And, now for some experimentation with the trees. I found an old plastic sign that looked perfect for a base:
The sign is approximately 8" x 11". It is fairly thick, but can still be cut be scissors.
These are the trees that I am playing with first:
Little did I know that there would be a secret in the selection of these trees...
Here are a few pics taken as I tried to arrange the stumps to be eye-pleasing yet game-worthy:
I settled on the last pic as I thought the others were too dense for easy game-play.
I rounded off the corners and glued the stumps down to the pre-painted side:
Just needs some filler to smooth the stumps into the base and flocking.
And, here is what the nearly finished clump of trees looks like with a Crann Tara musketeer and a Minden mounted officer shown for scale:
I think that it looks about right, and the spacing should allow the troops to move around without too much trouble.
The surprise that I found in the package of trees was not expected - the trees and their stumps are not all the same size. There are two different sizes of mounting pins on the trunks and their associated stumps in the package. It is not a major problem, but a bit of a surprise. I wonder if the newest package of trees - smaller than these - has the same feature.
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Typically, I post pics of my new stuff to the blog, but sometimes I am lax. However, this just arrived:
This is a great item, and I desperately need terrain pieces. Hopefully, I can get these set up in an eye-pleasing way (to the eternal critic - me!) in short order.
Also new:
My first new brushes in ages. These are from Rosemary & Co., a great little brushmaker in the UK. The company was recommended by several painters across different forums, so I jumped in also. The ones with black handles are Kolinsky sable, in sizes ranging from 2/0 to 2, while the fifth one (natural-colored handle) is a sable blend. These brushes are not very expensive, with the average price of the group above - including shipping to the USA - being about $7.50. It is hoped that these new brushes will help with my figure-painting output; they are much nicer than my other brushes!
And now, the not-so-new:
1/72 Nationalist infantry for the Spanish Civil War. My Republicans now have some opposition! One more infantry section, and some heavy weapons, will give me plenty of fodder for some games.
Last, but not least:
(Apologies for the poor pics)
These are the most controversial group of all... 1/56 Savoia musketeers from Crann Tara.
Why are these controversial? They represent the nucleus of yet another project. I appear to be doing some retail therapy on myself, which I usually do not mind but typically it is pointed towards existing projects. Life seems to be a bit outside of my comfort zone at the moment, and that has always led me to think in different directions for my hobbies. Will this new project stick this time? Perhaps, as my lovely wife likes tricornes and the period is more appealing than some others. Right now I am trying to decide on single or element basing for what could be a major set-up.
To add some more controversy - I am intending to use these fine figures for Seven Years' War Russians...
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Continuing the slow progress routine:
Some of my first trees, specifically for Tékumel, with an Ever Present Glory trooper for scale. The trunks need to be coated, the tops need flock, and then basing.
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No gaming table should be without trees. And there is a multitude of good-looking pre-made trees out there of many sizes. But, being short of funds and always desiring a unique look to my projects, I am going to try and build my own.
This is the base material for the trunks/branches. These are cotton pipecleaners, not the nylon ones from the craft store. I bought these many moons ago, and they have been sitting patiently in a box for just this moment.
Contents of the package. There are 32 of them in each package.
Construction of the trunk is simple - just twist three of the pipecleaners together, leaving enough at each end for roots or branches.
These are made with six pipecleaners, mostly to give more branches and to make the trunk bigger. I wish I had included the scale for the pics - maybe next time.
I cut approximately 1 inch off each of these pipecleaners prior to twisting to make some slightly shorter trees.
The next step is to coat the trunks and branches with some modeling paste to stiffen the structure a bit and cover up the obvious nature of the construction.
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