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Trees and Hills Terrain pieces that look good and are easy to make? Sign me up for some of that action! Forest terrain really helps the battlefield look good, whether it's just a couple of trees or an entire jungle. The branches and leaves help give an organic look to the battlefield, plus they are good cover. Hills also really help to dress a gaming table. By adding elevations, they add both to the visual effect and to the tactical possibilities. However, there are considerations that go into the making of any terrain for a wargame, from the aesthetic to the practical. Can't see the forest for the trees. Trees really need bases in 40k or Fantasy, so you can have a definitive line of what is Forest and what is not, to avoid arguments. Forests also need to allow movement through them, otherwise you'll have nowhere to put your models. While I have seen simple scraps of green felt used as forest bases, it leaves out the trees and doesn't look as good. It works okay, as long as you don't forget there's supposed to be a forest there. On the other hand, if you have too many trees in your forest, you'll never be able to fit those units through it to get to the other side, and may the Emperor save you if you have a combat in the middle of the forest! When creating a forest base, you need to strike a balance between having no trees and too many trees. Depending on the base size, I feel that 2-4 trees is about the right amount. They give enough room to move most units, but still make the area obviously a forest. While you could use a single tree on a base the size of a CD, let's face it, one tree does not a forest make. Along similar lines, you'll need to strike a balance when it comes to base size as well. In my opinion, anything smaller than a CD isn't really terrain, as there isn't enough of it to hide behind or really make anyone maneuver around it. On the other hand, if it's larger than an 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, it's going to really crowd the table, leaving less room for models or other terrain. You don't need to put the great forest all on one base, even if you want to use it as one piece. Sticking several (or many more) forest bases near each other gives the same effect as having single, huge forest, but it gives more flexibility for when you do want less forest. The bases I've found to work best are 4-8 inches wide and about 6-10 inches long. For the same reasons as the under-CD sized forests not being useful, I find that oval shapes are the best for forest bases. They provide a good screening wall without taking up quite as much space as a very large circle or square. What trees to use. You can make your own or buy some at a hobby store. I bought some that are often used in model railroading. The main trees come in one piece, and they give you a bunch of colored sponge material for the foliage. Basically, you put some glue on the areas of the branches where you want to have leaves. Then you take bits of the green sponge and put them in place. I'd recommend gluing only a small portion of the tree at a time, as otherwise the glue may dry before you are finished or the foliage may slide off of the still wet glue. There are also single piece trees that come with the foliage attached. Most of the ones I've seen look a little too uniform, though you could try pulling off bits of foliage here and there to make them less uniform. If you want to make your own, here's how: Take 8-12 strands of fine wire about 5-8 inches long and twist them together a little below the middle. Splay the strands on the bottom so that they radiate outward in a flat circle. These are your roots. You can twist a few of them together as well to form larger roots and give a more varied appearance in your trees. Splay a few of the top strands out, then twist the others together, then splay a few more out, etc. The idea is to have a series of twists and splays so that you have fewer and fewer strands of wire as you go up. Once this is complete, you may want to wrap the trunk (including the upper areas between the splaying) with tape to provide a flatter surface for paint. Add foliage in the same way as above. When you are basing these trees, make sure you get flock or paint over the top of the roots. That will leave radiating root shapes in the ground and add to the natural effect. Forest bases look, well, natural, or at least they should. In natural forests, it's not just trees out there. You'll find some rocks and fallen branches or trees. You'll usually also find smaller bushes and vines and things. While you don't necessarily need to go whole hog here, a little bit of variety is good. Add a couple of rocks and a fallen tree (perhaps a twig from the yard) to the base, and try to get a little bit of shrubbery. Again, not much, perhaps a single bush or maybe two, just to add verisimilitude. In addition, remember that trees are rarely neatly spaced in nature. If you've got 3 trees on a base, clump two of them together, and put the other one on the far side of the base. Okay, so you've got a base of a size you like. You've also got a few trees plus a fallen tree, 3 stones and a small bush. You are set. First off, paint the base green. This will make flocking coverage easier. Now you can glue down all the stuff you are going to put on the base. After the glue has had a chance to dry a bit, put down some watered-down white glue and pour some green flock over it. Let the glue sit for a minute, then pour off the excess. If there are patches without flock, you can either re-apply watered down glue and flock again, or you could paint that as a patch of bare dirt, or even put another stone down there. Voila`, a forest! Lather, rinse, repeat, then play. The hills are alive with the sound of gunfire Okay, so now we've got some forests to liven up the table, let's further improve the table by creating some different elevations to play around with. A short hill can provide a little better line of sight, or it can be used for cover. A taller hill will give better options for line of sight and can be used to block line of sight as well. Hills don't necessarily need their own base, since it is pretty obvious where the hill starts and stops. Unless you are planning on a really large hill, or a really tall one, use sizes similar to the forest bases above. Step to it Although hills don't typically have steps in nature, this is almost mandatory for a Wargaming board. If you have a steep enough slope to get even a medium height for a hill, most models will simply fall right off the side. If you put steps on the hill, you can avoid this. Just make sure that the steps are 1-1.5 inches wide in most areas, so they can support models effectively. To make the steps seem a little more natural, you can slightly round the lip of the step and fill in a tiny amount of the seam between one step and the next with something to give a slightly more natural appearance. The easiest way to make a hill is to use Styrofoam and a Wonder Cutter or similar tool. The heated wire goes smoothly through the Styrofoam and leaves little to no mess. If all you have is a knife, you can use that instead, but it creates a bigger mess and isn't as smooth. Whichever way you do it, be safe. Cut away from your body, protect your work surface if it needs protecting (don't cut into the coffee table) don't run with scissors, yada, yada. Cut the Styrofoam at an angle, about 60 degrees is good. Cut a large circle or oval out and lay it on your work surface. If you only want a small hill, you are done. If you want higher hills, you'll need to make more, but make each one smaller so that you have that 1-1.5 inch step to place models. When cutting out successive tiers of the hill, remember that, just like trees, hills are not uniform. Go ahead and make the successive steps a slightly different shape from the others. Perhaps even leave a side where there is no step, just a steep slope from the ground to the top of the hill. If you want to take your hill to the next level for appearance purposes, this would be where to add a scree slope of little rocks and things. Also note that a few rocks here and there help improve the appearance of your hill. When painting Styrofoam, remember that spray paint will melt it, so either brush paint it or give it a solid basecoat of Chaos Black or even just a coating of watered down white glue before you spray. If you have a scree slope, or other area of bare earth, either avoid painting it now or paint over it later. Once it is painted, flock it. Use watered down white glue, then pour green flock over it. Once it has dried for a few minutes, pour off the excess. It's pretty easy to put together a bunch of hills once you've gotten the hang of the process, so get out there and make some cool terrain, then send me pictures! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |