*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 09:38:36 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Recent

Author Topic: Triple Canopy Jungle with Woodland Scenics tree armatures  (Read 5128 times)

Offline Mr. Peabody

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2223
  • Canuck Amok
Triple Canopy Jungle with Woodland Scenics tree armatures
« on: August 08, 2009, 05:06:33 PM »
I have slowly been catching up on my Vietnam project and now at last I'm up to my ears in terrain stuff. Much of this is new territory for me (sorry, couldn't resist...) as all my previous gaming was of the "Dark & Devastated Desolate Future" variety where you were lucky if a little algae would bloom in a puddle.

So I spent some time working on a half dozen twisted wire trees, but realised that I wasn't going to have enough time to fill my table and be ready for the game I was putting on at the club.:oops: My friend Colin had already helped out w/ his Woodland Scenics trees at the previous month's game & that session had given me an idea I decided to try out:


Here we see three of the same W.S. tree from their TR1123 5"-7" tall Realistic Tree Armature pack. These are good 30'+ trees in 1/72 scale and will fill up a lot of space very nicely but also show off my wire tree masterpieces when those are done. ;) I think my sprue cutters give a good idea of what I'm up to; cutting away the lower limbs of the tree to try and simulate the type of growth seen in the jungles and forests of South East Asia. I have made 3 quite different trees out of the same armature. Look! I'm saving all the bits I'm trimming away!:idea:


There are at least three different basic tree armatures in a pack of trees, here you can see two more examples being worked on and on the right you can see how these armatures appear when they are bent into natural tree-like shapes.
By cutting away the lower growth of these trees I hope I have suggested the type of tall, fast growth seen in the jungle, or at least made these armatures look less like the Northern hemisphere deciduous trees they are supposed to represent.
When you are done bending & shaping the trees, you want to epoxy them to Fender Washers & to flock them. I used a combination of W.S. Bushes and Underbrush, three colours of each. The bushes I used up high and the undergrowth filled in the lower branches. This gives the impression of higher growth getting maximum light & growing densely while the lower growth spreads out to catch what light it may. IMHO. YMMV.
Don't bother with the W.S. Hobb-e-Tac glue, this is utter crap. I learned the hard way that ordinary Rubber Cement is the good stuff for this kind of work. Other than that, the little video on the Woodland Scenics website pretty much sums-up the process of bending and flocking these trees.


Here is my clever idea beginning to take shape! On the left I am hot-gluing the trimmed off branches of the big trees onto pennies. I have already bent, shaped and flocked these little beasts. My VC rifleman is standing in to give you an idea of their size.
Then we are on to doing up the bases; a simple mix of spackle/drywall compound/plaster-patch (the stuff you buy ready mixed in a tub) plus some PVA/White Glue for strength and to reduce cracking, plus a decent dab of artist's tube acrylic paints. I went for a colour a bit lighter than my terrain base colour, you will see why in a bit. Smear this onto the base of the tree and the Fender Washer taking care NOT to smooth it out at all and to cover the edges well. This is all that the large & medium trees needed at this point.


BUT the teeny-tiny trees need more! More plaster mix and more decoration. Out come the plastic plants which I have trimmed into very wee sprigs. These sprigs of plastic foliage get stuck into the wet plaster at the base of the micro-trees on pennies, making sure to get some on at least three sides.
I slid each tree, large/medium/small along a piece of paper towel to make sure the bottom wasn't carrying any of the sticky mess and then set each tree aside overnight to dry.


The next morning I mixed-up an inky wash with the same two acrylic colours that I have already been using. This time I went for a darker shade. I also added some acrylic flow-release (a drop of dish-soap can achieve a similar result, or you can skip this altogether) to the mix. Then I gave the tree-bases a very fast, very liberal going over. The flow-release makes the diluted paint pool very nicely, leaving the high-points w/ almost no paint at all on them. No need to dry-brush for highlights. This is why my plaster-base is lighter in colour. I let this dry for an hour or so and moved on to the next step.
I gathered a brush, some diluted PVA/White Glue mixed w/ Matte Medium (to kill the shine, again not absolutely necessary) and my home-made jungle flocking-mix composed of two varieties of used loose tea (80% tea, saved a bundle! Thanks Chagadiel!), Woodland Scenics Fine Turf, Blended Turf and Fine Ballast.
I painted the glue around the edge of the base of each tree, then dabbed more in various places to break-up the round shape of the Fender Washer. I stuck each base into the flocking mix while I got another tree base ready w/ more glue. I left a good amount of the plaster showing, wanting the edge of the washer to blend in with the rest of my jungle areas and for the immediate base of each tree to stand out somewhat.
DONE! At this point I'm ready to game in a suitably jungley style.

Some additional points to ponder and a couple action shots:


These two shots show off my clever use of dry-brushing on the plastic tree armatures. :roll: Even with the questionable job I did, it really helped the trees show off the tree-bark detail of the Woodland Scenic armature. These shots also show that you need a lot of protection when it comes time to spray the foliage w/ whatever diluted glue/stiffener/matte-medium/Scenic Cement you are going to use on your trees. The spray gets everywhere and it is wet & messy. This step is recommended by the W.S. people and I think I'm going to give some of my trees another shot just to be sure because I think they may drop some foliage at the club.
Why aren't I using hairspray? I have heard that it yellows over a short period of time.
What might I try as an alternative? Future + Tamiya Matte applied via Airbrush! Thinned w/ a little isopropinol it might not be a huge error....


Finally I leave you with two terrible but authentic in-game shots of my almost triple canopy jungle in action. You can just about make-out the little micro-penny-based jungle tree stands as well as the medium and large trees.
I think when my really tall wire trees are done then this will be a pretty impressive bit of wild & thick jungle!

TR
Television is rather a frightening business. But I get all the relaxation I want from my collection of model soldiers. P. Cushing
Peabody Here!

Offline DFlynSqrl

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1103
Re: Triple Canopy Jungle with Woodland Scenics tree armatures
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2009, 06:33:57 PM »
Very nice Peabody.  Looks good to me... and I still have to work on my triple canopy jungle too.  :)

Offline Ray Rivers

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5911
Re: Triple Canopy Jungle with Woodland Scenics tree armatures
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2009, 06:34:40 PM »
 :-*

Awesome job, mate.

That's some really eye popping terrain.

Offline Lowtardog

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 8262
Re: Triple Canopy Jungle with Woodland Scenics tree armatures
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2009, 06:43:07 PM »
Excellent I am planning on a similar job for Brazil and this is ideal tutorial :D many thanks

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
9 Replies
4323 Views
Last post August 17, 2010, 05:21:55 PM
by traveller
20 Replies
10835 Views
Last post September 03, 2010, 10:55:17 AM
by Dr. The Viking
10 Replies
4327 Views
Last post June 13, 2015, 02:12:30 PM
by ivor13
4 Replies
1485 Views
Last post November 01, 2015, 08:31:19 PM
by AndrewBeasley
5 Replies
1169 Views
Last post April 27, 2017, 09:10:55 PM
by Norm