Sharp Practice - ACW for Pennies on the Dollar.

Hi everyone,

This project marches on, but I have been focusing on terrain a bit more than the miniatures for the moment. The next type of terrain I focused on are trees.

Like the buildings and fences, I went with the same philosophy – if possible, use materials I already have and try to build the trees as cheaply as possible.

Like most gamers and hobbyists, I never throw anything away (a habit I am trying to break), and I had a lot of foam from blister packs and various other items.

About two years ago I saw a Youtuber make trees from foam pieces, but unfortunately I do not remember who he is.

Therefore I set my mind to replicate his process and make a bunch of 1/72 scaled trees from foam and kebab skewers.

The first step is to tie three skewers together with fine aluminum wire.  I had bought a roll of wire several years ago from a crafts shop. These will act as the trunks of the trees.

Next is to glue these trunks to bases and give them several light layers of Polyfilla, art stucco, or art modelling paste.  Whatever you have.  I used stucco mixed with some light very fine sand.  I gave the trunks three thin coats.

After the stucco had dry, I pinched out a lot of foam pieces and glued them to the trunks.  I have seen very talented hobbyist make trees of various shapes and species.  Personally, I just wanted trees to play with.  I wasn’t too interested in the artistic side of the process.

After the glue has dried, you might want to trim down the sharp edges of the foam with a pair of sharp scissors to give the tree a more appealing form.

If you used white, cream or light coloured foam, you can dip the foam into diluted paint before attaching the foam.  In my case, this would not work because the foam was dark grey.

Therefore, I had to first paint the foam white, then paint it green.  The foam absorbs a lot of paint, so I used very cheap acrylics bought from the 2 Euro Shop.

The trunk was painted light grey, then I gave the trunks several washes with cheap homemade brown washes.  You can also use Contrast or Speed paints at this stage as well.

Leave everything to dry for at least a day or two.  The spongy foam absorbs  a lot of water and paint and needs to dry properly.

When everything had dried properly, I started flocking the trees.  The first coat of flock was glued on with PVA glue.  Mix 50% PVA to 50% water and give the foam a generous coat, then sprinkle the first layer of leaves.  This gives a solid covering  that will not fall off easily.

I then gave the trees a second covering of flock.  I do this by spraying the trees with hairspray and adding the second layer of flock.

I do this step again for a third time, but lightly flocking with lighter green leaves – just to give the trees some colour dimension.

When the hairspray has dried properly I gave the trees a wash of scenic glue to solidify the whole thing.  You can also use spray adhesive – but this might prove expensive.

That’s it.  I hope this post gives you some ideas of your own to make cheap but very presentable gaming terrain.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR