A very useful resource for making alien looking plants

[Vet Sgt]

My son has managed to talk me into starting a blog about my terrain making. I have been posting things for several years on many different sites, but now I am making an effort to consolidate them all into one place. If you are at all interested in alien looking plants then you should find something interesting on it. The following are just a few examples of some of the terrain sets that I have made. I mostly work in 28mm scale, but many of the methods I use work great in other scales also.












If you found any of these pictures interesting then please have a look at my blog 18charlie

http://18charlie.com/

What do you think? Could you use some of these plants in your games? Most of them were very easy to make and didn’t cost very much.

[Predatorpt]

Welcome to LAF and thanks for sharing your blog! I'm a big fan, but I still haven't found the courage to use my oven to work on my own terrain.

I think your work has already been mentioned here several times. I think I even linked some of your posts from either the WIP forum or the AdvancedTauTactica one. Once again, welcome and thanks!

[Vet Sgt]

Thanks Predatorpt I was aware of a link to my stuff a while ago (how I found LAF in the first place) and have lurked here off and on ever since. If using an oven is a problem for you than just use another source of heat. If you only do one plant at a time most of this stuff can be done with just a candle. It doesn’t require very much heat to soften the plastic. The oven is really only necessary for mass production.

[former user]

Your stuff is terriffic, especially the buildings

[Predatorpt]

Thanks Predatorpt I was aware of a link to my stuff a while ago (how I found LAF in the first place) and have lurked here off and on ever since. If using an oven is a problem for you than just use another source of heat. If you only do one plant at a time most of this stuff can be done with just a candle. It doesn’t require very much heat to soften the plastic. The oven is really only necessary for mass production.

Hmmm...I must confess I never thought about using a candle. I'll try that as soon as I can. Thanks for the tip!

[Lawful Evil]

The blog is full of fantastic ideas! Thanks for sharing your techniques, and your timing couldn't have come at a better time as I'm just starting to populate the surface of my Mars skirmish gaming with terrain, including alien flora.
EDIT: Just returned from the shops with a bag of plastic forks. Now where are those candles...

[Vet Sgt]

Thanks a lot everybody for your comments!

former user, I have done a lot of buildings over the years unfortunately I never bothered to take any pictures of most of them. I promise to remedy this in the future and take lots of pictures from now on.

Predatorpt, plastic usually takes very little heat to soften so you should be able to find lots of usable heat sources. I made the mistake once of trying to stir a cup of hot coffee with a plastic spoon, and got a much distorted spoon for my troubles. Simply dipping many types of plastic into very hot water is enough to make them soft and pliable.
 
Lawful Evil, I am looking forward to seeing whatever you come up with for alien Martian flora! I have lots of good pictures in the terrain site gallery, that will hopefully give you a few good ideas.

http://18charlie.com/site-galleries/site-gallery/

[former user]

You could give a small tutorial on that Tau blocks

sorry, no intent to derail - I find the silk flower vegetation very inspiring. I tried this path myself, but so far have not achieved that kind of credibility

[Agis]

Whoah! Thanks, some very creative ideas!

[Vet Sgt]

former user, don’t worry the tutorial on the large Tau building is coming soon. Picking flowers that match color wise is a big part of getting the silk flower vegetation to look good.

Agis, I’m glad you liked them!

[The_Beast]

My major worries about using high heat on plastic are a) fumes, and b) the fiddly-ness of the range between just hot enough to melt and shy of burning.

Candles generally give me similar 'willies' as open flame can cause burning to start even quicker.

Now, a heat gun on the outdoor patio or the like is an option, and you can do a fair amount with a sweep of the hand.

May give it a try; gots plenty of plastic foliage!

Doug

[Traveler Man]

I bookmarked your blog. Plenty of inspiration there, thanks for sharing. 

[TheOlivant]

Thanks Vet Sgt, I really enjoyed your terrain tips, very helpful. I have added a link from my site to yours. regards Wolt

[Espritfigs]

welcome and thanks for sharing

[Vet Sgt]

The Beast, I understand your worries about melting plastic and the associated fumes that comes along with doing that. I don’t recommend actually melting the plastic for those reasons. It takes a surprisingly little amount of heat to soften the plastic however. The window between softened/burned is much larger than the window between melted/burned.

Let us know how the heat gun worked out! I am very interested since I have been considering getting one myself.

If you have something that retains heat (like a ceramic pizza stone) then try covering it in tin foil and heating it in the oven. Unless it’s really cold outside that should retain the heat long enough to soften the plastic for you.


Traveler Man, you are welcome I hope that it gave you lots of good ideas.


TheOlivant, Thanks for the link, and I’m glad you found it helpful!


Espritfigs, the sharing of ideas is a big part of what makes this hobby fun!