We are having a little detour this week. Member Stephen produced some blasted trees and we thought it would be a good idea to ask Stephen to show how easy it is to create such striking scenery.
Blasted Trees DIY
This building project came about because we had a game of Clash of Rhyfles in the club diary and, with the setting being a World War One analogue, I decided to create some themed terrain items.
When I think of a WW1 battlefield what comes to mind are the stark images of trees stripped bare by constant artillery barrages.
So that is what I am going to make.
I say ‘I am going to make’ but, truth is, Mother Nature did most of the work.
A walk through the woods of the North Downs soon yielded plenty of sticks. I could have carved some balsa and painted it, but why would I? I could never do as good a job as Nature has achieved. The important thing, when selecting your twigs, is to get variety in size, shape, and features (ed. and not to take them from the trees but the plentiful number on the ground).
Next was to stick the sticks to a base. I had some modeller’s light ply so I cut it up in 10cm squares. I used a hot glue gun. Quick tip – remove the bottom few millimetres of bark before gluing. With an old stick the bark peels off easily and if you leave it intact all you may end up doing is gluing the bark to the base and the twig comes free.
On to basing.
I know I said I wanted a WW1 appearance but I had to play this off against how I had based other terrain and the figures as well.
So rather than a muddy Somme-like basing I went with something half way between the two so they would fit in with other items and I could use them with other games.
I used my usual basing routine – paint the base (and glue) with a mid-brown, then cover with model railway ballast. When dry I then added patches of static grass. This was finished off with some clump foliage.
With that, it was all done and ready for the games’ table.
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