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.

Woodland Scenics Model Graphics

I love cars, I love car games, and I love collecting Matchbox scale cars.  I've collected a handful of Matchbox highway patrols, and needed a way to make them easily differentiated from each other.  Numbers on the roofs of police cars is not unheard of, making them easily identifiable to air units.  A friend had success with some water slide transfers he had lying around, but unfortunately I didn't have that luxury.

I stopped by my local hobby shop for glue yesterday and decided to see what they had available for transfers.  I found these:

These are dry transfer decals, meaning you rub the graphics onto the surface you want to apply to, versus the waterslide or a sticker.  I've worked with dry transfer before, but was hesitant because of the high gloss surface of the Matchbox cars.  The pack was $7, so I thought I'd give it a try.

This particular pack is MG727 No. Gothic, R.R.- White.  As you can see the numbers come in a variety of sized.  Woodland Scenics makes other packs in different fonts, colors, and text.

Application is very simple, and detailed instructions are available on the back of the package.  I simply cut out a pair of numbers, removed the protective backing, lined it up on the roof of the police car, and burnished it with the end of a crochet needle.  You do need to hold the transfer in place to keep it from sliding around during application.  Also, the spacing of the numbers on the sheet were satisfactory to me so overall alignment of the transfers was easy.

The drawback to these numbers is they are kind of fragile.  I messed up a transfer, and easily scraped the part that did adhere with my nail.  A sealant is highly recommended.

It looks like I have a few Dodge tampos to remove from these cars.  This is easily done with a cotton swab soaked in a bit of non- acetone nail polish remover gentry rubbed over the tampo, then dried with a clean swab.