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21 Oct 2010

Making Trees & Woods

Making Trees & Woods

Making trees and woods an easy guide to follow. Probably one of the most important features of any wargames table is trees and woods not only do they improve the look of your table but they also have an important effect on the game too. Trees block line of sight and hamper movement, and can also provide cover for units to ambush from. A couple of strategically placed trees or a clump of woods will provide plenty of interesting tactical challenges. 

Making Trees
Below there are several tutorials to help you build individual trees which can be combined to make a large wood.

Making Wire Trees
When making trees from wire, you start by constructing the trunk and branches. You will be able to then either leave them then as old dead trees or finish them off with a wide variety of different foliage effects.

1. Start out by cutting your bundle of wire to size. You'll want the length of wire to be double that of the finished tree. Commence shaping the tree by bending the length of wire in half and making a loop at the folded end. Use the loop to twist the wires together to form the tree trunk. When you have finished, cut the loop and form the branches at one end and the roots at the other. 

2. Bend the trunk into the shape you desire. Shape the branches so that they curve upwards ready to apply the clump foliage. Put on a coat of Polyfilla to the trunk of the tree. 

3. Once the Polyfilla is dry undercoat the finished tree with Humbrol No. 67 Tank Grey. Then start to paint the trunk and branches with Humbrol No. 110 Natural Wood before adding the clump foliage.

Mangrove Swamp Tree
Mangroves are assorted kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics.

1. Begin making your Mangrove tree in the same way as you would for a standard wire tree.

2. When you have your twisted wire strand you need to make a tree shape. For the Mangrove tree, you need to allow for much larger roots which make the tree stand above the ground. The branches, whilst similar to those of the standard wire tree, need to droop downwards. 

3. Polyfilla the trunk and then texture it, then undercoat the Mangrove tree with Humbrol No. 67 and finally paint with Humbrol No. 110. This tree doesn't have a canopy of leaves like a most trees. Glue your clump foliage to ends of the individual branches, following its natural curve using PVA glue.

Mangrove Swamp Tree picture 1

Mangrove Swamp Tree picture 2

Mangrove Swamp Tree picture 3

Mangrove Swamp Tree picture 4

Making Trees From Christmas Trees
Christmas decorations can be surprising useful for the wargamer Christmas trees can be cut up to make dense woods with a little bit of work, however there is a multitude of decorations which can be adapted for wargaming purposes.


Making Trees From Nails
1. First of all select the desired size of nails.

2. After selecting the desired nails I then cut small irregular shapes of hardboard to mount the nails on.

3. You can either tap them through the hardboard or glue them on using a glue gun.

3. The next step is to paint their nails I use Humbrol No. 110 Natural Wood.

4. The next stage is to add clump foliage which is made by Woodland Scenics Which Is torn into assorted chunks, next the largest clump is slid down the nail and glued into place using a glue gun carry on the process by using smaller clumps each time.

Making Trees From Plastic Aquarium Plants
There are many different sorts of plastic aquarium plants which can be utilised for wargaming to simulate dense jungle or just to add a bit of variety to the trees you already possess they can be bought relatively cheaply and of course can be based anywhere you desire.

Plastic Aquarium Plants picture 1

Plastic Aquarium Plants picture 2

Plastic Aquarium Plants picture 3

Plastic Aquarium Plants picture 4

Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures And Foliages
Bend and twist Tree Armature into a realistic shape. Apply Hob-e-Tac to the branches. Let dry clear and use a variety of the of the following foliage materials to make all types of trees for our layout, Underbrush, Bushes, Clump-Foliage, Foliage Clusters, Lichen, Foliage, Fine-Leaf Foliage and Poly Fiber.

Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures picture 1

Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures picture 2

Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures picture 3

Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures picture 4

Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures picture 5

Woods Made From Cheap Trees From China
The trees you see below were all bought from eBay at a relatively cheap price see here (Auction) the only thing I would say regarding these trees is the foliage is sometimes loose however I use hairspray to fix them.

1. You can base these trees individually see basing tutorial

2. Alternatively you can clump them together to make convincing woods.

3. As you can see from the pictures I started off with an already textured base all that's required is to drill small holes and then using the glue gun dab small amounts of glue into the hole and then insert the tree.

Making Woods Picture 1

Making Woods Picture 2

Making Woods Picture 3

Making Woods Picture 4

Making Woods Picture 5

Making Woods Picture 6

Making Woods Picture 7

Making Woods Picture 8

Making Woods Picture 9

Making Woods Picture 10

Making Woods Picture 11

Making Woods Picture 12

Making Woods Picture 13

Making Woods Picture 14

Making Woods Picture 15


Tools

Pencil
Tape measure
Wood saw
Rasp
Glue gun
Cutters
Drill
Paintbrushes

Materials

Hardboard
Polycell Textured Ceilings Course Effect
Polycell Polyfilla
Ronseal Diamond Hard Varnish, matt clear
Noch Summer Meadow Grass
Galvanised wire (small grade)
PVA Glue
Hairspray
Christmas tree
Nails
Clump Foliage Woodland Scenics
Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures And Foliages

Humbrol Colours

Humbrol No. 110 Natural Wood
Humbrol No. 103 Cream

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