More Trees - Big Trees

As you have probably gathered from previous postings on this blog I have had a bit of a run on tree building this year and this last post quite possibly is the last...after all there are only so many trees a wargamer can use !

I am sure like many of you have wondered about using (or maybe you have) the Woodland Scenic tree armatures. The problem I have had in the past is that they tend to be very fragile, a pain to construct and can be quite expensive once you have bought the armatures, foliage etc etc. Hopefully the following will try and dispel those myths.

A few weeks back I bought some Pirates from foundry, they came all nicely packed and arrived very promptly. I was struck by the nature of the foam packaging (like sponge) and thought there must be a use for this. A thought occurred to me that if I cut it into small irregular blocks and covered the result in flock foliage might appear.

 

So out came a few armatures from a purchase made some time ago.

 

Sharp scissors and PVA glue soon had me jamming these bits of foam onto the tree’s boughs. At the moment the foliage looks a bit blocky but once dry the magic will start to happen. Note – I found that dipping the foam into the PVA was the best way to get this stuck onto the tree rather than painting the tree in PVA. It is messy but it seems to work.

 

Once dry I took my trusty scissors and started to reshape the blocks into a more pleasing shape.

Spray the whole tree, foliage sponge and all black.

Now is the time to paint the tree itself – drybrushed greys and lighter browns.

 

Once all this is done, paint pva glue onto the sponge foliage and dip in a big box of flock. Shake off the excess and allow to dry.

Fix the flock with scenic cement (Sprayed) – hey presto job done. All I need to do now is base them.

I am quite pleased with the result.

The armaturesw were about £1 per tree and the flock was about £4 for the bag - still loads left - so I reckon each tree cost about £1.25 each - oh they stand around 6" to 8" tall..

Now if you are interested in palm trees head here

Palm Trees

Cheers

Eric