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Author Topic: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Briar and Bramble Patches - Aug. 2021  (Read 195302 times)

Offline Braz

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 715
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Arthur Rackham Style Trees - Dec. 2017
« Reply #105 on: December 06, 2017, 08:10:39 AM »
Great tutorial. Inspiring. Thanks

Offline DintheDin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 6214
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Arthur Rackham Style Trees - Dec. 2017
« Reply #106 on: December 06, 2017, 08:23:48 AM »
Great tutorial. Inspiring. Thanks

+1
Constant souce of inspiration! Thank you!
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. – Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Offline Kegluneq

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 61
So, this has been fantastically useful to me.  I learned a great deal from it.  So although it is a bit old I do not want to see it vanish into the archives of the forum and I want to give credit where credit is due.

What I'm saying is ... thanks. 

Offline Dr Mathias

  • LPL Champion (S6,S7) Bronze Medalist (S5)
  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4490
  • Purveyor of the one-and-only Miracle Elixir!
    • Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza
So, this has been fantastically useful to me.  I learned a great deal from it.  So although it is a bit old I do not want to see it vanish into the archives of the forum and I want to give credit where credit is due.

What I'm saying is ... thanks.

I appreciate the comment, I'm glad that it is still useful!

Actually, thanks to all that have commented ;)

I actually have plans for another addition- alien trees. Photos have been taken I just need to edit and upload.
a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice.
Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza

Offline jherazob

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 21
I appreciate the comment, I'm glad that it is still useful!
It absolutely is :)

I actually have plans for another addition- alien trees. Photos have been taken I just need to edit and upload.
Looking forward to it, should be useful in lots of tables, specially for those of us who have a sci-fi game as main (Infinity in my case)

Offline Dr Mathias

  • LPL Champion (S6,S7) Bronze Medalist (S5)
  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4490
  • Purveyor of the one-and-only Miracle Elixir!
    • Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #110 on: January 13, 2020, 01:39:16 AM »
I spent about two hours repairing all the broken picture links in this thread (no pictures were showing up in any tutorials other than the Rackham Trees, because of the Great Photobucket Debacle of 2017). I had a couple more tutorials to post and didn't want to add them until that tedious task was done...

Alien Forest Tutorial



This project uses a lot of re-purposing other plastic plants along with methods found in previous tutorials. I wanted a very alien landscape that looked a bit like the wild environs of He-Man's world, Eternia, but could also serve as a 40K deathworld or something for my retro sci-fi.

I started by making some landforms, using styrofoam, mounted on hardboard. I then blasted it with spray paint to pock it up and break down the sharp edges. Then I added toilet tissue and plastered it down with Mod-Podge.



I wanted the plant life to look really integrated into the landscape, and added some ping-pong balls that I cut open and reshaped with a heat gun. My idea was to show a plant that 'popped' open and rapidly grew from a cyst-like round shape. I used latex caulk to make root systems as I have done on the past trees. Smaller styrofoam balls indicate cysts that are still growing.





I added some texture to the ground and did a bit of painting in advance. I planned on a weird 'tertiary triad' color scheme for the forest.



The cyst plants have three wire stalks textured with latex caulk, terminating in a styrofoam bulb.



I found some odd looking black plastic 'plants' at the craft store and decided to mix them in. I then added more caulk to give the impression of roots, so the snake like tree seems to grow up and down.



At this point I wasn't sure which fronds to go with. I had some clear packing material that had a neat texture, but I ended up not using it for leaves. I decided on some Christmas holly leaves for the tall trees, and ended up using the packing material on a different tree type.



A second plant type is based on some crappy looking plastic apples from another batch of Christmas decorations. I turned the apples upside-down and textured them with toilet tissue and Mod-Podge, followed by some puff paint veins. Then I topped them with some plastic tufts from a 'grass mat'. I made a bunch of these, some to be attached to the larger bases and some individually for ease of set up.



