Making Forests for 6mm Wargaming

[thomas]

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to know what you think about making forests. When talking about a ground scale, 1 inch is about 100 yards or even more, single trees seem to be a little to huge (at least to me) - even though they would fit to the figure scale. 

So for bigger forests we use the "toothpick & clump foliage"- method which makes an effect that may look odd, but just creates a beautiful effect on the battlefield.
What do you think about this - what's the "best" method of making woods for 6mm wargaming?


Cheers,
Thomas

[tim]

I prefer to use individual trees placed on a ground template of thin roofing felt. This gives much more flexibility allowing trees to be moved to put troops in a wood. Other advantage is you can use individual trees dotted about for visual purposes only, also they are easier to store.

[Richard]

Hi Thomas it does look very effective for dense woodland thanks for sharing .

Richard

[ooiittee]

Hi guys, these photos look very impressive.



I have used upholstery foam and sculpted it to look like forest. Soaked in brown paint, cover the top in spray glue and flock. Finally coat the forest in 50 50 water pva to make it firm.







While they may not look totally realistic they do serve a functional war gaming purpose as they don't need to be moved when figures enter the woods, the figures march on top of the forest.

Ooiittee

[tim]

Those terrain boards look nice! I have never tried making a modular system like that, never had the space to store them until now so might consider it for the new table.

Tim

[Richard]

The effect is very good really gives the feel of dense woodland, love the terrain board .

[ooiittee]

Thomas,

I do like the looks of this design but have been discouraged by open space left on the field when troops are deployed in them.  I feel that the tree tops would be removed once troops entered them and never placed back on.  While the terrain I have used is very simple looking (not very pretty) but stays in place on the battlefield.

Could you comment on your experiences playing with this terrain.

I would love to find a middle ground that works well using the best of both.

PS:  I have a post on my blog that talks further on my method plus a couple of other Tree tips that I hope people could build on and contribute to there forums with their findings.


warterrainaustralia.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/making-trees-that-i-can-live-with.html

[ian]

I like to place a cloth of different shade of colour to show the extent of the wood. Then the trees just get moved around without worries.

Ian

[Orlog Subedai]

I make my trees out of toothpicks or better yet BBQ skewers for more strength as the trunk and modelling lichen or foam (from an old settee cushion) for bushy, deciduous types and ripped up pan scourers for evergreens. If you dip/spray the foam or lichen with watered down PVA you can then paint or flock it. Another method which I've seen, got the stuff for,  but haven't tried yet is to use galvanised roofing nails with the big bases for the trunks for more stability if you are using card or a cd as your base. In England, Poundland or Wilkos sell the nails. Just vary the height and colours of your trees for visual variety.

There are some pics of the evergreens here on one of my home made hills. Advanced apology for the non-Napoleonic item I used for scale.

thewordsofsubedai.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/more-terrain.html

[tim]

I use roofing nails to make Cypress trees, no one seems to make a decent model of them. Take your nail and blunt the end a bit. Dip in pva and dip into flock and let it dry. You can then build the foliage up by spraying with hair spray and applying more flock. Finally I give it a spray with matt varnish to hold it all together.
A couple of examples:

The small trees at the front are made from Alder cones dipped in PVA then flock.

Tim

[curlerman]

Jul 2, 2014 8:15:56 GMT thomas said:

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to know what you think about making forests. When talking about a ground scale, 1 inch is about 100 yards or even more, single trees seem to be a little to huge (at least to me) - even though they would fit to the figure scale. 

So for bigger forests we use the "toothpick & clump foliage"- method which makes an effect that may look odd, but just creates a beautiful effect on the battlefield.
What do you think about this - what's the "best" method of making woods for 6mm wargaming?


Cheers,
Thomas



I am currently working on using the same kind of terrain. It works particularly well on small ground scale 1Foot/ 1 kilometer. The best examples I have seen are on the "altar of freedom" home pages. Heres the link. It was their scenary that inspired me. www.6mmacw.com/forests.html

BTW I currently use in dividual trees bought from China at prices which can only be described as "jaw dropping" . I think I paid 5 or 6 pounds gb for a hundred trees and I have FARSENDS of em. you can see em in various pictures on the blog. Heres an example. flownlegions.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/and-now-for-something-completely.html

[mike1956]

Oolittee

Just had a butchers at your blog, enjoyed what I saw.
I like the forest articles.
Whereabouts are you in Australia? I'm in WA myself.

