Okay so I'm about to embark on a grand journey that involves making a [word deleted] of terrain. My first port of call: Trees. I have seen some really awesome trees on here over the years, but whenever i scour the net, i can never find any that are the right size/ look half decent. I was going to try buy some Games workshop trees, but they are so expensive for what they are. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look. I would very much appreciate some pictures of peoples trees too

Also i have been making my own hedge using Gale Force 9's Summer 3 Clump Foliage. Would this be good enough to use for the leaves on the trees, or is there another product that would be better suited?

Fire away gang!

Batman of The Shire

_________________
My work in progress thread: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27503

I have some images of trees in my WIP thread. But I decided to scrap the project. They were impossible to glue on hardboard... I am thinking of using actual tree twigs for trees. Unfortunately I am only after the dead tree look so I cannot advice you on foliage.

I recently made some pretty decent fir trees and I've been meaning to put a mini guide up on my WiP...
I'll try to get it done for the next update...

_________________
'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

The GF9 clump foliage looks similar to Woodland Scenics clump foliage, which I've been using as one option to flock my trees. I have used both Woodland Scenics and Games Workshop tree armatures (the WS ones come flat, and need to be twisted to 3D shape), painted with spray cans, washes and drybrushing. I've used tacky glue to attach the clump foliage and other product, WS foliage (a net-like stuff which you tear a piece of and spread it wider into a more airy foliage). The WS armatures have a base which can be glued to hardboard. The tree itself can be detached if needed.

WS also has ready-made trees, as do Faller, Silhouette and Noch to name but a few vendors over from the model railroad side. Of course, wire bundles can be twisted to form a custom armature, and it can be covered with putty or stuff called flexi-bark. Finally, organic stuff called "sea foam" or "supertrees" can be used as armature - these are best flocked with coarse turf rather than clump foliage or foliage. On my WIP thread, I've built two holly trees by combining twisted wire add-ons to large WS plastic armatures, topped these with bits of sea foam for fine branches, and flocked them with coarse turf.

I use the Woodland Scenic ready made trees, which are quite expensive but still cheaper than the GW plastics. They are a little fragile too... I add a scenic MDF base and have them in three different heights and three different shades of green...

Yep I used Woodland Scenics trees too individually based, but for my Mirkwood board HERE I used NOCH ready made trees, more durable then the woodland scenics and cheaper, but they may not look as good so its a trade off.



I got my treess from here HERE getting Birch, Maple, Beech, and Oak

_________________
http://www.talesofmiddleearth.co.uk

There are a couple of articles in the Library here that may be of use:

kb.php?c=11

Nice terrain Kev by the way, and a great article about how to make the trees.

_________________
Dagster

Cheers Alan! Yeah its been sitting for years waiting to be published My next project (well after finishing my realms of battlebaords, rivers, some Moria pieces, some ruins .....) is making a Weathertop based on your article.

_________________
http://www.talesofmiddleearth.co.uk

Thanks so much to everyone who posted for their contribution, you rock !

_________________
My work in progress thread: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27503

Dude, search "How to Make Model Railroad Trees" using Google and then sift through the 10,000 hits. You'll love it.
There are no better places for terrain than model railroader sites.

I'll second that the WS tree bases are nice but fragile. I don't own any myself but we have several in use at our LGS. There are many that have broken off where the trunk attaches to the base. We then have to go back in and pin/glue them. I've never seen a branch or trunk itself break, but that join to the base is a real weak link.

For hardwoods I've been using real branches collected locally as trunks and using clump foliage. I love the Fir Tree option Sid recently posted and think I'll go that route for evergreens.

_________________
Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

I have one set of the trees from games workshop and i like them very much, despite the fact that they´re expensive. But they´re great for things like mirkwood, the old forest or the trollshaws.

I make most of my trees. I used the Woodland Scenic armatures for the ent forest. I drill holes for the Woodland Scenic armatures instead of using the plastic bases. I do have a few WS bases hot glued to tin caps. The Ents are also on tin caps.
I am going to start a Mirkwood WIP as soon as I rap up Moria. I hope the photos were helpful

_________________
"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

It has been a long time since I did any hobby stuff, but I did do a few tree's in my time.
I read loads of articles on how people made their tree's and although when I saw them on a gaming table they looked great, I could not help but think they all kind of looked the same in formation and materials.