I ended up changing the colors :)



A third plant type uses packing peanuts. These had to be coated with a non-waterbased epoxy first- water based glue 'eats' them. I had a bunch of white plastic plants that I thought would go well with the tubes. The pics show the process of building up a landform using insulation foam with a resin coat, followed by drywall/wall patch 'plaster', then a texture layer using carpenters wood filler, slightly watered down.









All that remained was to paint the rocky ground, and add a lot of moss, random seed pods, and other plastic plants found at the craft store. I made some additional small plants using wire, heat shrink tubing, and old broom bristles.





After using a heat gun to shrink the tubing I used the same toilet tissue/Mod Podge method to texture them up. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the texture method, which I learned in high school :) I painted them and glued them into the larger landforms.







As always, thanks for looking!



« Last Edit: January 13, 2020, 05:44:13 PM by Dr Mathias »

Online DeafNala

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Elder God
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  • Posts: 10104
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #111 on: January 13, 2020, 03:08:44 AM »
Those are amazingly imaginative, beautifully crafted, AND wonderfully inspirational creations. VERY WELL DONE indeed!
I'd NEVER join a club that would have me as a member.  G.Marx

Offline jherazob

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 21
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #112 on: January 13, 2020, 05:38:23 AM »
This works astoundingly well, nice job as usual :)

Offline DintheDin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 6214
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #113 on: January 13, 2020, 06:18:24 AM »
Great, inspirational job! Thanks for the tutorial!

Offline CookAndrewB

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1734
    • 3d designs can be found at Thingiverse
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #114 on: January 13, 2020, 04:53:07 PM »
That is just so cool. How fragile are these? I would like to try my hand at a few, but honestly I would also like to avoid anything overly prone to breaking. I'm the only one that handles my terrain, but I'm also a bit of a klutz at times lol

Offline OSHIROmodels

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Elder God
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  • Posts: 27705
  • Custom terrain a speciality.
    • Oshiro modelterrain
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #115 on: January 13, 2020, 04:58:56 PM »
Cracking stuff  8)
cheers

James

https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/

Twitter account -     @OSHIROmodels
Instagram account - oshiromodels

http://redplanetminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/
http://jimbibblyblog.blogspot.com/

Offline snitcythedog

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    • Snitchys blog
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #116 on: January 13, 2020, 05:20:28 PM »
Sir,

Splendid all round!!
A bottle of scotch and two aspirin a day will greatly reduce your awareness of heart disease.
"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference"... Mark Twain
http://snitchythedog.blogspot.com

Offline Dr Mathias

  • LPL Champion (S6,S7) Bronze Medalist (S5)
  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4490
  • Purveyor of the one-and-only Miracle Elixir!
    • Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #117 on: January 13, 2020, 05:38:49 PM »
Thanks all!

That is just so cool. How fragile are these? I would like to try my hand at a few, but honestly I would also like to avoid anything overly prone to breaking. I'm the only one that handles my terrain, but I'm also a bit of a klutz at times lol

I build my stuff to be durable as possible. The Mod-Podge is pretty tough- combined with the tissue it is quite strong and slightly flexible. There's also a 'hardcoat' version. I use two-part epoxy when gluing soft plastic parts and wires. I also use Plasti-Dip clear spray as a final seal. I tend to lift terrain pieces up from wherever I want to, more or less. Small fronds and stuff will pull out if you yank on it (due to the weight of the overall base) but the other stuff projecting out is fair game. :)
« Last Edit: January 18, 2020, 04:29:18 PM by Dr Mathias »

Offline Andym

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  • Galactic Brain
  • *
  • Posts: 6562
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #118 on: January 18, 2020, 09:44:24 AM »
Great tutorial Doc! 8)

Offline Kadmon

  • Schoolboy
  • Posts: 6
    • The Games Nexus
Re: Dr Mathias's Arboreal Extravaganza - Alien Forest - Jan. 2020
« Reply #119 on: March 26, 2020, 03:51:12 PM »
The Games Nexus: For all your gaming needs - https://alkony.enerla.net/games-nexus

 

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