Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of the Big Battalions => Topic started by: kingsmt on July 18, 2018, 08:44:27 AM
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This piece is a WIP. I'm not sure if I consider it finished yet. I may add some small trees and some other things to it before I consider it finished. It also needs some tidying up in spots.
I used the thicket, that I wrote the tutorial about.
Well, this is how you can actually use it on a terrain piece.
Everything here was scratchbuilt by me, except the Indians.
I seem to recall that Marco painted and based the Indians. I was going to re-base them, when I got around to it.
Anyway, some WIP pix with and without figures.
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/1a_zps6ardeblr.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/1a_zps6ardeblr.jpg.html)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/4_zpshg9alkzq.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/4_zpshg9alkzq.jpg.html)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/3_zpsjefoatev.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/3_zpsjefoatev.jpg.html)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/1_zpsmqksmlos.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/1_zpsmqksmlos.jpg.html)
NO INDIANS
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/a_zpsrp0nnqe7.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/a_zpsrp0nnqe7.jpg.html)
URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/d_zps69txd1sx.jpg.html](http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/d_zps69txd1sx.jpg)[/URL]
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/b_zpsrvv1wx0q.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/b_zpsrvv1wx0q.jpg.html)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/nevinsrip/c_zpsqgki1gs6.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/c_zpsqgki1gs6.jpg.html)
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Very nice.
There are Indians in those last pictures, but they are hiding in the thicket ;)
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Nice but still a bit too 'straggly' to my eye - maybe a pair of nail clippers to cut away some of those odd bits here and there to 'clean' it up might help. But, again, don't overdo the clean up, still needs to be wild. Just shows up very strong in photos to my eye.
One day we are going to see a spectacular large battlefield shot with vast numbers of figures. Right? ;D
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I'm impressed by your scratch built trees.
Looks like classic North American rural terrain: poison ivy, sticker bushes and hornet nests. I think you need a mud hole.
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I think they look great as they are :)
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You made them look very realistic! Congrats!
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15, I purposely make things "straggly".
Nature is not neat, it's wild and straggly.
My own opinion, is that the wild look is what makes this piece look realistic.
To each their own, I guess.
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No worries. I like the piece. Might just be that I'm more use to California's wilds than the wilds back east. I'm sure it looks fine in person but in 'close ups' the straggly bits stand out.
In younger days, I loved spending time in the wilderness but here in California that usually means evergreen forests rather than the deciduous and mixed forests back your way. Or oak scrub. Of course, we do have lots and lots of blackberry bushes out here - and those, while straggly in their own way, don't seem quite as straggly as what you've created. But, again, it is a very marginal thing.
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excellent stuff...
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When I was making this, I was visualizing the Lake George/Saratoga/Mohawk Valley type landscape. I spent my summers there as a child. I spent hours just walking in the forest imagining an Indian hiding behind every tree.
This is what thicket looks like in the NorthEast region. I would imagine the the forests in Northern California would look similar.
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Love the terrain.
Would be great to have it on my table to play on.
Thanks for showing it.
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I'm impressed by your scratch built trees.
Kingsmt, I missed that these were scratchbuilt trees. Well done! I have done something similar to this, but with shop bought trees. Loads of irregular bases with 2 or 3 trees on each. They haven't seen a game yet.
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The trees are just a dowel, coated with my own "Tree Bark" mixture.
I quickly sanded the dowels to a point, replicating a real tree.
I cut up dense, dark green scouring pads into pieces and just slid them down the dowel, which I coasted with white PVA glue.
I sprayed the pads with dark green paint. While the paint was wet, I added fine dark green turf, getting it as close to the trunk as possible. Tap off the excess.
I then used spay adhesive to coat the tree. Slightly lighter dark green, medium turf was then applied all over the tree.
I repeated the process until the tree looked right.
Then I slapped on the tree bark mixture to the exposed part of the trunk. When that dried, I drybrushed some browns and grays over it.
That's it.
One note. You have to use the more dense scrub pads to get this effect. The readily available, supermarket pads are no good here. There not thick enough. The pads that are sold in industrial cleaning supply places or at Home Depot are good. They are commercial grade pads.
You'll need 2 pair of pliers to pull these pads apart. If you can't rip them by hand, then you have the right ones.
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Sorry, the Tree Bark mixture is as follows:
Place about 4 ounces of Liquatex Resin Sand Modelling Paste into a jar.
You can substitute Liquatex Light Weight, Matte Modelling Paste, if the Resin Sand is not available.
Both can be found at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Use coupons to save $.
Mix in some brown acrylic paint, until you see the tree color that you want, Remember that you'll be drybrushing some gray over this brown. I use regular "Brown" from Folkart or Ceramcoat, as my base color.
Add in some sand or fine ballast. Add a little bit at a time, until the mix looks like bark. Just enough to give the paste a grainy feeling.
Add in a squirt of PVA, about a tablespoon.
Finally, add in some regular tap water, about one ounce.
Give it a thorough mixing together.
Store the "bark" in an airtight jar, with a screw on lid.
If the mixture begins to dry out, regular tap water will bring it back to life.
Paint it on your tree armatures.
I started out using this mixture on my cheap, Ebay purchased, trees. It looked so good that I started using it on my scratchbuilt trees.
It really transforms plastic Woodlands Scenics trees and makes them look much more realistic.
Sorry, about not including this the first time. I thought I did, util the PM's came pouring in.
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It really transforms plastic Woodlands Scenics trees and makes them look much more realistic.
Without a doubt, this is on my to-do list. Thanks for the info Bill!