It was in a thread here at One Ring, that myself and Alan (Dagorlad) had a 'Build Off...which unfortunately never came to fruition...
However it included the making of tree's.

My approach was firstly to use Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures


Although they might seem 3D, they are actually flat and have to be bent into shapes. Furthermore, to get them to look right, branches need to be cut off and attached at different angles to produce a realistic looking tree.



The next stage was to create a realistic root base. This was created by cutting off parts of the branches from the armatures to use as a root system, and use Green Stuff to sculpt a more realistic base...


I added the root system to a piece of foam using superglue gel and the added the main tree part using a combination of superglue gel and Milliput. I then used Milliput to sculpt the trunk of the tree and adjoin the top section to the root system...



Once everything had cured, I painted the branches with variations of brown's to create realistic Bark. After this, I started to add the leafage.
For the leaves, I think I bought a product called leaf litter from Antenocitis Workshop.
I added superglue to various parts of the branches and sprinkled the leaf litter over them and let it dry before removing the excess simply by blowing on it.


This process continued until the tree was completed...

_________________
There are fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world

This must be the best (28mm) tree I have ever seen, DurinsBane! Very, very realistic!
Thanks for sharing your technique, I want to try something like that too someday.

That is a very nice tree DurinsBane. I have not used that brand of leaf material. I will have to give it a try.
I used the WS tree armature in much the same way for the Ent forest and my avatar.



I drilled a hole in some of the old Mage Knight figures and cut parts from the armatures for branches. I used clump foliage so the branches did not need to be as thick as your model.





WIP-note the small tree armature on the blood tree.

Alien Dungeon has a line of resin trees that incorporate WS armatures in the design. I used a net foliage material for the D&D tree. I did not like it and have not used it again. However, I have seen it put to better use.



WIP the whole tree armature fits into the resin body. I added a few more branches and more foliage.



WIP of home made wire trees.



WIP of trees made from all natural materials. I finished that tree with litchin instead. I will try this again for Mirkwood.



WIP with lichen and natural branches. I made this set last summer. I wanted some trees that could be climbed.I did not remember the trees were pines until I saw the movie.



WIP idea for Mirkwood. you can see I used the branch for the above tree.



WIP idea for the Necromancers lair.



Idea for some very large trees

None of this is hard. Keep an eye out for interesting natural material and experiment.I have been doing this for 40 years. I can go on and on. If you have a question ask. I hope the photos will help you decide to make some trees. There are some products that work well for model railroads that look very nice. Some of them are not very well suited to wargaming.Avoid the trees made from weeds. They are some of the nicest looking trees on the market. They will not hold up if you try to use them in wargaming.
A note one wire brush trees. I have some wire brush trees that are 50 years old. They seem expensive but last forever.

_________________
"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Sorry folks...missed out a vital part !
Before adding the leaf scatter, I used a product which at the time was call a Forest in a Box.
I have searched for it, and Noch do it called SeaFoam Trees.
Small parts of these were cut off and Superglue was added in small quantities all over the piece of sea foam and then dipped into leaf scatter. The excess was 'blown' off after the piece had dried and then attached to the armatures with superglue. The process was repeated over and over to build the tree up.

_________________
There are fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world

I do not know why they call it seafoam. I have used the sea foam and a local product made from yarrow to make thousands of trees on railroad layouts. Most of the time we use the stem as the trunks. Much smaller scale.Trimming it for the foliage is a very good idea. I will pick some and see how it turns out. Noch has a product made from some kind of wild seeds or nuts that makes good leaf scatter.
The tree looks very nice.



5 year old making her own wire brush trees with homemade flocking. I don't let them use super glue. Hair spray will work fine.

_________________
"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

These aren't mine, but I do think they're pretty cool, if only because they're different from the standard pine trees or WS generic deciduous that you see on every battlefield (nothing wrong with those, either, of course! I have tons of both):



I asked the store manager at my LGS about them, and he said they're just taken from decorative fake plants purchased at a craft store (probably a good time to get them, since they look like they'd be Fall seasonal decor), clipped off and wrapped up to form the trunk, which is then painted white with some black spots. Makes a decent aspen tree!

_________________
Well, that's my 2 cents.

Hirumith, the Grey Knight, very cool tip



Abush from the Old Toby field.
The plastic plants at the craft store are very useful.

_________________
"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"