*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 10:59:48 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Recent

Author Topic: Daftest Africa - Pulp Alley ordered!  (Read 62590 times)

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Daftest Africa! - mud huts finished
« Reply #405 on: May 24, 2022, 06:26:55 AM »
 Dry effective Bob, thanks!  I like those!

Offline Doug ex-em4

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2486
Re: Daftest Africa! - mud huts finished
« Reply #406 on: May 24, 2022, 08:56:29 AM »
Cheers guys.

Doug, the thatch is a fleece throw I bought from Wilko, simply brushed out with diluted pva.

The walls are simple poly filler, roughly applied to give me a coarse look.  I always mix in a little pva with it first to make it stronger and less likely to crumble.   Cracks are simply it drying out and being a little thickly applied.  I like it like that as it looks like dried mud, an added bonus me thinks.  I’m tend to sponge the filler down once applied to remove rough bits.
Thanks - the dried mud cracks are a bonus, they do look realistic. I just need to dig out a documents tube and I can get going.

Cheers

Doug

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Daftest Africa! - mud huts finished
« Reply #407 on: May 24, 2022, 10:07:36 AM »
If you have a local print shop near you, they are bound to have a couple knocking about….good luck!


Edit:

So, I finished the grass last night  so I thought I’d start on my first acacia tree…..this is as fast r as I got before blisters stopped play! Lol

It’s possible I may have made this TOO big!  May have to trim it back a tad….




They have quite a distinctive shape so I’m “trying” to emulate it but remains to be seen.   Unlike my other jungle treees, I’m thinking I need to beef up the trunk of this one, so I will be bandage wrapping it before applying the rubber.

I am going to just concentrate on one acacia tree for now…..but I may have a go as some smaller scrub trees too that I can populate a few scenic copses with.

Anyway, this is a slower construct that should take a few weeks to do me thinks.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2022, 02:17:26 PM by Digits »

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #408 on: May 25, 2022, 07:26:08 AM »
Hmmmm…….I may have overdone it!

This will certainly dominate any savannah table! 😂

About 30cm tall so roughly 16/17 meters?    I think on researching them….Acacias typically get up to about 12m!

Oh well, the mother of all acacias it is! Lol

« Last Edit: May 25, 2022, 08:30:45 AM by Digits »

Offline Doug ex-em4

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2486
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #409 on: May 25, 2022, 08:52:29 AM »
Well, I look forward to the Californian Redwood giant acacia but to return to the huts, your roofs are fixed I think? So did you leave them without floors so you can access the insides? Sorry to be hut-obsessed :)

Doug

Offline has.been

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 8235
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #410 on: May 25, 2022, 09:05:38 AM »
Quote
Sorry to be hut-obsessed :)
Less JABBA (about) THE HUTT please  lol lol lol

Quote
It’s possible I may have made this TOO big!  May have to trim it back a tad….
Hold fire on that David. It will be perfect for when you do Zulu Wars in 40mm, or 54mm  :D

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #411 on: May 25, 2022, 09:13:48 AM »
Well, I look forward to the Californian Redwood giant acacia but to return to the huts, your roofs are fixed I think? So did you leave them without floors so you can access the insides? Sorry to be hut-obsessed :)

Doug

I fix the roofs yes but my main reason for leaving off the floor was that I can simply place them on whatever mat I want so they will blend in.  I have to glue pots and detailing to the walls as there is no floor to stand them on.

You could have separate roofs if you want to access yours, but I wasn’t bothered too much about that myself.   Be aware though, none of my huts are the same, and making the roofs fit meant some were squeezed / mis shaped to fit and then fixed in with pva / superglue and plaster!   You could of course take a bit more care than I did! Lol

And Peter….NO…..we are NOT doing Zulu in larger scales! Lol

I will simply content myself that there is an element of Lost World here….so some trees and animals may well be bigger than the norm! 😉

Offline Doug ex-em4

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2486
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #412 on: May 25, 2022, 11:27:53 AM »
Less JABBA (about) THE HUTT please  lol lol lol
:D I’ve got your coat for you….

I fix the roofs yes but my main reason for leaving off the floor was that I can simply place them on whatever mat I want so they will blend in.  I have to glue pots and detailing to the walls as there is no floor to stand them on.

