I have bought some fake trees from China for a 1/72 scale WW2 wargame.

Does anybody have any ideas about how I could create cheap & simple bases for them to stand on that would look ok?

Thanks

Can you post a photo of your trees?

What I do is have a number of cardboard squares, 3" wide, painted and textured in a greenish/earthy mix, and then the individually based trees are scattered on top to be able to be moved if they tangle with the figures.

The tree base itself can be a metal washer to which I glue the tree, and then texture and paint again to blend with the rest.

Thank God for China, land of involuntary scenic materials

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The tree are like many of the ones seen here...

eBay Australia - model trees, Model, Toy Trains, Model Building, Transportation items at low prices

Do you think they can be glued to washers?

How do you work out what size washer to buy?

Well, the washers should be big and heavy enough to take the tree without toppling. There is no rule, say 20-30mm diameter, whatever you find that works.

Remember washers have a hole in the middle - bright, amn't I? - so what I do is put a bit of sticky tape on one side, turn the washer over and lay it on my trusted modelling desk, drop a sizable dollop of epoxy glue in the middle, plus the foot of the tree in it, and then prop the thing with pencils, wire, any kind of garbage to keep it straight while the epoky cures.

Remeber to splay a but the foot of the tree as it helps the adhesive.

After I have a bunch done and dry, I use a black spray (it's practically I use black spray in modelling) and then several vigourous drybrush layers in several greens and browns for the foliage.

After that, it's time to texture the base - the old snad and glue mix, or wall paste, or whatrever - paint it and dry brush the base.

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Thats not a bad suggestion, thanks for the tip...I think I might if that a try.

What's the best type of glue to stick fake foliage to card?

Common carpenter's glue, the white one, more or less diluted according to taste

Look up Ian Hayward's page. He works in 1:300 but the principles are the same.

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You might find a cork base is better, as they don't tend to warp so much when you put glue onto it, which card can do. This site might give you some ideas:

S & A Scenics

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Paul Reed
Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info
D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com

I use some stuff called UHU HOLDIT from Manco inc. (makers of Duck-Tape).
Comes in a chunk like a "Charleston Chew". You break/tear off as much as you need and stick it down.
A little goes a long way, BB size will hold a 1/35th scale trooper (maybe even less).
Re-usable (put it back on the stick) (if it doesn't get dusty). I use it to hold my troops in place (even 1 footed ones). I'm constantly moving pieces, so it's just what I need.
Just the thing for those of us who can't make up our minds (permanently, that is). They'll even hold Panzer Grenadiers against turrets in more realistic/uncompromising/precarious positions, or diving/falling positions etc..
any hobby shop (probably the more "girlie" ones)(used in Nativity Scenes/floral displays/shadow boxes etc.).
or, get a foam base and make a hole by sticking them in. Sometimes better, you can put them in at a angle so as not to look too "Pasteurized".

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All opinions expressed here are those of "Little Green Men" and don't necessarily represent views, positions, policy, thoughts, actions, or anything else.

I'd never used cork sheet, although I use plenty to make contour hills. I also fell in the warpy card trap before, so what I use to texture card is epoxy glue instead of wood glue.

A uniform coat of epoxy, then sprimkle your favoutie mix on top, tap it down, add some more, let rest for a couple of hours, and then clear the excess back to the same bag.

As a matter of fact this week I'm going to make some more of this stuff.

One tip I'd like to add: when dealing with wargames stuff, don't do it one by one, think of entire batches. Paint figures in entire units. Tanks in platoos or companies all at a time. Trees, don't go one by one, do some 20-30 at the same time. The assembly line principle works beautifully, it saves you immense time in the end.

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Sage advice indeed!

What do you game Za? And in what scale?

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Paul Reed
Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info
D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com

I do Ancients in 15mm since 1977. I've been using DBM for the last few years but now I'm the Portuguese translator for the future Field of Glory rules,to be published by Osprey Books in about 6 months time.

