Can't See the Forest for the Trees (Part 1)

It's been something of a joke for a while now that desert settings for my table is just my "thang." Whether it's an arid, alien world or simply a trash-filled wasteland, it's just what I've always gravitated towards in my terrain building and my paint schemes.

Deciding that I needed to branch out a bit (and because I didn't want all of my fantasy terrain to be in the desert, too) I tried to break it down into the most crucial elements for each/any setting.

For example, in a desert, I would say that big rocky crags, like you would find on a canyon wall, are the most striking and obvious element to use for non-specific terrain.

So, I began work on two tables:

 - A "green" table, with trees and plant-life
 - A "cyberpunk" table, devoid of typical landscapes tropes in favor of concrete/rust with neon accents

This is the first post in a series about working on the primary element of the "green" table: Some big, badass trees.

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For starters, I went out on Pinterest (which is a fantastic resource for examples) and began a search for cool looking trees on tables. The problem, as I saw it, was that trees in miniature gaming terrain are either too small/dinky, they're unsightly plastic looking things, or they're awesome fixtures of a permanent table. I need something that hits a comfortable middle ground; trees that are big enough to feel important and substantial, and still have a good model-train-feel to them, but that I can move around and set up differently on a gaming surface.

And as luck would have it, I came across this promising tutorial:  https://www.beastsofwar.com/terrain/terrainscaping-awesome-tabletop-trees/

The example picture I originally found on Pinterest

There would be a few changes here and there, but overall I really liked how durable this would be and yet still create a substantial table presence.  A quick trip to Home Depot and HobbyTownUSA later, and it was off to the races.

(I'm not going to re-list everything from the article out here except where there are notable exceptions)

 Having never used spray glue myself, let me first say that I've discovered cheaper = better in this instance. I started out with this expensive, super adhesive blah blah blah... but it sprays very thick and clumpy, and is not ideal for this purpose. I went back and picked up the cheapest can of aerosol adhesive and have been much happier with it!

No! No gloopy jazzm sprayer! No!

 I also decided to pick up some Woodland Scenic armatures along with the flocking material, so I could make some smaller trees with less foliage for variety. (I did get the biggest armatures I could find, though)

These things are sharp on the edges of the plastic when you bend them up! Death by a thousand cuts...

And then, the best discovery of all for regular use of these materials:

So gud.

Seriously, this wood filler is really thick and easy to work with straight from the carton, and it dries very hard even before applying a coat of watered-down-wood-glue to everything. This should be in every terrain builder's inventory.

So here are some progress shots of the first steps, which was mainly just attaching the dowels/armatures to the washers (though I used hot glue rather than the foam padding in the article) and then building up the trunks. I'll save the rest for next time.

Gon' be a big treeeeee...

Don't forget the wood glue over all of the built up trunk when it's finally dry a couple days later!

The next step will involve spraying everything brown, getting the trunks painted up, and then adding some foliage!