I've had these trees for a while now (Thank you, Colin!) but until recently I've not had much reason to do anything with them. However, Orange Dave and I are looking to begin a series of games in North Africa... Monty versus Rommel of course! This nicely aligns with the forthcoming Warlord/Osprey title The Western Desert. Anyway, it gave me the spur to get them based up. They range in height from 4cm to approx 22cm.
To give the larger trees a firm fixing to the bases I found some 12mm flat headed nails. These were glued to the round bases with Araldite. The smaller palms were glued directly to the bases.
Work in progress. I trimmed the bases of the larger palms so be flat then carefully drilled a hole up the stem. The tree could then be glued on to the nail.
Some blu-tak helps to keep them in just the right position whilst the glue dries.
Here are the larger bases with trees in situ. As I mentioned in the title, the multi-bases are from Charlie Foxtrot Models, including one of the oasis tree bases.
The oasis base has a piece of clear plastic, so the base beneath is painted in a range of dark-to-mid blues, starting with Foundry French Blue, then highlights of Foundry Deep Blue shade and mid. You could just as easily paint this a muddy brown colour but after seeing some similar pieces on a table at the recent Bovington show I opted for blue.
As with my other (deciduous) tree bases I textured the bases before gluing the multi-base 'upper' to the lower section. It's the same mix of stones, coarse grit, sand and fine grit. I also pre-stressed the bases beforehand to avoid any warping.
I had a slight hiccup with the oasis... I glued the upper then, using a couple of spots of super glue, I fixed the clear plastic in place. All fine so far. Then when I applied the slightly watered PVA for the sand and grit, some of the glue seeped under the edge of the plastic! So, to hide this, I extended the banks on to the plastic. I think it will look okay.
Now for the painting. I started with a base coat of Americana Country Maple, then a highlight of Americana Tan, followed by VMC Dark Sand and a final very light highlight of Foundry Boneyard light.
Yes, the oasis is looking okay.
The painting finished, it was out with the tufts and clump foliage.
Here's a close up
To keep the very arid look I decided against any static grass and instead added a few extra dried out looking tufts.
I'm hoping to be able to make the following items of terrain for the start of our North Africa campaign.
Hope you found that interesting and/or useful.
To give the larger trees a firm fixing to the bases I found some 12mm flat headed nails. These were glued to the round bases with Araldite. The smaller palms were glued directly to the bases.
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| These are not improvised caltrops! |
Work in progress. I trimmed the bases of the larger palms so be flat then carefully drilled a hole up the stem. The tree could then be glued on to the nail.
Some blu-tak helps to keep them in just the right position whilst the glue dries.
Here are the larger bases with trees in situ. As I mentioned in the title, the multi-bases are from Charlie Foxtrot Models, including one of the oasis tree bases.
The oasis base has a piece of clear plastic, so the base beneath is painted in a range of dark-to-mid blues, starting with Foundry French Blue, then highlights of Foundry Deep Blue shade and mid. You could just as easily paint this a muddy brown colour but after seeing some similar pieces on a table at the recent Bovington show I opted for blue.
As with my other (deciduous) tree bases I textured the bases before gluing the multi-base 'upper' to the lower section. It's the same mix of stones, coarse grit, sand and fine grit. I also pre-stressed the bases beforehand to avoid any warping.
I had a slight hiccup with the oasis... I glued the upper then, using a couple of spots of super glue, I fixed the clear plastic in place. All fine so far. Then when I applied the slightly watered PVA for the sand and grit, some of the glue seeped under the edge of the plastic! So, to hide this, I extended the banks on to the plastic. I think it will look okay.
Now for the painting. I started with a base coat of Americana Country Maple, then a highlight of Americana Tan, followed by VMC Dark Sand and a final very light highlight of Foundry Boneyard light.
Yes, the oasis is looking okay.
The painting finished, it was out with the tufts and clump foliage.
Here's a close up
To keep the very arid look I decided against any static grass and instead added a few extra dried out looking tufts.
I'm hoping to be able to make the following items of terrain for the start of our North Africa campaign.
- Two 4' x 3' sand textured boards painted in the same style as the palm tree bases - this will depend upon whether I can get a suitable base colour mixed at the local DIY store to match the Country Maple.
- 2-3 sand dunes - I have a large-ish piece of one inch blue styrofoam that would be perfect for the project.
- Some areas of broken ground using rocks, filler, etc.
- An ancient ruined temple using some splendid resin pillars I picked up at Bovington.
Hope you found that interesting and/or useful.
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