Trees for Battletech

Being a cheap gamer, I am always looking for ways to get nice looking terrain and scenery for little money.  I've seen pipe cleaner trees many times, and made some in the past from bump chenille.  I didn't like how these turned out, so I'm tackling them in a different way.

I prefer my trees to be based individually and be placed on a template, as I will use them for Battletech and other 6mm gaming.

Unfortunately these pictures turned out terribly, but they will still convey the basic process.

Start off with two regular pipe cleaners.  Brown or black is the best to use, but I've picked up all kinds of colors for very little money, so I will be using a variety.  An advantage to building these trees is that I can grind through TV shows on the DVR with my girlfriend and still get some projects done.

Twist the pipe cleaners together to form the trunk of the tree.  A bit will also be needed to attach the tree to a base.

Loop the long ends back to the trunk.  These loops will form the bulk of the trees branches and foliage.  When I do this I use it to create 4 "branches."  

Loosely twist the loops together to create branches.  

Roll the branches up towards the trunk.  

Use a lighter or other controlled flame to melt the chenille fibers on the trunk.  It stinks and is probably toxic (I'm guessing they are made of polyester), so do what you feel you need to do to protect yourself.  Don't apply too much heat or the fibres will liquify and drip off, leaving just twisted wire.  You want just enough heat to melt the fibers.  If you're really tough you can roll the trunk in your fingers immediately after melting the fibers to smooth it out.  It is hot though and may burn you, so touch at your own risk!

This completes the basic construction of a tree armature.  The steps below will lay out painting and flocking trees.  I am using a red tree as a test because I want to see if I need to dye the odd- colored trees before flocking and painting.  This tree is also a bit bulkier than the one in the example above because an extra pipe cleaner was used in bulking out the branches and foliage.

Start off by painting the trunk.  Use whatever tree colors you prefer.  I am using Delta acrylic paint, Burnt Umber.  This is cheap craft paint readily available at Wal Mart or any craft store (Michaels, Jo Anne Ect., Hobby Lobby, etc.)  I went pretty heavy to soak up and cover the red colors.  Coverage was adequate.

Insert the tree into your preferred base.  In my case I am reusing the bases from my previous tree project.  They are made from 40mm poker chips.  In Minnesota thrift stores always have poker chips, and they go for $1- $3 for 100 of them.  They make great bases for models and terrain.  These chips were primed black and based with my standard mix.  A hole the size of the tree trunk was drilled in the center.  The tree was then super- glued into place.  As you see in the picture the trunk pokes through the base a good amount.  When the glue is dry, clip this off flush with the bottom of the base.

The top of the tree is then coated in a liberal amount of white glue.  I made sure to completely saturate the fibers.  I then rolled it in Woodland Scenics Course Turf, then squished it in.  I then tapped off the excess.  Despite the heavy coverage, the red underneath still shows true.  The fibers will have to be colored ahead of time.  Spray paint might work.  Dyeing it black with watered down paint might work too.  I am going to mix black paint in with the white glue and see if I can dye and glue the turn down at the same time.

A picture of the tree on one of my typical woods templates with a Dragon and Jenner from the Introductory Box Set.  I will post more pictures as the experiments continue.

Future War Commander- 3/15/11

Doug, a friend of ours, had a Future War Commander scenario he needed to playtest for an event this weekend.  Of course we were happy to oblige.  Future War Commander is an excellent game from Specialist Military Publishing.

Todd and Crow took the part of the Renegae Legion, defending their atrillery batteries from an assault by the TOG.  Jeff and I headed up the TOG.  Our goal was to destroy the Legion artillery that had been shelling our forces.  With a Legion fleet in space and heavy AA support guarding the artillery, the only way to take them out is a ground assault.

The city in the center of the board.  Tokens scattered about indicate possible militia units.

The artillery and AA guns are positioned in woods west of the city.

After a some really good (and really unusual) dice rolls from Jeff, the TOG sweeps in from the east and closed with the city on one turn.  Militia armor is spotted and opens fire.

Legion infantry moves in from the west and deploys power armor arond the batteries.

Legion armor crests a hill and lines up shots on the TOG hovertanks in the distance.

TOG medium and heavy tanks begin sieging the city from the north and east.  Militia scramble to defensive positions and return fire.

Casualties begin to mount on both sides.

A close up of the battery defenses.

The defenders of the second battery.

While the TOG armor tangles with the militia in the city, light and medium TOG troop transports sweep south and smash through the front line of the Renegate Legion.  Caution is thrown to the wind as all thoughts turn to completing the mission objective.

Heavy TOG fire softens the first battery's defences.  Another snake eyes command roll allows TOG Centaur troopers to move in and assault the first battery. 

TOG infantry have pushed too far into enemy lines with no support.  The armored units break off their fight with the Renegade militia to defend the infantry's flank from Legion medium tanks.  Militia armor tries to take advantage of the opportunity.

TOG has locked down the center battery, but Legion tanks decimate the light transports as they charge the second battery.

An overview of the late game.  Renegade Legion armor have covered their firing lanes and lay waste to anything that crosses them.  TOG infantry have pushed the Legion out of the center woods, leaving them little chance of saving the battery.

Militia armor mops up the last TOG tank on the east side and prepare to encircle the overwhelmed TOG forces. 

It was a tough scenario, but quite enjoyable.  Jeff and I were unable to destroy the batteries against the numerous and fortified Renegade Legion forces. 