Mike

[ooiittee]

Nov 30, 2014 1:04:56 GMT mike1956 said:

Oolittee

Just had a butchers at your blog, enjoyed what I saw.
I like the forest articles.
Whereabouts are you in Australia? I'm in WA myself.

Mike

I am brisbane based but grew up in WA. Still over there every year or so. Look you up next visit for a battle.

[Orlog Subedai]

There are pictures of my trees and more information on their construction in my article 'Terrain for Tiny Chaps' in this months MWBG.

[tim]

Just read that!

[Orlog Subedai]

Hope you enjoyed it.

[tim]

Yep, might try the trick for tall thin trees for poplars.

[bruce]

Thomas - I am using the same method you are, but I have substituted real twigs, carefully selected and trimmed, for the toothpicks.  I just make a hole with a toothpick and glue em in, a couple of staggered rows around the edges. No need to paint, they look real because they are. Because there are no trunks in the center, I can lift the woods up to place troops and set it back down as long as your trunks are high enough. I use a piece of flocked brown felt, cut the same shape as the foam canopy, for the forest floor. 
I like the dense 3d map look of oolitee's foam and there's no doubt that individual trees give you flexibility. The canopy method kind of falls in the middle. Bruce

[ooiittee]

Thanks Bruce, I will take any compliments I can get. Not many from the wife though when she saw how much foam I plucked making them.

I have been messing about with woodland scenics 3/4 inch tree packs. The size is perfect for 6mm on testing. You do need alot to make it work well. A pack contains about 50 trees that will work for our scale well and the remaining half of the pack can work for 15mm too.

[ooiittee]

I have managed to grab some shots of the trees and scale I am using (And the messy Hobby desk)

These are 3/4" to 2" Armatures (Deciduous), which you can purchase from most model train stores. I would strongly advise using the woodland scenic Hob-e-tac adhesive as it does the job perfectly.






To add to a little something to them I purchased some rare earth magnets 2.5mm by 2mm and drilled open the base stand with a 2.5mm drill bit. This makes them easy to transport as well as assisting with my next two projects once completed......

[grizzlymc]

My latest trees effort. I will be making these 55 and 35mm high as well.

grizzstoysoldiers.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/home-made-trees/

I prefer trees on dark green towelling to denote my woods, but I want them to look like trees not garden shrubs.

[ooiittee]

I have been working on improving my forest and woods for my terrain tables.  I think I might have hit the mark with this.

I used to use upholstery foam, plucked to break up the shape and then flocked with spray glue.  This is the development of that idea (see my above post).

In Bunnings the other day I came across an almost perfect mat I could use as a base for forests along with a 6 pack of foam sponges, some black primer spray and some green craft paint (cheap).  I have made about 12 pieces of forest now and not used half of the mat and sponges.



I cut a shape in the sponge for the forest canopy then cut the rubber mat leaving about a 1cm lip of foam over the edge.

I then pluck the cut sponge to break up the surface and give it a more forest like shape, nothing straight or flat.

Once I am happy with the look, I glue the rubber mat shape I cut to the foam with PVA, let it dry a bit then prime the foam.

Once dried I dry brush using Woodland Green from my old GW paints, highlighting with a lime green or a yellow would do also.

 

Last step is to paint the rubber edge brown, this gives the look of tree trunks when viewed from the side.




And finally.




I use these smaller shapes to build up larger forest as they allow for trails and road to weave through them better than a solid forest form that I used to use.




Hope this helps add to our collective methods of terrain building.

Ooiittee

[Orlog Subedai]

That is a very clever variation on the canopy idea. Like it.

[bruce]

Very clever indeed! I spent quite a bit of time cutting and gluing in my twig/tree trunks in around the edges of the foam sheets which hold the foliage. Yours is a very handy process. Amazing what you can find just by opening your eyes! Well done. 

Did you flock these as well or was the sponge texture all you needed? Bruce

[ooiittee]

Dry brush with two tone of greens did the trick. Cleaner too.

[ooiittee]

These three pieces took about 10 min of work to build. Dry time excluded. It all comes down to materials really, they do the hard work it they are right for it.

[mike1956]

I'll have a quick look for those mats when I next go to Bunnings.

Mike