My wargames tables are a little bare in terms of vegetation. I have plenty of hard structures (containers, buildings, vehicles), but little soft cover apart from reindeer moss bushes and my hundred plus little conifers (as seen below). I'm suffering from the same problem as early seasons of the X-Files or Stargate SG1 - all my games appear to be set in Canada!
 |
| The ubiquitous coniferous forest. |
To remedy this, I'm working on a few projects. First, some palm trees for my desert scenery. I found these in the local cake craft shop. At about 15p each, they're pretty good value and each consists of 2 bendy plastic trees.
 |
| You don't need to be a palm reader to see the future of these trees... |
They could have been made for 15mm figures, ideal for my needs! I'll be mounting them on bases either individually or in their pairs. I don't think they need any paint, the colours are pretty good as they are.
 |
| Just the right scale for 15mm! |
Some hedges will come in handy for my rural temperate terrain and also for some urban settings. The humble pan scourer will provide the basic structure for these.
 |
| You can't go wrong with a pan scourer hedge. |
I'll have 2 sizes, the first being a low hedge to provide limited cover from which to fire.
 |
| Small hedges to shoot over. |
Larger hedges will provide complete cover and therefore a means for zombies and such like to get nice and close to their targets without being seen and/or shot.
 |
| Large hedges to give full cover and hide movement. |
I have a bag of fine shredded foam "turf" which should cover the scourers quite well. My initial hedges are fairly neat but I'll also do some more straggly and unkempt ones for the wilder areas.
I didn't bother flocking my scourer hedges. I bought green scourers and then dry brushed them a lighter shade or two. Less messy, cheaper and IMHO it looks better too...
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure if they'd look a bit too neat without any flock at all but I'll certainly try some this way too. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteVery nice they look great.
ReplyDeleteThe palm trees look to be a very nice find and to finish them off i would give the trunks a quick paint wash and light dry brush.
ReplyDeleteOn your suggestion I've given them a sepia ink wash and I'll do a quick drybrush too. Wasn't sure how well the ink would stick to the shiny plastic but it has passed the "rub it hard with my thumb" test.
DeleteGood Idea for hedges, do you base the hedges or do they stand up pretty well on there own?
ReplyDeleteThey stand up reasonably well but I probably will give them some sort of base anyway. I might just use a small washer or two just to add weight at the bottom.
Delete