Lately, I've been upgrading my terrain, using ideas from different sources. Model railroad and diorama guides have been helpful and I also have used many of the ideas in the terrain section of Fire & Fury.
In fact, Fire & Fury inspired me when I wanted to build a lot of trees fast. The rulebook suggests using the pompoms off old bedspread trim. Not having such a bedspread handy, I began looking around for other options.
Down at the craft section of the local department store, I found some one-and-a-half inch styrofoam "snowballs." They were just what I needed to make my trees. By putting them together with some nails, washers, a bit of cardboard and the ever-useful acrylic latex spackle, I generated a bunch of useful and quite sturdy trees for my gaming table.
What do you need to do this? As many snowballs as you want trees, and an equal number of nails and washers. I use one-and-a-half inch roofing nails. The broad head helps hold the nail securely in glue. I based the trees on half-inch flat washers I bought individually at the local hardware store.
These tress are easy to make and actually look better if they are not handled too carefully while under construction. In other words, sloppy actually turns out to be better than neat. There's only one step in the process where you must be somewhat careful about handling these trees.
Here's how to make them:
Having assembled the needed parts as noted above, use one of the washers to draw cardboard circles for each of the trees. Cut out the circles and glue them to the bottom of the washers. When those are sufficiently dry, glue a nail on the cardboard, with the point sticking up through the washer. Let dry thoroughly. Now is a good time to trim the cardboard circle with a pair of scissors if necessary.
After that assembly has dried, press a styrofoam ball on the tip of the nail to the desired height of the tree. Remove the ball, put glue on the nail point and replace the ball. Let dry.
Fill the recess in the washer with spackle and spread some of it onto the washer to simulate roots if you wish. Dab some of the spackle on the nail-trunk. Be sloppy. When it dries, the irregular texture will duplicate tree bark nicely. Once again, let everything dry.
Now spray paint the tops of the tree with green paint and roll the tops in some flocking. Blow off he excess and seal with a matte spray. Here's the only time you need to be cautious about handling your trees. The matte spray will cause a chemical reaction and the styrofoam will shrink somewhat, losing its perfectly round shape. But while this is happening, the paint, flocking, and matte will form a loose envelope around the remaining styrofoam. That envelope is easily torn or damaged, until it dries thoroughly, by which time it will have shrunk to make a tight bond with the styrofoam. Letting things dry overnight at this stage is a good idea.
Now paint the trunk of the tree brown and dry brush with gray. I also like to highlight the tops of the trees with yellow or light brown drybrushed on the flocked balls. I now paint the base (the top of the washer) a light brown and add flocking for ground cover.
That's all there is to it. It's easy to make a lot of trees in a short period of time with this method. Cost of the materials runs about 25 cents a tree. The snowballs cost about $2 for a package of a dozen.
Terrain, however, is like rules, and not everyone likes the same thing. These trees are a bit stylized and they may not be to everyone's taste. But if you are looking for a quick way to make a lot of trees, I think you'll be satisfied with this method. They seem especially good for orchards.
Copyright 1995 The American Civil War Society