You could have separate roofs if you want to access yours, but I wasn’t bothered too much about that myself.   Be aware though, none of my huts are the same, and making the roofs fit meant some were squeezed / mis shaped to fit and then fixed in with pva / superglue and plaster!   You could of course take a bit more care than I did! Lol

I will simply content myself that there is an element of Lost World here….so some trees and animals may well be bigger than the norm! 😉

Thanks for that. I don’t know much about African huts but having a bit of size variation may be pretty accurate.

The Lost Worlds element is definitely a plus…..

Doug

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #413 on: May 25, 2022, 01:57:36 PM »
😉

Just found this

“Acacia erioloba, known as the giraffe thorn or camel thorn tree, is the most recognizable tree in the Kalahari desert (and elsewhere in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). It can grow up to grow up to 18 m tall and live up to 200 years” - I’m inside the height limit! Huzzah!



So I’m going to tackle this one slightly differently to my jungle trees.   I’m trying to disguise the twisted nature of wire trees using medical tape and a stretch bandage.  This should give a good base too for applying the liquid latex.  I also sided this method to add in a supporting strut to the top most “trunk” to beef it up and mask it ahead of the latex.

I will add a little pollyfilla around the roots before adding the mood latex.

« Last Edit: May 25, 2022, 03:37:50 PM by Digits »

Offline Golgotha

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2176
    • BMC Miniatures - All things wargame related.
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #414 on: May 25, 2022, 08:42:23 PM »
Having seen and stood under real ones I can confirm they are surprisingly large trees. They also have large grey white seed pods that look like flat bananas - obviously these depend on the time of year.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2022, 08:44:27 PM by Golgotha »

Offline FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4607
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #415 on: May 26, 2022, 12:12:42 AM »
My understanding is that the shape of the acacia's on the East African plains has a lot to do with giraffes grazing habits which means the understory of the greenery is likely 18' - 20' from the ground what with their height and those rather long tongues.  Feel free to disabuse me if my understanding is wrong.

Love the idea of the beads with the rings to make pots - though a bit more of a challenge perhaps in 15 mm but perhaps still workable.

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #416 on: May 26, 2022, 12:40:34 AM »
I agree…..but I made my base trunk too bloody high!  :(

Offline Digger

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 53
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #417 on: May 26, 2022, 05:29:00 AM »
Acacias are a very interesting tree. 
For a start they are a member of the PEA family.  Very short lived for a tree of there size, only 15-25 years. 
Then we have the African acacia which has many ways to stop from being nibbled on.
Most species have long, sharp thorns, which prevent (most) animals from eating their leaves.  Sometimes stinging ants live inside hollowed-out thorns, which provides another disincentive for predators. 
Also the trees create poisonous chemicals when they detect an “assault.” Not only can these chemicals be fatal to animals, but the trees “warn” nearby acacias to start making their own poison.  When the leaves begin to fill with poison, they release ethylene gas, which drifts out of their pores and toward other acacias (within 40m). In response to the warning, the nearby trees begin to manufacture poison themselves.

Pete

Offline has.been

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 8235
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #418 on: May 26, 2022, 12:02:23 PM »
Quote
can grow up to grow up to 18 m tall and live up to 200 years” - I’m inside the height limit! Huzzah!
But only if you live to be two centuries old David. :D
Nice work I look forward to seeing the finished version(s).

Offline FierceKitty

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1718
Re: Daftest Africa!
« Reply #419 on: May 27, 2022, 01:01:43 AM »
You might look up the South African kaffir boom, now usually called a coral tree (the older, Afrikaans name incorporates a term which carries a frightening load of racial contempt). Despite its history, it's a ravishing tree, with brilliant vermillion flowers; I'm entertaining the idea of trying my hand at one for the Zulu wars.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2022, 01:03:31 AM by FierceKitty »
The laws of probability do not apply to my dice in wargames or to my finesses in bridge.

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
4 Replies
5363 Views
Last post April 17, 2014, 04:19:50 PM
by Anpu
14 Replies
4635 Views
Last post January 22, 2015, 04:26:21 PM
by cheetor
8 Replies
2454 Views
Last post June 29, 2015, 03:40:11 AM
by Arundel
9 Replies
2701 Views
Last post April 09, 2017, 05:49:25 PM
by Bessy
3 Replies
1798 Views
Last post June 28, 2017, 01:01:07 AM
by Bessy