd blend in with the canopy when it was added.  While the above stages were drying I'd also painted the scourer pads a mid-green colour using some cheap craft paints.  I only did this for the test piece as I realised you cover it completely with the clump foliage.  

8. Attaching the scourer pad.  I dabbed super glue on the end of each dowel and pressed the pad in place.  There's quite a lot of leeway here and you can manipulate the pad between the dowels and at the edges to give a more organic shape.  I also left a book on top for a little while to weigh it down and ensure the pad was firmly stuck.

9. Finally we're onto the fun part which is attaching the clump foliage.  All of the foliage I used was home made using foam washing up pads, blitzed up in an old blender and dyed with cheap craft paints that I'd mixed into three different shades of green.  

The first (test) piece in progress

This stage is where I differed from Lee's method the most.  Lee mixes up his foliage with glue and then spreads it on.  I thought I'd try sticking the clump foliage to the scourer with PVA and it didn't work!  I then used super glue on a test piece and it worked so I kept on with the super glue.  

The second piece nearly finished
A few words of warning here.  When using super glue for a continuous time ventilate your working area.  Super glue doesn't go far so it costs a fair bit more!  And finally it's a slower process than Lee's.  However, there are a couple of plus points.  As you are doing a smaller area at a time you can change the colour to make it look a bit more life like.  Additionally, the super glue sets the foliage rock hard so you don't have to worry about any coming off.

And that's it.  I'm very pleased with the results.  I'll be making some more, as I've got two spare bases,  but I've used up most of my clump foliage so I need to make up some more of this before I can do anything. 


Comments

  1. Ray Rousell6 March 2025 at 14:14

    He does come in handy sometimes that Lee! The trees do look pretty cool though, nice work Andy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr Beard6 March 2025 at 14:22

      Haha yes he's got his uses! Thanks Ray, I was very happy with how they turned out.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More 28mm Victrix late-Romans

Image
As I assembled the forces for my first game using the late-Roman and Germanics that I've been working on for the last few months, I realised I needed a few more figures to make up the units.  I needed an extra pedes for each infantry unit and a leader for the missile troops.  I didn't have any more specific late-Romans left so I rooted through my other Victrix sprues. The bodies for the two spearmen came from a sprue I had from the Victrix Ancient Germans set.  Belt details aside, there's very little difference between the clothing across much of the ranges.  The hands holding the spear come from the Unarmoured Late-Romans set as do the heads.  I've got so many spare heads from that one pack I could outfit whole legions!  The shields are also from that set finished with Little Big Man transfers. I'm using Warlords of Erehwon to play with and each unit is usually a minimum of four strong with a leader figure.  I had four staff slingers and four archers ...
Read more

28mm Victrix Armoured Germanic Noble Warriors

Image
June started well as I completed the Victrix late-Roman Armoured Warriors I'd started on in May. I only had the one sprue of six to do and I finished them as noble Germanic/Gothic warriors.  They'll do as a unit of five with a leader, or I could use one as a champion and field a smaller unit for Warlords of Eherwon, which are the rules I'm currently using.  They're a nice addition to the Germanic force providing a bit of muscle.  As with all the Victrix kits they're top quality.  I was provided with a separate head sprue as well which is overkill really.  I have so many spare heads now I really don't know what to do with them.  It's a pity you can't buy the bits separately but that'd undo the whole business model I suspect.  Although some of it may get used for kitbashing unless you want to make a 20 headed monster all this plastic is going to sit there unused and inevitably it'll be thrown away.  I'm really not comfortable with the waste asp...
Read more

Warlords of Erehwon AAR - late Romans v Alamanni

Image
Introduction I finally got the time I needed to set up and play my first game of the year.  As I'd been working on them for what seemed like forever I took the recently finished Victrix late-Romans and Germanics to the field.  I didn't have a rules set in mind when I started this collection, but I decided to use Warlords of Erehwon as I'm familiar with it. Set up I played the basic Upon the Field of Battle scenario from the WoE rulebook.  Each side was around 450 points.  I based the forces on the WoE Roman and Barbarian lists available from Rick Priestley's website  and took guidance from the Warhammer Ancient Battles Fall of the West supplement to give a flavour of this later period.  I calculated the points using the Points Values file also from the site.  The force lists are  here .  I used my usual trick to help randomise the game by numbering each unit and each order dice.  I use this to randomly deploy the units, as an ...
Read more