Following BLAM last month I promised myself that I would
take a break from building and painting for at least four weeks. I so nearly
did it but the craving to construct something new and slap some paint on it was
just too strong.
This enforced absence was cut short when a large parcel from
China arrived on my doorstep. What could this be? Id completely forgotten that
I had bought several flocked trees from china. Indeed over 60 of them retailing
in at a total cost of around £35. Most of mine are at the larger end of size
12cm+
Link to ebay seller: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Ethersell88/Model-Tree-/_i.html?_fsub=2633720015&_sid=794874525&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
I’d bought tall poplars, oaks, willows and other deciduous
varieties. I also bought some fruit trees.
And it’s the last lot I am going to start with first for my
Orchard.
A couple of years back I bought some resin stone walls
including corner sections. Apologies I can’t remember the vendor but these were
painted up black and dry brushed greys. It was then a simple job of laying
these out on a piece of ply I had knocking around to form the perimeter of the
orchard. These were fixed to the base using a new purchase – a hot glue gun.
The glue set immediately so I could start on the next stage
putting down the basing material. In this case a mix of builders sand and
railway model ballast. This was glued to the base surface using PVA. Once dry
after a couple of hours the base was painted dark brown and then highlighted.
Over the last few weeks I have been buying off ebay several
bags of static grass and flock. I have now got a stock that will last me a life
time. Seriously folks there is so much cheap stuff being knocked out on the
ebay site I don’t think I have paid full price for any foliage or basing terrain
stuff in the past two years. A suitable mix of these was then glued to the
painted base and left to dry.
Once all this was dry I could turn my attention to the
trees. Orchard’s are typically laid out in a grid pattern and mine would be no
different. With 10 trees purchased I decided on two rows of four thereby giving
loads of room around the edges and a couple spare. These were fixed to the board by drilling holes
in the baseboard and then the trees fixed in these holes using both superglue
and the hot glue gun.
A word of caution the flock on some of these chinese sourced
trees is lose so a good spray of either wet scenic cement of cheap hairspray will
help to keep them happy. The stuff that had fallen off in the bag I used as
additional scatter around the base of the trees to signify fallen leaves and
fruit.
WW1 Troopers take position in a French Orchard |
So there we have it – a small Apple Orchard fit to grace
many a table of countless historical periods
Until next time
I really like that. Or you could put headstones inside the walls to make it a cemetery!
ReplyDeleteVery nice. I will save that.
ReplyDeleteExcellent work, as always. I like your techniques and always learn something new coming here!
ReplyDeleteNice work!
ReplyDeleteNice, I am going to have to do that!
ReplyDeleteNice.
ReplyDeleteCracking stuff. I'm seriously tempted to make one myself.
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing. Definitely going to 'borrow' that idea.
ReplyDeleteIf initiation is the most sincere form of flattery than you should be rightfully chuffed with all these gamers wanting to build one also Eric.
ReplyDeleteAnyone found a good (cheap) source of stone walls?