Sunday 14 July 2019

On the Workbench: Trees

The size of the Battle of Grissburg in my room was such that it was rather cramped at my painting table. That, combined with allocating time playing the battle, meant that painting and modelling has been restricted over the past month. I did though manage to complete a couple more 2mm Napoleonic bases and some 6mm for my WW2 campaign. 

On the terrain front, aside from continuing to update my river sections, I felt something had to be done with my collection of trees. These are all the cheap variety from China which had been hastily based to get them on the table. Some are reasonable enough but others are pretty dire. The motivation to do something to improve them began with my pine trees which had been used on the Grissburg board. I avoided including them in my early photos as I had already decided to do something with them. They were caught in the distance in one shot -

I apologise for the out of focus shot but you get the picture. They have also featured on previous 'On the Workbench' posts.

They are rather spindly affairs and once on the wargames board it was obvious that they would have to be replaced or modified in some way. A look around ebay and various online model shops revealed very nice but very expensive pine trees primarily for model railways.

Continued - 


I had a jar of dark green flock which had been gathering dust for several years. 'Looks like could be good for pine trees', I thought and a test tree was modified. Eureka! Job done!

The tree on the left is how they came from China. Dark green paint was used to touch up some of the branches which had white showing through. The plastic base is removed with the tree being rebased using a 1p coin. Once the base is finished I then covered the tree in PVA glue and flock added. When dry I used an eye-dropper to drop heavily diluted PVA glue mixed with a small amount of washing up liquid onto the top of the tree ensuring all branches got a good soaking. The whole thing is given a spray coat of matt varnish to further reduce the risk of any flock shedding. 

These are the finished trees that ended up on the Grissburg board. A huge improvement and a massive saving on buying something similar from a model shop.

Next came my deciduous trees -

I intended to improve the shape and bulk of the trees and also to mask the base. Starting with some of  the worst trees, I gently teased out the branches a little more and added clump foliage. The two trees on the left I started work on today (I work on batches of 5 at a time). The foliage is added gradually building up the shape of the tree. Once complete, various foliage is added to the base. As with the pine trees they are finished with a coat of matt varnish. 

 A before and after wood with the same number of trees in each. I am still experimenting with various shades to add variety. With my river upgrade almost complete this will definitely be next in line. Its the sort of thing you can do alongside painting figures or other projects. It only takes a few minutes to glue on some foliage and then 2 or 3 hours later adding a little more until completion.

26 comments:

  1. Good work on the trees!
    We picked up a load of trees from Tree Fellas - very pleased with them, would suit your table if you need more.
    Have fun painting, best wishes,
    Jeremy

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    1. Thanks Jeremy. Would be great if you could let me have the link for Tree Fellas. Not familiar with them. You can never have too many trees!

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  2. A very visible difference Jon. My last batch of Chinese trees went into the bin! I have however kept my 'loo brush' type trees and am presently spraying them with that photo mount glue stuff and using fine flocks to give the tree body. It is working out OK, but I think I prefer your PVA idea to the solvent based spray glue. Anyway you results have given a very tangible face lift.

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    1. The last batch of trees I received from China were actually pretty good and some may only need minor work. But yep, some were dreadful. Even those though should make a reasonable base on which to build. I am a huge fan of PVA. It seems to work pretty much everywhere and dries clear albeit shiny. One of the reasons for the matt varnish. So far (touch wood!) I have had almost no shedding from the Pine or Deciduous trees with the latter more robust since the 'upgrade'.

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  3. I was pleasantly surprised by the trees I bought from China. My biggest problem was securing them to bases. I opted for 2mm mdf circular bases which I drilled through, glued the trunk, trimmed the base underneath and glued each one to 2p coins for stability, then landscaped the base with PVA and scatter. I have also used dried twigs and dried grape vines with flock and both make pretty convincing trees. An hour's wander through the local wood with secateurs provided a carrier bag full of suitable twigs which I then just dry in a warm place for a few days, varnish and flock.

