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Sounds great, morfydd! Very interested in seeing that comparison photo. Yeah, I've used no trespassing signs as cheap alternatives to plasticard. Evergreen and Plastruct make great products but they can be very expensive. Thanks for the heads up!

I was looking again at your towering, skinny structures. How do you manage to keep them steady, stable - and vertical ?!

You mean the tall one with the balconies? I start with elmers glue on all the joins. It's a crazy powerful adhesive. That tall piece did have a tendency to tip forward when tapped on the top, mainly because it was the tallest building on the table, but blu-tac or similar removable adhesive clay on the bottom of the base would solve that issue. Also, I'd texture the walls with watered down PVA white glue (elmers again) and seal the rubble on the base with the same. All that glue goes a long wayto strengthen the piece. Using foam as my base material also cuts down on the structure's weight and having more of the building intact at the bottom than on top helps, too.

Thanks for the question, inmygravenimage! I hope this answers it. Feel free to ask any follow-up questions if you need further clarification.

Maybe I'll do a tutorial at some point.

Rotzip..and Dremal Side by side (Well Black and Decker Rotoray Saw..as opposed to Rotozips brands version)



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and I failed on embedding the photo but the link is here on dakka so anyway its there


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Just make sure to pick up the correct bits the dry wall bits do not work as well as the ones for other materials (they tend to break at odd times)

I assume the rotozip equivalent is the big orange tool?

Yes it is .not impressive looking but I find it to be usefull for creating organic terrain

Cool, thanks for the tip, morfydd.

Here are some step by step, WIP shots of some large trees I'm working on. First up is the basic shape. I use real sticks and hotglue them together in a random pattern, starting with just 2 and hotgluing them to a base. Then I add on more in ways that just seem pleasing to my eyes. I'm sure to add flowing hot glue to simulate the basics of a root system.









Sometimes I might break off some branches if they don't look right or if they seem too brittle. Then I coat the whole "tree" with a texturing compound. I'll be honest I can't remember what I used on these trees and I have no pictures with the texturing on them before I primed them. Ah well, any will do - acrylic sand gels, spackling compound, filler, etc. Then I prime them, usually by hand because I'm too lazy to bring all my gear outside. Oh, yeah. After I textured the trees I added craft shells to the base to simulate alien "pinecones" or seeds of some sort.



http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/540861-Terrain%2C%20Trees%2C%20Work%20In%20Progress.html

Then I overbrush the tree with a dark blue, followed by a medium grey, and a highlight of bone or nearly white grey.






That's as far as I've got with these so far.



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Here are some WIP of other projects, too.






feedback always welcome!

Ooo nice trees. i especially like the twisting ones.

Some moss or shroom could be cool

Yes, they are definitely stil works in progress. I haven't decided what I'm going to use as foliage in them yet. I could use flock, but I was also thinking of individual leaves. I'll try to get some pictures of what I'm thinking about up tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback Desubot!

I really like those trees, I just saw this thread and I must say you work like a madman so much progress! I can hardly wait to see more of what you have to offer.

Thanks for the feedback, Nafarious! I wanted to put up a few of the types of photos I use as reference when building city terrain.




These mountains of rubble are sometimes difficult to reproduce, but so much fun to try.

Very cool blog. The twig tree is great.

Looking forward to a group shot and some paint.

Very nice @Warboss I really like that giant tree you made, can't wait to see this table come together.

So, here are a few other items I'm working on. For whatever reason, my brain has latched on to the name "Blob tree" for these. I think it's because of the blob of hot glue at the top that holds on the collection of thin, plastic straw bits. These are a few work in progress shots showing the base materials (styrofoam, a little hot glue, and the clipped down stems of fake bushes that have been inverted). Then I loop hot glue around that shaft to create a pattern. At the tops of each I glue on a few thin, plastic straws (they're actually hollow plastic lollipop sticks that I bought at my local craft store and clipped down so that they'd fit at the tops without being ridiculously over-sized). The next step with be to coat them with sand-textured gel (good ol' stand by, windsor & newton acrylic sand texture gel) and, when that dries, to paint them. After all that I'll glue some leafy somethingerothers into the exposed tube holes.










This piece is the beginning of an alien "mangrove" sort of tree. It will eventually also get some branches and some textured gel, but I'm trying to leave the base open and flat enough to accommodate at least one miniature. Don't ask me why I named this one "Weepy".




