Tabletop Blog 6 - Getting Out into Nature

My lil' dudes might have felt grass and mud under their boots, but when was the last time they saw a tree? Seriously, guys, get out in nature and calm down.

I've been putting off making any trees or shrubs what have you, as buying flock (grass, leaves etc to sprinkle on terrain), wire and clay seemed well, dull. Or rather I'm broke and would rather spend any spare dollars on more models. So, this new terrain is a fun exercise in using what I've got left.

Made great use of some scrap foam from previous builds and haphazardly slapped some trees together. Hot glue and toothpick supports made this quick and rigid. I filled the gaps with multipurpose wall filler and then waited nowhere near enough time for it to dry. I textured them with a pencil and modelling tool, leaving the top most branches to save time, knowing you'll barely seem them.

Then, topped the trees with some wood-wool I picked up randomly at a $2 shop having no clue what to do with it at the time. Well I found a use.

It looks a little jank but once you top it with flock I also bought for $2.5 at the same shop (having recoloured it with paint and water), they looked sick!

On to some quick tents. This is mostly an experiment in using watercolour paint for terrain. I'm loving how easy it is to get gradients and naturally weathered looks, so I figured making some leather should be easy enough.

I took some coffee filters we never use, brown ones at that, perfect. Wet them with a brush, then started dabbing and brushing on browns and blacks to create a leathery look.

Once dry, soaked them in water and PVA and wrapped them around matchstick frames.

Overall, I'm very happy with how this all turned out. The main thing was that it was all very quick and dirty, and I used what I had, so I spent very little extra money.

I’m keen to make some more as more nature adds much-needed atmosphere to my board. So, off to the $2 shop for more random supplies.

Peace.