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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