Sunday, November 26, 2017

BGiME #8: Trees and Forests

Trees are a wargaming table staple. No matter what system or period you prefer, you can always spruce (heheh) up the tabletop with trees. From lonely pines to small groves of oaks to full forests capable of hiding divisions, trees are the bee’s knees.

They’re also something I lack in my terrain inventory. I have a few I repainted and based from dollar store Christmas scene trees, but I need more. I’ve been waiting for the Battlefield in a Box woods to be manufactured again, but they seem to be on permanent pre-order. So I was enthusiastic at first about issue #8 demonstrating cheap and easy means to create tabletop trees.

I started in making them and I was satisfied with the first phases of the process. The twisted garden wire trunks—covered in masking table and spackle for texture—turned out great. Then came adding the foliage. I used the magazine’s suggestion of doing the foliage with sisal moss, a single package of which I found at the dollar store. The original moss was light tan in coloration, so I purchased a small can of green spray paint to give it the proper hue. 

The problem may be either that I didn’t have enough moss or that I did a poor job affixing it to the trees. Regardless of the reason, my end results weren’t quite equal to those show in the magazine. They’d serve in a pinch, but they’re not something I’m particularly proud to put down on the table. I’m chalking these up to a lesson learned and going to continue to keep my eyes peel for good-looking commercially made trees in a suitable scale.





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