New Forests in 10 mm

After my recent solo game I realised it was time to get some 10 mm trees together for future games, so after spending £7 on 40 very nasty looking trees from Ebay, I set about making them look a bit better.

NE_ 20 MODEL TREES TRAIN RAILROAD DIORAMA WARGAME PARK SCENERY OO SCALE 1:100

Obviously not my photograph, but I forgot to take any pre-work pictures.

First I added card bases.

Then I sculpted round the trunks of the trees with PVA and Das, creating bark effects and smearing the Das onto the base to give it some depth.

I then painted the base and trunk brown, just acrylic emulsion.

Finally I when mad with the extra flock on the trees themselves and also on the bases.

When the flock had dried for a day or two I covered it all in thinned down PVA to made sure it was securely attached.

Some GW Warmaster Orcs to give the idea of scale.

Next I set about making some forest bases to use for these trees and larger woods in games like Kings of War.

These are made from thin sheets of EVA foam sprinkled with flock from Lukes APS, building up from Dark green to Mid green to Bright green. Firstly I painted the foam with full strength PVA and after I had sprinkled I sprayed a few time with watered down PVA to hold in place. 

They were left to dry like the trees and after a day they were ready to use.

The completed woods.

Plus some miniatures for atmosphere.

Flat Development: formally Known as Standees

After my bit of an experiment the other day with a few different Standees, I really hate that term, so from now on I will refer to them as "Flats", I started to think how I could use the idea to help out in any of my games, particularly D&D.

So first off I made 10 Trolls and their bases.I soon realised that I was never going to have to make these 10 bases ever again, which I liked, as in a game of D&D it was very unlikely I would ever field more than 10 such models.

Then it struck me I could use 5 models to create a KOW regiment of Trolls, just have to make a regimental base with slots and away we go. That's for another time though.

Then I needed aChuul for game last week so thought, here's an opportunity to see how well this works I'll make a Flat Chuul or 2, actually I copied the sheet 4 times, but decided 2 was enough for the game.

Larger bases for these, I have only made 5 of these for future use. Interestingly I painted the Trolls with acrylics, GW paints but the Chuul I did with cheap old water colours and were a lot quicker to complete.

Here they are getting to know Teclis, for size.

One thing led to another and I started to think how I could use the Trolls en mass so started to plan a scenario where the Trolls were cast as victims and my PCs would come to their aid and gain there friendship, which could be useful. That way I get to use all 10 Trolls plus their leader, as below. 

Flats all separated, this is another aspect of them I love, they are so easy to store. 

All of it in one simple box, great.

Here are a few WIP shots, so you can see how I made the bases.

In total I made 5 very large

5 cavalry

10 large

15 small

Which I think will do me.

Fresh from the laminator before cut.

I have in the pipeline a Bugbear, Umber Hulk and a Otyugh, should be all done next week.

Saga: Storage Box

For the last week or so I have been making this storage and transport box for my Saga, age of magic models.

There are some bits to finish, mainly the trays I made for the more numerous units aand perhaps some varnish on the inside for protection.

I'm  not entirely sure this is an appropriater colour scheme for the Lords of the Wild, more green I would have thought, but I do have a load of Dark Elves I intend using and this may well be the box for them.

Some WIP pictures for completeness. The latch, most fiddly bit.

It was based on the indispensible Cat Food box, infact it took 2 whole boxes in the end.

Originally as seen here I made the latch all out of card, well it broke as soon as I looked at it, so I went for a more solid manufacture.

The latch itself hasn't changed but the 2 buttons were replaced with a screw put through the card from the inside and the secured with washers, held in place with superglue, then that was worked over with GS to make really strong. Hasn't broken yet, fingers crossed.

Every exposed edge was filled with PVAcrete to strengthen it. 

Looking forward to taking my troops to a game in it.