Zona Alfa - Forest

Origin Draft 2020-09-21

On one of my trial games it appeared that i probably needed a bit more space filler terrain. 

This put it into my head to make some trees. I bought a roll of wire and started twisting.

Update 2020-09-25

While this seemed like a fun idea at the time the following step was going to be far too annoying and costly. Namely covering the wire with 2 part epoxy (kneadit) to make it not 'wirey'.

After binning these i left the thought alone for a while. I had a look at this or that site looking for scale trees and didn't really find anything that grabbed me.

Today I happened to think of a bitz trader I know of and had a look at their site.

Picked up two of these...

2 lots of 20 x 10cm high trees (so the pic above x 2). They didn't have any variety in the range (just these) but I quickly came up with a plan. models are (nominally) 28mm tall so the tree will be high enough to be effective.

They're not going to be tall forests, more like an xmas tree plantation - younger trees basically. While I'd have preferred a mature forest I was kinda concerned that there would be a lot of clear sight between the trunks and the foliage quite high if I went that route.  This approach should negate that concern.

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update 2020-10-01

Didn't make as much as i'd had hoped for (based on no science), but it will do.  Still 8 stands, just smaller stands.

as anticipated i was able to make some height variation by cutting away some lower trunk.  they're on 2x glued together 3mm mdf bases which seems to make them quite stable. sand down the top edges so they're not quite so blocky. 

can paint/shade the trees to create some colour variation.

can also chop away some segments of the circles of foliage.

for the bases i'm probably going to flock them and i have some cork 'rocks' which i used a little bit on the epic tall hills projects.    might also get some sheet cork and play with that.

and i also have some 'birch' foliage which i can lay on or around the trees. also used that in the tall hills.

once they're finalised they'll be getting a spray of clear sealant to stop all the fricken flock dropping off..... ggrrrrrrrr 

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update 2020-10-02

i put some dollops of epoxy on the trunk bases so they're locked in.   then some wood glue and cork 'bobbles'.   then some cork 'grit'.    all of this will get a coat of texture paint so it's just about adding random texture.

Once that's done i'll look at flock and foliages.

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update 2020-10-05

Got a little debris, tufts, and paint on the bases. Light spray highlight from above. Minimal effort involved, then some clear spray.

From afar and under real light they look fine. Not entirely what i had in mind but i don't mind them - sometimes the surprise of how a project turns out is a good thing.

Will drop a pic when i get around to putting them on the table, but otherwise calling it a day on this project.

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update 2020-12-02

I ordered a bunch more of (what looks like) exactly these same trees. Off of ebay this time so there's going to be a massive delay coming in from 'china' or wherever (out to late February was displayed).

2x 40 tree lots.  Figured I wanted the same tree type so i can expand the forest, rather than making something stylistically different again.

So that's 80 trees at 5 trees per stand (average) is an extra 16 stands, giving me 24 all up.  which surely MUST be enough for a full forest effect... and probably overkill.

Will allow me to do some variety in the stands.  at the moment there is 1x 3-tree stands and 2x 6-tree 'J' shaped stands.  Can lash out and make a few more of these non-standards, probably more smaller ones than larger ones as they allow greater flexibility... we'll see. 

A bit of work, but a far distant project at this stage. Should be fun again by the time it rocks around.

Until next time...