The game has certainly sparked interest in the 6mm Sci Fi stuff again.  I will have to dig through my boxes and see if I can find my half finished army.

Thanks Doug!

 

Lemax Collection Mill Stream

This steam was purchased at a DIY store after Christmas time. The set consists of two Mill Stream sets and one Mill Stream Fork set. The weeks following Christmas and Halloween are a great time to pick this stuff up for next to nothing. As the store I went to was already picked through, I had to bite it and get this stuff for only 70% off before it was gone. Click pictures for a larger view.

The Mill Stream set claims to come with 11(!) pieces. Six of those are little, snow- covered pine trees, two are end caps for the stream and only three are acually river pieces; two straights and one bend. The fork comes with 10 pieces; 6 trees, three caps and 1 fork piece. They are cast in a hard resin or plastic and are fairly heavy and durable. Each piece also has little felt pads on the bottom so they don't scratch or damage your gaming board (or whatever.) Each piece is about 1/2" thick and when all three sets are combined together they stretch just over 4 feet.

Unfortunatly it came with a snow finish. That had to go.

These shots are the pieces before painting. As you might be able to see, the banks of the river are big rocks and boulders covered in snow. There are also tree stumps and branches dotting the banks. The water portion is sculpted to look like moving water, painted and then coated with a clear coat of some kind. The coating is quite soft and sticky and picks up fingerprints easily.

All snow covered areas, tree stumps and branches were hand painted black. The rock and water areas were left as- is. The tree stumps and branches were drybrushed first with a dark brown, then a brown- grey mix and finally a light grey.

White glue was used to adhere the magic ground cover mix to all of the black painted areas. A mix of green course turf and brown fine turf were then applied sporradically on the pieces to break up the uniformity.

The project was simple enough and though it was a bit expensive than I would traditionally have spent on terrian (around $25), it is still cheaper than purchasing a river or stream specifically made for wargaming.

Fields

The fields are based on foamcore with the edges masked off as usual. The walls are plaster casts from the Hirst Arts Castlemolds Fielstone Walls mold. They are simply glued into place with "Tacky" glue; a extra thick white glue.

Incredibly fine sand was glued to the foamcore to represent the soil. I picked this stuff up from my dad. It's normally mixed into stains and varnishes and gives some texture and grip to hardwood stairs. I'm not sure of the brand name. The entire piece was basecoated in black. The walls were drybrushed from dark grey to white and the soil was drybrushed from dark brown to tan.

The bushes are made from bump chenille. It was simply dipped in green dye (made from green paint and water) and immediatly rolled in flock. Once dry they make nice bushes or trees. These were not glued into place in order place units inside the walls.

The entire piece was coated in a thinned mix of white glue to strenghten it. The glue also gave the piece a satin sheen to it, so I have to get a matte spray to dull it down.

Rough Ground

Rough going represents terrain that is hard to move through and fight in, but does not block line of sight.

These templates are made of foamcore. On three of the pieces the edges were cut at an angle to make a smoother transition from terrain to tabletop. The largest piece was left with the edges squared. The edges were taped to protect the exposed foam. Smaller templates were made from thin cardboard as well with the edges masked off as usual.

Small stones were glued in piles on the foamcore templates with white glue. Large glass-type fragments (for fish aquariums) were glued onto the smaller templates in piles.

The rocks were painted black and drybrushed from dark grey to white, except for the large template. The large templates were based in a light brown.

Static grass was glued onto the templates; the larger templates recieving two applications.

The seperatly- based rock piles are placed on the templates to fill them out, but are easily moved around for the placement of troops.

Hills

I've done all kinds of hills, for all sorts of games.  Nothing ever really fancy. 

These hills were made for use in Battletech.  They are simply 3/4" white insulation foam cut to shape with a large razor or box cutter, painted black and flocked.  These are nice because it is obvious where the elevations are, like a contour map.  They are not the most visually appealing.

This hill is made in the same way.  The shapes were cut out using a cheap hot wire cutter from Michaels.  There are layers of 3/4" foam stacked on top of each other; pinned together using toothpicks and glued together with white glue.  The hill was painted black, coated in white glue, and coated in regular old playground sand.  Once dry it was drybrushed progressively lighter shades of brown.

Here are more hills done in a similar style.  The desert ones are made by glueing two 3/4" pieces of white foam together and cutting the shape out with a razor blade.  A hot wire cutter was then used to carve in the rock face.  The hill was painted black, and the rock face was drybrushed. grey and white.  Regular fine terrarium sand was glued to the tops.

These hills are carved from some scraps of 2" thick blue insulation foam, but in all other ways made the same way as the desert ones above.  I much prefer this to the white foam as it doesn't make such a mess when cutting.  Instead of sand on the top I used green ground cover, or flock.

Here is yet another hill with a rock face.  This one is different and has a sloping back side.  Blue or pink insulation foam is good for these kinds of hills because you can rough cut it with a razor or hot wire cutter, then sand it smooth.  The photograph is of some testing I did on this piece by painting the hill green first, and some different types of flock.  It didn't turn out well.  The hill now has my traditional ground cover on it.

The last two examples of hills I have are of more finish, natural flowing hills.  Except for this one:

A 3" piece of pink insulation foam, cut to shape with a razor blade and sanded smooth.  I painted it black, and flocked it wiht my standard mix.  With this piece I also coated the flock with a layer of white glue to make it more durable.  This hill is hard as a rock, and very rough to the touch. 

Here are some smaller hills from blue foam for my 15mm WWII skirmish.