Free plug here http://www.ospreypublishing.com/osp_img/specialfeatures/US_Spring08_frontlist.pdf pages 19-20


In WW2 I use God's Own Scale, that is, 6mm I use a derivative of Spearhead rules. Before that I used Firefly.



That's one of my Matildas in France '40 scheme. The ruler behind is in mm

I also have lots of Ancients in 6mm, and large US and USSR forces for WW3 pre-Perestroika, but the rules I had, Challenger, were too fussy and you couldn't finish a game. Perhaps I'll find the gut to try with Modern Spearhead...

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And I thought Gods Own Scale was 20mm... !!

I saw some plugs for those new Ancient rules at Salute this year; knowing Osprey it will be a quality production.

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Paul Reed
Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info
D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com

If you're polytheist then you have no problem

I've been playing with WRG's 5th Edition, 6th, 7th, DBM 1, DBM 2, DBM 3, DBM 3.2 then like everybody got fed up. These Field of Glory rules ought to be a fun game again.

The WW2 6mm rules I liked most actually were a home adaptation od Avalon Hill's Squad Leader to a 3D environment, but to make them work you needed to have an extensive background of the original hex rules proper and an honesty beyond human ability.

Spearhead rules are ok, but so awfully twisted towards the Germans (and you people kow my feeling on that particular matter), that a breakaway occurred o few years ago and we had some clandestine rules put up according to our thoughts. I say clandestine as the original SH guy wouldn't let up.

On the other hand I have a visceral hatred of WH40K With Tanks, a.k.a. FOW

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Some interesting points; I did 6mm back in the 80s via WRG, and thought about a return to it, but SH has never appealed to me. As I grew up on Airfix I find it hard to get away from 20mm, and quite like RF2 rules as they remind me of the 'good old games' I used to play many years ago. I am currently making up some of the new Valliant range of figures; on the large end of the 20mm scale, but nice figures with good conversion possibilities and easy to paint. See:

Valiant Miniatures

I agree FOW is a great turn off, although the range itself is not too bad, although the new British figures they did had Stens the size of Plasma Blasters... :-0

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Paul Reed
Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info
D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com

SH is rahther like an Old Masters painting. It's terrible when you look up one closely, the details are a horrible mishmash of impastos. But once you step back a few paces and you see the ensemble, you'll be awed by the impression of the entire picture and how those awful blobs of paint at a distance reveal themselves as glowing jewels.

SH piece by piece is really terrible, especially if you're used to the approach taken by every other mainstream rule, like WRG, Firefly, etc, where technical detail is paramount, where you choose which type of projectile you're going to shoot etc. But as I said if you step back, then you will see entire brigades and even divisions manoeuvering and all of it making sense as brigades and divisions. It's just a different game scale.

Of course, I'm not sectarian enough to say this is the only way to reach Nirvana, if you like a different type of play please do go ahead. Moreover you already are into 20mm scale. By the way, thanks for the site you sent, really pretty figures!

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So, I found some 1mm thick cork sheets. I think their durability will tend to be short, but as I have plenty of crazy materials around due ti the other hobby, I the next batch will be covered in ultra-thin fibreglass.

Here they are, after the epoxy and sand treatment.


A nice coat of matt white primer, anything will do.


Followed by several washes of oil colour, very dilured. As I paint my figurines in oils I have plenty of colour variety. I love the media.



Here's a detail. At a pinch it may even escape without the dry-brush, I'll decide later. That's the beauty of the washes over white.



These are 3" squares, to be intended as woods bases. The woods themselves need not be square, I can overlay the squares as modules to get the shape I want. They're so thin it won't be a bother.

As for hills, I'll use expanded polystyrene cut with a hot wire, later covered by wall paste (Polyfilla or the like), with some sand added in for texture, plus some white glue to improve adhesion. Finger applied, don't lick them!

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That's ok if it suits you. I'd add a number of leadshot to the base to help keeping it stable. When I have more progress with my system I'll get you more photos.

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