Stone, Fire and Wood!

Several bits of terrain progress going on at the moment...

The ongoing saga of the Causeway board... I have added several rocky ledges and levels to allow goblins to scale the walls in various scenarios...

And have 'dwarfed up' the goblins shooting gallery, with pillars and trim...

Up next will be adding the flame effects in the base of the board....

I have made some flame makers made from clear plastic sheet - the sort you get from the typical plastic clam/ blister packs many goods come in these days, or even using a sheet made from laminating sheet off cuts...

Cut out a circle with a wedge piece cut out then glued it up into a cone shape. Then added more cut spiky pieces as flames and glued these on top. Then covered the whole thing in Woodland Scenics Water Effect. And then painted using GW yellow ink and orange ink....

I then considered the lighting of these... I was going to use several LED bulbs wired together, but I don't think I will get enough intensity to light up the whole flame-effect piece sufficiently... so I went to the local electrical store, and had a chat there about what I needed. I came away with 4 of these LED light units.

They are small, compact and cool running, mains power plug-in type. So they will fit under the board and not cause any heat problems and have enough intensity to light up the flame-effect piece... I think I am still going to need to build up the thickness of the base board to fit these, but that should not be too difficult...

Reduced from NZ$75 each to NZ$25 each... not bad I thought...

So once positioned underneath the the flame effect piece, I am hoping they will look something like this:

This was done sitting the flame effect piece on top of the upturned energy bulb (equiv 60W) of my angle poise desk lamp... Quite nice I thought... I will glue on top lots of black sprayed 'filter floss medium' to effect black smoke rising above...

So that's the Causeway board progressing...

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You may recall I moaned recently about my mini disaster using the Woodland scenics tree kits? Well I managed to salvage them and got them based up, gluing 4-5 trees per piece of MDF base... So they worked out OK in the end... though I must admit, the 'tree kit', to my mind did not come with enough clump foliage to cover all the tree armatures provided... In the picture below the darker trees were done using the kit... the lighter ones I had to finish with spare clump material that I had, even though it was a lighter shade.  Still it makes for a more pleasing effect I think with the varying colours together...

Woodland Scenics pine trees

Staying with trees I have been looking at other ways of making trees and came a cross a useful site detailing rubberised horsehair. I have seen trees made using this before, and they look rather good, so thought I'd give it a try... only problem was I couldn't find an NZ based supplier, so had to order online from a UK supplier...

Here's what I got...

So just need to break it up into pieces and glue it to some garden twigs to make the basic tree, then flock the horsehair...

Of course I couldn't resist playing about ... 'Instant Treebeard'... just add idiot! ;-)

Stay tuned for more, if I can regain my sanity!

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PS I'm on holiday at the moment so haven't been perusing blogs as usual, I'll try and catch up next week... Cheers all,
Scott

Cherry blossom, a tree so beautiful, it belongs with the Elves...

Good mate Roly has been enjoying a hobby jaunt in the Orient recently, as can be seen in many of his current blog posts...

As part of this adventure in a new setting, some suitable terrain was required and Roly sourced some model Cherry Blossom trees, I believe, from a Hong Kong based ebay trader...

Having made what he needed to create the setting he was after, he found he had an excess, and very kindly offered me a spare pack...

Like Roly, I always love good terrain on the tabletop, and these were a wonderful addition to my own terrain collection, and recent DIY trees I made from bottle brushes...

I based them on 60mm discs cuts from 3mm MDF. Used hot glue to attach to the base, then added my usual tea-leaf brown flock, with PVA/brown paint (50 /50 mix), then green static grass to finish. I am tempted to add some flower clumps too...

I couldn't help but think their bright colourful display was very in keeping with an Elven setting, and feel this is probably how I will use them most. It also inspires me to try and make some suitably Galadhrim dwellings to go with them... I may have a look over the PC game; The Battle for MiddleEarth II, for a little inspiration and ideas...

Interestingly too, I do feel that the way PJ et al at WETA envisaged the elves, draws somewhat from oriental themes, in their long bows, curved elven blades and banded armour, so perhaps the match up with Cherry blossom trees is rather apt!

Galadhrim defend their home land

Can't see the wood for the Trees?

Trees, you can never have enough trees, all different shapes, colours and sizes... and yet, go to any model store to buy some pre-made, ready to go,  good looking trees... and they cost the earth!

So being the hobbyist skin-flint that I am I always try and make my own and have tried several methods over the years.

Recently I came across a good article, on the Slave to Painting website... using bottle brushes...

I followed the instructions and was very pleased with the results.

The only problem is sourcing a wide variety of cheap bottle brushes. I sourced these from Petes Emporium in Porirua, where you get one big one and one small one, in a pack for NZ$1.50. I bought 6 packs...  and made what you see here. The biggest brush I tried cutting in half to make two medium size trees, but this was only partially successful as the bristles started falling out from the middle cut point.  I may try sealing them with some spray undercoat first next time before cutting.  Next time I am passing Porirua I'll grab some more...

Trees with 28mm Empire of the Dead figures

Trees with 15mm Flames of War figures

So in summary, take your bottle brush and trim bristles to desired shape.

Spray thoroughly with matt black undercoating spray. A proper undercoat spray still stays feeling slightly tacky after drying... I use Plastikote brand...

Mix up some thin glue mixture, using PVA wood glue and water, roughly 50/50... you want it quite runny... dunk in your brush, and drain off excess, back into pot ( I used an old food jar, tall enough to take the biggest 'tree')...

Liberally sprinkle with fine grade flock material.. Allow to dry.... this will take a while due to water content of glue. Once dry, repeat... two layers of flock work best...

Conceal the wire handle with a layer of DAS modelling clay. Score in a bark pattern before it fully dries. Paint brown and dark brown wash.

Cut out some bases, I used 3mm MDF, and a hole cutting attachment on my drill... but keep the cut out disk!

Hot glue the tree to the base, then flock the base as desired... I used my usual method; first up brown craft paint and PVA glue 50/50 and then sprinkle with brown flock ( I used dried out tea leaves from used tea bags). Once dry use some thinned PVA glue again to glue on patches of Green static grass.

Voila...!

These trees probably cost roughly NZ$2 each to make... last time I was at local hobby store, they were selling packs of two trees for NZ$22.50 !

Your only real commitment... is your time...

PS... for Styx, as requested below... this is as close an image to the ones I bought and used I have found on the web... they are basically a set of babies bottle brushes, one for the main bottle, the other smaller one for the silicone rubber nipple/teet, call it what you will...