10mm trees/forests

Started by Attackmack, 14 August 2015, 10:42:31 PM

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Attackmack

Planning terrain for my Warmaster gaming needs, ive digged out some old terrainpieces initially made for Battletech on hexterrain.

Having salvaged what can from these, im unsure what is the best way to actually do forests/tree terrain for a game such as Warmaster.
Since some units are able to enter and move through forests, there need to be a way to represent this on the table.
My first thought was to make a big base and put some threes shallowly scattered on it to give enough room for units to be placed between them. While this works for gameplay, I dont find it looking good or realistic enough.

So i did a quicktest and glued some trees on individual bases. Im thinking that if the trees are movable individually, I could use a flat base (flocked and painted properly) to indicate the actual borders of the forest, then I can add as many trees as I wish to the base. When a unit moves into it, trees can be moved/removed to make space and the replaced as the unit moves away.

Disadvantage I see with this is the fiddly part of setting it up and possibly tipping them over during game. But without having tried it it feels like small problems for the ability to set up forests of any size and shape.

How are you guys playing and using trees and forests in your games?

Included a picture of the prototypes i made.


fred.

Quote from: Attackmack on 14 August 2015, 10:42:31 PM

So i did a quicktest and glued some trees on individual bases. Im thinking that if the trees are movable individually, I could use a flat base (flocked and painted properly) to indicate the actual borders of the forest, then I can add as many trees as I wish to the base. When a unit moves into it, trees can be moved/removed to make space and the replaced as the unit moves away.


This is what we do for our games. Works well - its pretty quick to setup - you can put a good number of trees on the base, so it looks like a forest. And its easy to move them during a game if you need to get a unit into the wood.
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Ithoriel

15 August 2015, 12:09:57 AM #2 Last Edit: 15 August 2015, 12:14:12 AM by Ithoriel
We usually use green felt to delineate forests and brown for the bases of built up areas.

Some examples




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WeeWars

Trees on hex bases:

http://www.michaelscott.name/1809/1809blogpost63.htm

And check out the post before and the one after.

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paulr

Quote from: Ithoriel on 15 August 2015, 12:09:57 AM
We usually use green felt to delineate forests and brown for the bases of built up areas.

We do much the same, some paint on the felt adds some texture and variety.

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Techno

And a very warm welcome to the forum, Mack. (?)
Cheers - Phil

Duke Speedy of Leighton

I used mdf splats from productsforwargames with Faller/Noch trees based on 40mm mdf scattered across.
Here's an example from 2012.
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Attackmack

Thanks for the replies guys, makes me more confident going this route! And your boards looks amazing!

Quote from: Techno on 15 August 2015, 06:28:40 AM
And a very warm welcome to the forum, Mack. (?)
Cheers - Phil

Thank you :)

petercooman

I use 60mm circular bases for my  tress, and sometimes i just put 4 on the corners of my wooded area, and some in the 'rectangle', with everything in the 4 corners counting as wooded terrain, hence giving you the opportunity to move the ones on the inside of the square /rectangle as troops move through.

You can also set them up in other shapes, with 3 corner points,5 or more.  Makes your wooded area a bit linear, but works ok if nothing else is at hand.

If i have all my kit with me, i make an outline in lichen and put trees freely in that.

I just bought some thick green art paper so will try to make shapes out of that too and use like a felt outline.

kustenjaeger

Greetings

Have used mdf irregular shapes covered with railway mat in similar colour to the table with individually based trees for effect. I've got two A4 boxes full of 38-55mm trees for this purpose.   



Regards

Edward

Glorfindel

I've had to go through the same thought process for Warmaster.   I initially
tried fixed trees on a large scenic base but became pretty fed up with this
as the fixed nature of the trees just gets in the way.

("Fixed nature" - just realised this is quite appropriate...)    =)

Anyhow, i then tried the idea suggested by others here.   A flat scenic base
with mobile tree clumps.  Much better - a workable compromise that looks
good but still lets you play.

Good to see there are others still playing warmaster.   Great game.

Cheers,


Phil


Subedai

I have fixed forests and woods. Using irregular shaped pieces of thin MDF I randomly glue roofing nails to the base then cover the base with PVA and sand. Paint and then add pieces of foam -from an old cushion- and cover that with wood glue and flock.

Bit of shameless publicity (hope you don't mind Leon), my article in this months MWBG shows how I make all my own terrain -it's for 6mm but not exclusively so.
Blog is at
http://thewordsofsubedai.blogspot.co.uk/

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Attackmack

Quote from: kustenjaeger on 15 August 2015, 03:14:41 PM
Greetings

Have used mdf irregular shapes covered with railway mat in similar colour to the table with individually based trees for effect. I've got two A4 boxes full of 38-55mm trees for this purpose.   



Regards

Edward

That is quite the sight! Beautiful!

Attackmack

I went ahead and glued the rest of the trees to bases. They are yet to be flocked but since i havent made the mat for the table yet im unsure what colors to use.
On the picture the trees look alot brighter then they are, they are painted to look like deceased and dying trees as the terrain I salvaged them from had that theme and I might stick to it for the upcoming table.





And here the other type, these doesnt look very good up close but from a bit of distance they are okay.


Techno

Coming along nicely.  8)
Cheers - Phil