Making (more) jungle terrain

[TacticalPainter]

Playing the Chain of Command campaign set in Malaya 1942 has made me realise how much more terrain I need to make my jungles feel, well, like jungles.  I've posted some tutorials on how I made various new pieces to fill the table and you can see them here https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2018/09/more-jungle-terrain.html

[OSHIROmodels]

I like them, the bases in particular 

If I'm honest, I'm not keen on the bamboo but that's nothing to do with what you've done with them, I'm not keen on the originals if that makes sense.

[TacticalPainter]

If I'm honest, I'm not keen on the bamboo but that's nothing to do with what you've done with them, I'm not keen on the originals if that makes sense.

I don’t disagree, but I got a big bag of them for next to nothing off a Chinese Ebay seller, so for gaming purposes they will suffice. The problem with bamboo is you need a lot to look effective, even this bag didn’t go that far and so cost can become an issue.

[Barry S]

That looks great.

Thanks for sharing.

[FifteensAway]

Different strokes.  I LOVE the bamboo.  And really like how you toned it all down, excellent job.  Only jarring note for me is the too regular basing of your bananas - though appreciate the why.  Probably not so noticeable on a good, matching game base.  Very glad you stayed away from excessive numbers of palm trees.  More jungle in my future (materials gathered awaiting time, energy, and inclination convergence).

[Codsticker]

I like the banana plants- great natural looking colours there.

[ArisK]

Thanks for sharing!
Aris K.

[gamer Mac]

Very nice 
What are you using for the ground cover?

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I really like the way you have done these.

I have a lot of jungle terrain which is mostly unpainted plastic aquarium plants.

Yours look much better with the painted leaves and the leafy bases. One day I will have to upgrade my jungle.

[Mr Tough Guy]

This looks so much better because it's painted, I see a lot of jungle terrain which is just unpainted plastic aquarium plants and it always looks like just that, unpainted plastic aquarium plants.

[TacticalPainter]

Very nice 
What are you using for the ground cover?

It's in the blog post, but basically a mix of Woodland scenics coarse turf, lots of mixed dried herbs and tea leaves - nothing better to represent dead and dried out vegetation than....dead and dried out vegetation. No modelling skills required LOL.

[TacticalPainter]

This looks so much better because it's painted, I see a lot of jungle terrain which is just unpainted plastic aquarium plants and it always looks like just that, unpainted plastic aquarium plants.

Yes agree.  Quite often there's nothing actually wrong with the plants having quite a bright green and glossy look, if you look at the real thing that's often how they appear. However, while this works fine in an aquarium, once you scale it down for gaming it can look horribly plastic and bright on the table. 

The thing to watch out for is that the plastic is often soft and flexible and much like painting plastic Airfix figures back in the day, the paint can flake off.  I have found a very good primer that works well to help paint adhere.  I'd also suggest you wash all the plastic in warm detergent before priming (at the risk of stating the obvious, give it a good rinse afterwards in plain water and make sure they are thoroughly dry).  Manufacturers often use a greasy release agent in the moulding process and that will stop paint adhering (in fact it's a good idea to do this with all plastic kits prior to painting, as they also use release agents).

If you are interested the primer I've found to work best it is this one: