"Many of those trees were my friends!"

Wargaming terrain is something I've never really done a whole lot of. I suppose I've never really had the interest or wherewithal to work on it until now. But after seeing what awesome work my friend Ben has done with trees (here and here), I've been inspired to steal the idea try it out for myself.

Here are the results!

The project started off with a pack of Woodland Scenics evergreen trees and round wood bases from Michaels. After sanding the edges smooth, the "trunks" were glued to the base, which in turn was coated with Golden's coarse pumice gel (I love this stuff!). I managed to find some twigs in the back yard that looked like fallen branches, so they were added to the base as well. Everything was allowed to dry overnight before priming.

I then coated the "dirt" with a dark coat of brown paint, which was then drybrushed with a lighter color. The grass was then added and the whole thing was sprayed with a sealer. The trees were then finally glued into the stumps, and everything was good to go!

Here are the trees in comparison to a 28mm Warlord Napoleonic Polish Vistula officer. Pretty good, if I do say so myself!

Overall, this was a fun and quick little project. I can't wait to do some more of these in the very near future! They'll be done with different styles of trees to add a bit of variety.

Civil War Medical Diorama: Part II

Things are progressing on the diorama!

I hit Michaels yesterday before class and picked up some parts for the base. Since the dimensions of the display case are a bit odd, I had to assemble five different pieces of wood in order to get the needed size. Elmer's Wood Glue is holding it all together quite well, but to be safe I also put some foam core underneath to add a bit more stability. Then came the fun part: letting it all dry overnight.

Wood glue was liberally used to connect the boards. But after watching reruns of "the Red Green Show" on YouTube, though, I think duct tape would've also worked.

Having let the glue set for 24 hours, I picked the project up again today. I went about attaching a ReadyGrass vinyl mat from Woodland Scenics. Worried that the spray adhesive wouldn't be enough to keep it from rolling up and/or peeling, I also used a staple gun to secure things. These staples will eventually be covered up by figures and other bits of terrain.

MORE STAPLES!!!

The base will installed in the exhibit room this coming weekend, and all the figures will be placed in the following weeks. The exhibition is set to open at the end of the month, so there's still quite a lot of work that needs to be done (and on top of school and work commitments to boot). I'm already exhausted just thinking about it all.

Also, our dining room table is a mess. But thankfully my girlfriend is very understanding and is letting me keep it like this for a bit longer. It's easier than continually taking the paints out and then putting them away again after a few hours.

Well, that's all for now! I'll try to get a post up about my latest figures some time tomorrow morning. Please keep checking back for updates, and thank you for looking!