superfrog's custom terrain ($12 jungle tutorial)

[superfrog]

Hey folks!

I'm not sure how often I'll post in this thread, but I recently made a custom jungle set and was really pleased with how it turned out. It's heavily based on Grishnakh's custom jungle, but with a few modifications. So, here it is:

Materials:
1 cardboard box (shipping box cardboard, not cereal box cardboard)
6 twist ties, preferably green (you can steal these from the produce section at your local grocery store)
1 piece of cardstock, 8.5"x11"
3 green markers, or to taste
1 Naturally Coiled Wire by Ashland or Panacea Naturally Wired Wire (this is enough to make 2-3 sets)
1 each Top Fin Betta Grass and Top Fin Betta Plant
1 super glue tube
1 roll of tape
1 wire cutters or heavy duty scissors
1 pointy object (I use nail scissors)
1 brown paint, or to taste

Directions:

1. Cut each twist tie into 4 pieces. You'll now have 24 short lengths.


2. Use a glyph to trace and cut out 18 hexes from the cardboard. These should be slightly larger than a glyph.


3. Cut 15 pieces of wire that are each about 9 inches. That's slightly longer than the width of a piece of paper and slightly shorter than 6 cardboard hexes.


4. Cut 4 holes in one of your cardboard hexes with your pointy object.


5. Remove one of the plants from its sprue(?) and attach it to a twist tie as shown.


6. Thread the twist tie through the hole and bend the top and bottom parts back towards the center of the hex.


7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 with three other plants (two of each plant per hex, on opposite corners).

8. Tape down the twist ties on the bottom. I'm not sure this is necessary, but I do it anyway.


9. Get a new unpunched hex and tape that to the current hex on each of its 6 sides.


10. Paint the cardboard so it doesn't look so ugly.

11. Repeat steps 4-10 five more times.

12. Cut a hole in the middle of a cardboard hex as shown.


13. Bend 5 wires into long L-shapes as shown.


14. Starting with 2 and adding one at a time, twist your wires together about halfway up the length of the wire.


15. Stick the 5 top ends through the cardboard hex with the hole, and bring that all the way down to the bottom.


16. Bend over the tops as shown, and tape a new cardboard hex to the bottom as with the bushes. Trim the wire at the bottom if necessary so that it doesn't stick out the sides of your hex.


17. Cut a leaf shape out from your cardstock, create a center crease, and color it green. (Both sides).


18. Cut some slits (all the way to the center crease), and add some other colors to taste.


19. Apply super glue to the branch and then attach your leaf (start at the middle and then work your way to the end).


20. Repeat steps 17-19 four more times.

21. Paint the cardboard so it doesn't look so ugly.

22. Repeat steps 12-21 two more times.

23 (Optional). Get these super cool hex attachers from White Knight so your trees stop falling over.