Paper people and sisal trees

[Gluteus Maximus]

Bizarre, but true:

http://kitcarton.free.fr/html/art/art_gesuelli01.htm

The figures may not useful for wargaming, but are astounding anyway. He actually makes them from paper, but as my French is not good enough I'm not sure how long it takes  They may have potential for "background" figures, such as civilian bystanders.

The trees however, have great wargaming potential:





This is well worth experimenting with, as cheap home-made trees are always useful and it looks like a pretty speedy process 

[Pil]

Looks very nice indeed. I think they will be quite fragile but they are lovely.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Looks very nice indeed. I think they will be quite fragile but they are lovely.

I don't know if they will be fragile. They appear to be made of clumps of string glued together, with each clump separated into "branches" and the trunk covered with "pasted paper" (I think that is "papier encolle"). This would be easily strengthened by using paper glued with PVA and then coated with a texturing mixture. So long as the flock is stuck on with a good quality glue and then sprayed with some sort of fixer, like diluted PVA for example, the trees should be sturdy enough for gaming use.

It's worth experimenting with, though. At the moment I use either wire wool or those acrylic pan scrub things (used in washing dishes) for the "branches", which I tease out and then have to spray black before flocking. Looking at the string trees, they wouldn't need much work, just a trim with sharp scissors and no spraying. Use pre-coloured texturing for the trunks and it seems to me it would be a very quick and easy process.

Ideal for large forests, jungle etc 

[tima113]

I'm in the middle of trying to make one of these.  I used 9 pieces of sisal and secured them together with paper masking tape (old style brown/tan - not the blue painter's tape) letting the string emerge along the trunk as shown in the picture. I suspect I may have unravelled the string too much on the first attempt as the branches are not as well defined as in the photo, maybe a thicker sisal is necessary to get the desired effect.

I plan to continue with this attempt and try several more to try to refine the technique. Still have to cover the trunk with some paper mache (PVA-soaked gift tissue paper), trim and dye the sisal green, paint the trunk and flock the leaves. It seems like the trunk will stand upright on it's own, but it will be easy to add a floral wire support during constructionif necessary.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Please post some pics of the finished trees, if possible. I'd like to see if it's easy to replicate the originals.