Hazdrubal’s Wargaming Trees

This is my goto method for making trees for myself and my friends when they ask me to. They are not the most realistic but they are effective and durable, when I take them with me I jam a bunch of them in a plastic bag and when I get to my destination I dump them out and they are good to use.

Materials used:

• 1mm wire.
• 3M Heavy duty scouring pads.
• Hot glue
• Cloth backed tape (I used tape for a hockey stick)
• 1 base per tree (I use a hand cut, roughly circular, 60mm MDF base)
• PVA glue
• Spray paint

Optional

• Spray glue
• Flock (I prefer foam over sawdust).

Start with 3M Heavy Duty Scouring pads, a pair of 3″x5″x7/8″ cost $3.

Cut each pad into rounded rectangles, keep the bigger off cuts. Slice each one almost in half.

Now make the trunk,  cut 4 12″ long piece of wire, fold in half, at the fold bend the wire again approximately 90 degrees (this will be the foot of the tree).

Bind the 4 wires together with the tape to a height of 2″-3″. Bend half of each wire out to form the bottom layer of the tree, then tape another section about 2 more inches, and bend the other 4 wires out to form the upper layer of the canopy alternatively bend 3 and leave one standing up. Bend the end of each branch back on itself .

Attach the tree to its base, I use a generous dollop of hot glue and make roots with beads of hot glue. Add texture to the base.

Coat the trunk of the tree in hot glue and smear it up and down with the side of the nozzle.

I now skip the following step, but I used to cover the trunk in PVA glue and sprinkle sand on it, which when dried i coated in water diluted PVA and let it dry.

Paint the trunk, branches and the base.

Attach the scouring pad blobs to the branches. Apply hot glue in the slit scouring pad and have it bite on the end of the branch.

At this point I spray the scouring pads black, dry brush brown and then apply flock.

OR

Instead of flocking you can just instead dry brush the the scouring pads green and then dry brush a lighter green and then maybe some yellow and call them done. I did that for my local gaming store almost 6 years ago and they still look great.

This is the fastest and easiest (and least realistic looking) trees I make.

I made these trees on a whim, I saw the toilet brushes and thought “Can I make this into a K&M-like tree?”,  so I picked up a few brushes. I made a couple and took them to my FLGS and put them on consignment, where they sat for months. I later collected them from the store and took them to a local gaming convention’s Bring and Buy table (hoping to recoup my investment and if not donate them either to the store or another gaming group in town). I dropped them off at the drop off area and by the time I got into the venue (less then 5 minutes) to my surprise all ten were sold.

Method of construction:

Find a source cheap toilet brushes (I went with a dollar store chain).

Give it a bad haircut (to break up its uniform appearance).

Unscrew your brush head (assuming it does), and bevel the socket where the handle attaches to make it less visible (I glued some Scouring pad to hide it even better)

Cut the handle somewhere between 40mm and 60mm (I used a razor saw)

Optionally drill a hole in the bottom of the handle and another through the middle of your base, counter sink the underside of the base and push a roofing nail through the hole making sure the nail head is flush with the bottom of the base.

Attach your tree to its base with hot glue, use the hot glue to make roots.

Spread hot glue on the trunk and smear it up and down with the side of your hot glue gun’s nozzle.

Paint dark brown with a rattle can.

Flock the canopy (I use spray glue and ground foam foliage), when dry seal with diluted PVA).

Texture base, however you want.

Enjoy.