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Ten mil trees - 1
Modelling therapy was the order of the day yesterday. For a while now I've been looking at using teazels for some kind of scenic modelling project. A blog I read recently showed what could be done using them for sci-fi gaming scenery. Plenty of thistles grow along the course of the trail near us, so supply wasn't going to be a problem. I collected a few - using secateurs as the stalks are spiny.
I already had the image in mind for what I wanted to achieve. As it happened everything went according to plan. The hot-glue gun came in handy at this point.
I took the teazel, snipped off the spiny stalk and replaced it with a "trunk" cut from a thick twig. A quick trim of some of the longer spines at the top was also done. Applying streaks of hot glue through the spines, I stuck on small offcuts of foam rubber packing material left over from my previous hedgerow project. Once the whole surface of the teazel had been covered and the glue set, I gave it a thick coat of ordinary household paint in a fetching shade of brown and heavily sprinkled it with used green tealeaves.
In the space of an hour I made a dozen trees for ten mil gaming. The photos show their current appearance. I intend to give them coats of different shades of green, but I'm debating whether to use rattle cans or use craft acrylics for best effect. The bases are temporary card, which I'll replace with something better and permanent. I'll post more photos of the finished result.
3 comments:
would pennies be too big for the bases? If not, they are both cheap and relatively heavy for balance.
-- Jeff
AJ,
Those trees are really very nice, they look like they came from the Heki or Faller factory! And they no doubt cost something like 5% the price. Why or why did I pull up the thistles around my yard all summer...?
As Jeff suggests, try out some pennies, my small trees are all stuck to pennies! It gets rid of some household clutter - it is not like you can actually spend pennies anywhere, at least not around here!
Thank you, gentlemen! They're very cheap and cheerful, and look quite effective now I've painted them. The pennies idea is good, although the trees do weigh quite a bit with the paint and flocking.
Time permitting I'll make some more, but we're looking for a place to live right now, so time for modelling may be scarce.
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