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    1. Many of my bases are 2mm mdf but found the coins added greater stability. The method I use is to apply filler to the top of the base in a slight mound. Once dry I drill a hole in the filler and attach trunk using PVA glue. I have considered using twigs before but never tried it. May give it a go as it will add variety.

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  4. I usually search in Winter. The small dead ends of branches are something of a microcosm of the tree itself. Standard twigs are useful for dead and fallen trees. Amazing what you can find. Once dried and varnished mine have lasted many years.

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    1. Thanks for that info Kevin, will bear in mind on my strolls this winter.

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  5. Hi Jon. I’ve been working on trees too. I used bumpy pipe cleaners too make winter pine trees based on a video done by the little wars tv guys. Might be worth a look. Yours look fantastic! I’m considering ordering some from China right now but I'll most like leave it a while. You can never have too many trees but you can get tired of making them!

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    1. I am with you Charles that you can never have too many trees. One of the benefits of bulking mine out being that fewer of them should cover more of the table. Having them based singly not only allows you to produce the exact shape of wood that you want but you can also vary the density based on whether they are dense woods or open woods. For cheapness the Chinese trees are hard to beat and I am finding that it is relatively easy to improve them.

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  6. Jon, your mention of using filler gave me an idea. I have many dozens of blobs of Bostik Stick & Fix ( a white Blue Tack ) which I had used to hold models for spray priming. I put a blob of superglue on the mdf round base, the blob of Stick & Fix, pushed in the tree trunk (adding another touch of superglue to larger trees ) and Bingo! Works a treat and twenty times faster than drilling and no waiting for filler to dry and drill. Once you add PVA and scatter the trees are rock solid. Cheers.

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    1. Looks like you have hit on a great idea there Kevin.

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  7. Jon, a slight refinement. Following Occam's principle that entities should not be multiplied without necessity I have dispensed with the round mdf bases. I now apply a blob of superglue to a 1p or 2p coin, add the Stick 'n Fix, mould to shape, add a drop of superglue (which may not be necessary) to the tree trunk and push it in. A quick compacting and shaping and then PVA and scatter. I can knock out dozens in no time and it's a bonus not needing to get the mdf bases and glue them to the coins.

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    1. I am going to nick your idea there Kevin. I will be adding more pine trees soon so will give this technique a try. Cutting out the filler and drilling will undoubtedly save time. Thanks for this tip.

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  8. Interesting and instructive. Thanks Jon.

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    1. Thanks Pete. Just had a look at your blog. The images of inspirational books you have posted spookily enough is precisely the same books that fired me up! I also went from model trains (my father's hobby) to wargames.

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    2. Hi Jon, I did originally notice that as well, I have others which I believe I bought around the same time such as Handbook for Model Soldier Collectors and the War Games through the Ages volumes but I cannot remember whether I purchased them in my informative years or say five years into the hobby around '78 or 1979 .

      Regards

      Peter

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    3. Hi Jon Would you be kind enough to let me know your recommended base sizes for Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery stands.

      Thank you in advance.

      Peter

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    4. Hi Peter. Mine are 15mm x 15mm for inf, 20mm frontage x 15mm for Cav, 15mm frontage x 20mm for Artillery. This matches frontages in the Baccus figure design. e.g. Their strips of 4 figs = 20mm. It does mean some cutting of strips of figs but not a big issue. Some have opted to maintain the strips of 4 with a 20mm frontage which was my original plan. However, I found that having 6 to a base rather than 8 allowed for more flexibility and looked better when in certain formations, particularly march columns.

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  9. Your tree work is really paying off!

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    1. Many thanks Peter. I am really a closet lumberjack!

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  10. Hi Jon
    Apologies for reviving this post, but have you seen the Little Wars TV episode on You Tube of using pipe cleaners for trees. I am probably late to the party here but just in case you have not.

    Regards

    Peter

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    1. No I have not seen that. Will take a look. Thanks for the headsup Peter.

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