TUT: How to make trees by Leifkicker

[Leif Kicker]

With the recent news of WOTC taking over Heroscape we also learned that there are some snags in the jungle expansion. So to tide you over until the figure out how to get official trees in our hands here is a small tutorial.


To start take a square of tinfoil and wad it up into a tree like form.


Wrap the tinfoil tree armature with wire. Each wire end will represent a "bunch" of tree limbs/leaves


Here is a pic of what I recommend you using for your leaves. I picked this up at Michaels for about $10.00, there is plenty here for a forest of trees.


I pulled of a dozen or so of the plant parts. Notice the small hole at the end. This is the hole we will use to thread onto the wire.


Here I have threaded about 4 of the plastic plants parts onto the wire. After you thread the pieces wrap the extra length of wire back around the plastic leaves and back down the tinfoil




Super glue the tree onto a heroscape tile. You can mash the bottom of the tree and rub it back on forth on the table top to make a nice flat surface on the bottom to glue to the tile.


Next we will cover the tree in apoxie clay, here are some shots of the clay. This apoxie clay is pretty tacky but can that can be overcome by keeping your fingers and tools damp through out handling.





After you mix the clay cover the tree evenly


Using a tool with a slightly rounded end I added texture to the tree to resemble bark by dragging the tip about 1/8 of an inch each stroke. I repeated the process around the tree.




Using the other flat pointed end of the tool I made some roots and some other tree textures.



When the tree is done to your approval let it set and cure for a couple of hours until the clay has started to firm and wont mash when you handle it. Then you can flock around the base.






And here you have a tree ready to paint to your liking.


Here are some finished trees









Thanks for looking!

Trav

[NecroBlade]

[Cavalier]

Amazing!

Thanks for the tutorial!!!

[Rythos]

As always your work never dissapoints.

Ry

[Grishnakh]

Nice work! It's funny, I was just in Michael's yesterday looking through all of the artificial plants to do pretty much the same thing as you did. The only thing I might add is to watch the scale. The leaves of the plants have to be as small as you can get them or you'll be unhappy with the results. There's a lot of great stuff to be found in pet stores, mainly aquarium plants. Their leaves tend to be smaller.

[robbdaman]

One tip I've learned for using Apoxie or any putty is to work with it underwater like in a deep sink or even a tupperware container. Keeps it from sticking and works well for me.

R~

[Mythic]

Next we will cover the tree in apoxie clay, here are some shots of the clay. This apoxie clay is pretty tacky but can that can be overcome by keeping your fingers and tools damp through out handling.

Thanks for the tutorial.

Where do you get the apoxie clay and how much does it cost?

[zanter]

Hail, custom terrain king.

[Leif Kicker]

www.avesstudio.com

[robbdaman]

How does that stuff compare to Green Stuff or Brown Stuff? What is the level of hardness?

R~

[Leif Kicker]

I have only used green stuff. I feel they are close to the same in how you work with it and strength but its been a bit since I've used the green stuff.

[Hex_Enduction_Hour]

Gorgeous and very informative.
Thanks, Leif!