Orion's Custom Terrain-Birch's & more

[orion1212]

Here is my first batch of birch trees that I made, pretty simple process and used inexpensive material. It might not be 100% correct for how birch trees naturally look, was using it more as inspiration for my type of tree.
Still needs to be cleaned up a tad to my liking but let me know about ideas for improvement. I havent figured out rules yet for the trees as far as blocking movement or cover. The stands of 4 trunks really work well to hide units in.
SET1 "birch trees": see below
SET2 "in the woodworks": http://www.heroscapers.com/community...t=35543&page=2
Mats:
wooden dowels and wooden bases
hot glue + glue gun
cheapo paints (white, grey, brown)
woodland scenics foliage clumps and flocking

[Kaemon Awa 123]

Wow, that is quite possibly the best first post I have ever seen, I'm a little bit ashamed for my 1/2 way good army suggestion now...

Now, focusing on the terrain, those look great, although I'm not sure what birch trees look like either

[Farmer_Poopy]

Nice, did you make the trees from scratch? or buy them then stuck em to bases? Also I'm pretty sure Birch trees are endangered so those guys better be careful they don't knock one down or the Gov't will be after em :P

[lefton4ya]

Some images from google search for comparison:


Nice Job! Don't know how much they will prevent line-of-sight, but they sure do look pretty. Maybe when you stand by them you get -1 to attack and defense because you are in awe of their presence, and you put them in choke-points and on high-points.

[Kaemon Awa 123]

Originally Posted by Farmer_Poopy

Nice, did you make the trees from scratch? or buy them then stuck em to bases? Also I'm pretty sure Birch trees are endangered so those guys better be careful they don't knock one down or the Gov't will be after em :P

What? Oh, darn, birch wood sounds cool when it burns...

[delphic]

One of the best looking and original tree customs I have seen.

Are they stable on the small bases?

Cheers,

Delphic

[polarcow]

Really cool trees!!

[orion1212]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys!
@farmer yes they were custom built from scratch using the materials listed in the post, you might be able to see some of the materials hanging around on my workbench if you look closely. Variations include 3 or 4 trees per stand and about 4 figures tall and 2 figures tall.

@left individually they make it hard to see a unit but if you put them directly next to each other, for example when fighting in a dense forest they work well to completely obscure units from sight(can be done by twisting them to block or not block). Also I like to use them to block off panels that are at a lower height, so that heroes cannot jump off at certain places.

@delphic the trees definately need some stability work, had I used a clay casino chip for a base as suggested elsewhere in the forum I think they would be more stable. I have tried weighting them with minor success using coins. The other option you have is to combine multiple stands together and use a much larger base such as a 7 or 3 hex size wood base and making a stand with 12-20 trees on it. My goal for this build was to have a modular unit construction so that they can be used in a manner of ways. Also it really depends on the height and angle of the trees when you base them.

PS more projects on the way such as encampments, walls, and cover tiles. If anyone knows a tutorial for sandbags that works well let me know!

[delphic]

I suppose gluing them directly to terrain might work too.
But Terrain is such a precious commodity.

If your not going to eat them some craft stores sell lead. That would make them stand up. Your local steel fabricators might also have steel disks as scrap from punching, they might just let you take what you want or pay by the pound.

Scrap Steel is worth about $0.15 a pound, new steel is around $0.50 a pound.

You could also use coins or steel disks and a strong magnet to better secure them to the terrain.

More variation in flocking colours might also give a leaves in the wind look to the trees. The under side of leaves are usually not as dark.

Looking forward to your next Custom Project.

Delphic

[orion1212]

@delphic: thanks for the tips about the weights, definitely have to figure something out for weighting those. Not sure if there is a machining place around here, but I can check. I used the darker flock to kind of fake shadow such as the tree canopy blocking out the sun on the lower grass. I didn't want to use the same color flocking as was used on the tiles to make it really look like different terrain. I might experiment with either flocking the foliage or using two types of foliage to account for more variations in the canopy and ground, thanks for the advice though!

[Arrow Grut]

Amazing +REP!!!

POST 600!!!!!!!!

[DeathByUtgar]

great stuff!