Majestic Evergreens of the Pacific North West

[Hoth_902]

After a long and exhausting search, for 6mm tree tutorials, I stumbled across something from Little Wars TV. They make Evergreen stands from Carykon Pipe Cleaners. The back comes with about 100 of these things and each piece will make about 8 full evergreen trees. So you can get about 800 out of a pack for just under 10 bucks. The tutorial is linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnpKt-5kwwY

After a long dry spell, of little to no hobby merriment, I finally got some time to start this project that I have been wanting to do for sum time. Truth be known, I had to muster the courage. As is always the case, my hype turned out to be far from reality on how hard this would be. the pictures below is the first step to trying the method that Little Wars TV lays out. O and it is as easy as it looks in the video. See below.






Step one complete. One thing I am not sure of, do I want to make small stands that can be put together into a larger forest that vehicles and men can move through, or make thick dense ones where if you are on the edge of the woods, you are technically in the woods or a mixture of both. I guess that some stands can be big and thick so vehicles can't pass. Let me know what you think.

[Cav Dog]

Nice forest!

i've been making tree out of bump chenille for years using a similar technique. The ones below are on a Bulge Board I made a while back. Probably has 700 trees on it.



They started out bright green and after shaping them with white glue for strength, I painted them by dipping them in evergreen craft paint, "planted" them to let them dry and then added the snow with Woodland Scenics flex paste.

[pmskaar]

Those look very good, Cav Dog! I used a similar method making conifers for my Terrain Maker a few years back.

[Hoth_902]

Cav Dog,

Beautiful looking forest. I feel like I am in the upper Cascades of Washington state. Does the Bump Chenille come with the bristles spread out like that or do you thing them out. Also, is that a permanent board or can you move the forest around. I decided to go with the heavy cardboard base to be able to move things around and change the configuration. If I ever get to play a game anytime soon.

Also, for gaming purposes, how do you handle infantry moving through a large stand of trees. More specifically, if it takes several turns to move through the woods, how do you mark where they are. I know that vehicles would not be able to move through some of the areas without trails.

[Cav Dog]

The bump chenille looks like your trees but to get that more distinctive branches look, you put a couple of drops of white glue on the bristles and then run a pair of tweezers up and down while twisting the trunk until you get the distinct branches you want. A couple of passes usually does it. These particular trees are glued in place because that board is for a specific scenario with the forests corresponding to the map of the battlefield. Infantry stands do fit down between the trees in some locations but again, a lot of the forests in Belgium were not passable, even to infantry on foot due to thick underbrush and snow drifts.

I do have some terrain pieces with similar trees that can be moved around as well.

I think there is a pictorial of a Parker's crossroads scenario I ran on these boards on the AARs: show us your games thread.

[redleg]

I love them trees you guys! I was almost convinced to try to make some individual trees, but then when see you guys have entire forests put together I get intimidated! They look great! I have also often wondered what is the best way to replicate a forest while still being able to move infantry counters or vehicles through.

[BurtWolf]

Bump chenille is the way to go, I have been doing that method for years. Finding the right base color can be a challenge, I try to avoid adding paint to them in the interest of time. The ones that come with GHQs terrain maker are spot on.

[Hoth_902]

I am going to give a shot at trying to get the color close. Then I am going to put turf on the base. My first attempt at terrain.