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oops sorry about the glitch with the attachment descriptions. That will be fixed tomorrow morning - I'll do a quick minor bug fix release then.

Nice work so far.

Very very nice.

You've given me some very useful ideas that I shall shamelessly steal from you
Keep up the good work.

Algeroth wrote:Very very nice.

You've given me some very useful ideas that I shall shamelessly steal from you
Keep up the good work.

And that's the whole reason I did a step by step as I built it sort of blog for this table ^_^. I really wanted to get some ideas out there and see if they worked and give people some advice on what they should try and what they might want to avoid ^_^.

Just realized I hadn't taken a full table picture of the finished product. Mind you the trees aren't completed, but the table is. Picture below and attached.

I got more trees!

We based them on the big flat Monster 40k bases.

Symbio Joe wrote:We based them on the big flat Monster 40k bases.

Yeah I've been considering either the flat ones or going with 40mm bases. The large flat ones sound like they'd work better for terrain though.

really it's a toss up between single bases for each or moving up to 2, 3, and 4 tree bases that I can glue the tree bases down and have the trees still be removable. This would give me more modeling chances, but would limit the mobility of the trees at the same time.

We gave every tree a single base depending on how big he was so a mix of flat ones and 40mm bases. There is a little difficulty wehn you use single bases some trees will fall. Putting several trees on a big base makes it difficult moving your minis through it. so we ended up making circels of trees and declaring the space inbetween as wood/ terrain zone.

Go to a hardware store and purchase metal washers that are approximately the same size as monster bases and texture them the same way.

They are heavier keeping your trees upright, and they are loads cheaper think $.10-$.20/ea.

Da_Todfatha wrote:Go to a hardware store and purchase metal washers that are approximately the same size as monster bases and texture them the same way.

They are heavier keeping your trees upright, and they are loads cheaper think $.10-$.20/ea.

Ooo..now that's an idea I hadn't even considered. I'll have to stop in and check what they've got when I head out that way. I'll have to head there either way I go (template or bases).

Made a modular hill section for the big open area in the center of the table. This area will be the best place for me to use larger terrain pieces. I just felt like making a hill to start off with.

Really nice, now I'm getting the terrain itch as well

What's the pink gum stuff made out of?

Stelek wrote:What's the pink gum stuff made out of?

The pink stuff is just household spackle. The stuff I buy goes on pink and dries white. It's a useful indicator as to when it's safe to start sculpting into it.

The table is looking really great. For some reason it really makes me feel like I am looking at the battlefield from the gaunt's ghosts novel 'Ghostmaker' (even though that was more of a jungle) and I can picture the edge of an eldar installation in the open area where your temporary hill is.

legoburner wrote:The table is looking really great. For some reason it really makes me feel like I am looking at the battlefield from the gaunt's ghosts novel 'Ghostmaker' (even though that was more of a jungle) and I can picture the edge of an eldar installation in the open area where your temporary hill is.

You inspired me.







Have to wait for the spackle to dry up before I can get to seriously sanding and sculpting this thing out ^_^.

he he awesome Now I am going to email subscribe to this topic

Some sanding and sculpting done. Still some more shaping to do. Just a quick update since I can't carve anymore out.



This stuff dries slow when you put it on an inch thick >.>...

Quick progress report:





Still more paint to go. Also going to base the piece when I finally get my hands on basing mats for terrain pieces.

If I can keep my hands off my 360 controller, more gets done for the table and my marines...so far, 40k loses much of the battles....

Picked up some 1/4" MDF from Home Depot today. Along with some large washers. Let the basing begin.

Quick visual tutorial:

Looks good. I would never had guessed that was a washer if I didn't follow this thread.

Good call about the washers eh? Beautiful table. Amazing attention to detail. I am very jealous.
Oh-and your Marine looks fab too!

First tree template has been started.

Photo Tutorial:



















Tools and supplies used:

A Sheet of Paper
A sharpie marker
1/4" MDF board
Small hacksaw (THE WRONG TOOL FOR THE JOB!! If you notice I ended up pulling the blade from the thing and using it between my hands to finish the job >_<. It can be done though >.>...just takes a while...get a handsaw if you're not keen on power tools...)
Electric Hand sander

Got a little bit more work done on my tree template prototype ^_^.





The roots are carved out of spackle. I put the sand on with a layer of regular white (PVA) glue and went back over that with a watered down mix to help seal it some more. I hate when I go to paint this stuff and it comes up in the brush...Hopefully that fixes the problem.

I still haven't hit the store for some magnets yet. We'll see when I finally get them x.x...I'm so lazy...

Washer Tree Prototype complete ^_^.



I'm rather happy with how it came out.

Well, my first tree template is finally finished. These little projects take a while since I'm figuring them out pretty much as I go. But I'm rather happy with how it all came out. Below are some in progress/photo tutorial pictures. The final product is attached. Comments and crits welcome.

The steppes are a nice size and seem to be able to hold
models comfortably. I admire the tree project for its simplicity and utility. I'm always glad when people make it
possible to remove trees from the forest template.

malfred wrote:The steppes are a nice size and seem to be able to hold
models comfortably. I admire the tree project for its simplicity and utility. I'm always glad when people make it
possible to remove trees from the forest template.

They're still not 100% up to the standard I want them at, I still haven't purchased any magnets to put into the tree trunks. Once I get those in, the trees will be much easier to remove/replace. As it is right now, some of the trees require a bit of a death grip to get them out x.x...

Alrighty, I gave the spray a go to try and break up the tree tops some. I used a rust colored spray for this test, I can always hit up wally world for some nice cheap reds and oranges.

Thoughts?