Painting burnt trees

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Hi all

I'm about to paint a couple of trees from the Citadel Wood set to look like the climax of the first Hobbit movie when the eagles turn up and rescue the dwarves. I quite like the trees and by not putting any leaves on they look quite the part (granted they're not fir trees but we can forgive that).

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips for painting burnt trees/wood? Obviously just painting them black will look dull but would you paint them dark grey to begin with and try and start with them burnt? I'm thinking of painting the tree brown as normal and then dry brushing over some black to give the trees more depth whilst looking burnt on the outside. Any thoughts?

Also, anyone had any luck creating miniature fire? Not sure if I'll go through with it yet but I was wondering if spraying cotton wool black for smoke might look effective.

If anyone has any tips or links to tutorials/pictures it'd be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Ukfreddybear · **Posted:** Wed May 01, 2013 1:22 pm

I would paint the trees as normal, then heavy drybrush black followed by a light drybrush of pale grey for that charred look. The cotton wool smoke is very popular with ww2 wargamers so I see no reason why it cant be used to similar effect here.
If you can sculpt fur, then you can sculpt fire. They are very similar techiques.

Rognarr · **Posted:** Wed May 01, 2013 1:51 pm

This probably is a thread, that rather belongs into the terrain section.. but anyway:

I made a "fire" once, with which I was relatively happy.
I used a wad of cotton and ripped it into shape roughly. Then I soaked it with white glue and let it dry. painted it black (for it's a really smoky fire ^^ ) and then coloured it with red, orange and yellow to have it look like it burns.
If you want to see it, have a look here (you gotta scroll down a little, the fire is next to the burnt building): viewtopic.php?f=7&t=24873&start=20

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Yeah I debated which forum to put it in for a while but settled on this as they're going to scenic bases for my eagles rather than scenery pieces and I was more interested in how to paint them than in scenery construction etc. I'm sure a mod will move the thread if they feel it's appropriate.

Thanks for the help so far guys, think I'm gonna go for a technique similar to what freedybear suggested - FYI I can't sculpt fur so I guess i can't sculpt fire :roll:

Thanks for the link Rognarr, the fire looks cool (love your Rohan buildings too), might have a go at building something similar to place in the upper branches.

Cheers again, hopefully I'll have some results up in my WIP in the next week or so

Ukfreddybear · **Posted:** Wed May 01, 2013 4:36 pm

Ha OK. Basically start off with a cone or pyramid shape and stick the base firmly down. Then drag a blade up from base to point in a wavey line. Repeat all the way around. If you are feeling confident you can also twist the putty as you pull it up. I recently did some fire for Billferny333 so I'll put the pics in my Wip thread if you like?

Painting burnt trees

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