You know how wargamers are: they buy stuff and it sits on the shelf unfinished for ages... (In my case lol) this isn't just true with figures, but also with scenery. Certainly more than 5 years ago I bought around 150 trees (in bags, can't remember the brand), a mix of pine and leaf. After basing and flocking 20-30 I had enough for an average game, so I did no more, untill last year we needed around 150 for a large participation game, when I finished the remaining lot in 2 days... >:(
Same thing happened with my stock of jungle (plastic aquarium) plants and palm trees, untill - about a month ago - I picked up the 2 remaining Heroscape Ticalla jungle sets from my local store. Not only did this provide me with 6 palm trees with a difference, but also with some (more lol) aquarium plants, but this time cleverly & firmly mounted on Heroscape hexes. This was it! fixing plastic aquarium plants firmly to a base is a pain, so I planned to buy more (and more...) to provide me with an instant jungle (the only work to be done being some highlighting and flocking of the hex bases). (Un)fortunately, this Ticalla stuff seems to be out of production and I could only get them from the States which would cost me an arm and a leg.
But, wait a minute... I had 7 Heroscape basic sets on the shelf (bought for very little money - for the hexes), so perhaps I could find a way around it, finally use my strings of aquarium plants and create a jungle at no cost at all (there is a crisis going on, you know...).
The only thing lacking on the basic Heroscape hexes are the pins to take the aquarium plants, so I drilled 5-6 holes in a one hex piece and screwed tapering screws in (diameter equal to the little ring at the bottom of the plants) and pushed them on firmly. To have a more prominent centrepiece on each hex, I used plastic parsley which looks like a small tree and glued it in place, kept upright by the other plants whilst the glue settled.
(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm262/geudens_photos/jungle07.jpg)
I covered the tops of the screws and the plastic plants' ring as well as the top of the plastic hex with Polyfilla, thus firmly embedding the lot, safe for transport and tabletop handling. Some paint, highlighting and flock finished the thing.
(left to right) my effort, a Ticalle Jungle tree and a Ticalla jungle plant set:
(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm262/geudens_photos/jungle06.jpg)
Since I use the Kallistra Hexon II system for my terrain, I now sat down to do some calculations. One box of Hexon II covers about 1.1m2 of tabletop or 126 hexagons. If all were filled, this would mean the plants would be about 6 cm apart; a very dense jungle indeed. So I went to work, incorporating 6 large and 15 1/72 Pegasus palm trees (from the shelf...) and about 20 "cake" ones I already based on washers and that had represented my tabletop "jungle" for some years. This is the result: a 1.1m2 jungle with over 500 plants (note the eight 28mm figs in the front for scale comparison):
(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm262/geudens_photos/jungle02.jpg)
Though very dense, this is no jungle to game in, so I took away half the plants, effectively resulting in a jungle TWICE as large. There is now some space to move units and vehicles and this is what 1.1m2 looks like:
(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm262/geudens_photos/jungle04.jpg)
Finally, I removed again 1/3rd of the remaining plants, thus being able to cover a 3.3m2 table with the lot. Now there is enough open space for buildings and units to move around in battle:
(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm262/geudens_photos/jungle05.jpg)
All the above assumes there is nothing but the jungle on the table, but this is what it looks like when some hills are added, effectively reducing the available "open battle space" to about 50% of the table's surface (quite a challenging terrain, tactically speaking):
(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm262/geudens_photos/jungle08.jpg)
All the above pictures assume that the tabletop jungle is evenly spread, which would rarely be the case: often a (centre) plain would be present, concentrating the trees in perhaps 4 spots/m2.
This is a "clean" setup: for demo purposes fallen leaves and other debris can be added to give a more "diorama look". You may also imagine the Hexon II's not being there.
Rudi