Thanks for looking. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated!

Arise, my thread!

Anyway, sorry I haven't posted in awhile, things have been very hectic on my end. I was recently contacted by a client who has commissioned me to make him a few terrain pieces. Namely, a Lake, some craters, and a debris field. I started with the lake. I'll be posting my WIP on this progress in this thread, so keep your eyes peeled for lots of updates here in the next few days/weeks.

I started with a square of masonite (MDF board purchased from Home Depot). Using a pencil I traced a basic shape in the square. Then, using a utility knife, I scored roughly along those lines. Using a saw takes too long and I am impatient. So I scored each line 3 or 4 times and then used my brute "strength" to break the masonite apart.


Using my trusty rasp:


I made a huge mess:


And also filed the rough corners to rounded ones and came up with my basic shape, seen here from two amazing angles! Yep, a whole two.



Then, using elmer's glue (essentially white glue) I started laying down the basic shape of the lake's shoreline.





The client's direction was along the lines of "Do whatever you want, I'm sure it will look cool." Which is probably what anybody who works for commission wants to hear when starting a new project. I wanted to give the shoreline an irregular feel and also be tall enough so that when I pour the resin water effects it doesn't spill over the sides. I'll post up the work I'm doing now tomorrow. Thanks for looking. As always, C&C welcome.

Although I promised an update today, I instead spent my Sunday driving, cooking, and then drinking. So I'll post my progress up on Monday, when I'm more sober and can remember how to take pictures of the terrain and not just my thumb, the floor, or the inside of the lens cap.

Okay, so step 3 is underway. Mostly just allowing the hotglue to work its magic and then trying to exploit what it does.



Here you can see where I'm trying to create a more or less flat shelf on which models will eventually be able to stand.



Here is a close up of the little "island" in the middle of the lake.


I'm hoping the water effects will exploit this little hole well.


These two shots show the masonite warp. I'm not sure if the piece was subtly warped to begin with or if the heat from the glue guns warped it, but once I layer the hotglue over the edges and let it dry (and scrape it off the table that it keeps gluing itself to as it dries), it should solve this issue. In fact, I know it is, because I'm doing that right now.



There's more yet to do. One of the edges is not as high as I would like and I need to build it up some more so that the resin water doesn't spill out when I pour it. I'm also contemplating putting in some swamp grass or other vegetation along the edges. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. As always, comments welcome.

Thanks for looking!

The warpage is being caused by the hot glue contracting as it cools.

Love those trees!
brilliant idea, and well executed. Nice work.

@Galorn: I thought that might be the case. Usually i work with wood or plastic with this style of terrain and this is the first time I'm working with such a large piece of mdf with the hotglue.

Draping the glue over the sides seems to be working to fix this issue and it makes the piece look more complete anyways.

@sir William the bold: thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.

This is another commission. The whole "Shattered City" is for a client in my neighborhood and while this isn't the centerpiece necessarily, it will be one of the largest pieces in the collection.



















And the front of this monster (in a so-far sort of way).



As always, feedback, comments, critique welcomed and encouraged. Thanks for looking!

I keep seeing you do more and more wips but never a finished product. Such a tease.

I never realized that, Nafarious. I keep starting or continuing projects and sometimes it's difficult for me to knuckle down and finish something. My workspace is cluttered with half-finished projects. I'm trying to make progress on all of them, but I guess what you're saying is you want me to pick one and bring it to completion. Is thst correct?


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Also, do you have a favorite that you would like to see completed?

Haha don't worry about it man. I forgot the other half of the comment at home somewhere, this damn computer likes to fall asleep and then not turn back on. Anywho I really like the look of that building, you did a fantastic job of making it look like it is a part of a huge city. Too often we see these pidly little buildings but yours is a behemoth and feels right.

All of this terrain is looking awesome - I particularly like the jungle stuff. Looking forward to seeing more.

Definitely going to hi-jack these techniques for when I get back into crafting my terrain!

Thanks for all the feedback guys! More pics of the monster in 12 hours. But first, sleep.

Okay, to whet everyone's appetite I have some "action shots" of me painting this monster. I can't help but notice how much I resemble a bearded pear in a t-shirt in these photos. Sigh.



Those hard to reach spots:


And harder to reach:


And hardest to reach...or even see for that matter:


More photos as I get more done. Comments, critique, suggestions always welcome. As always, thanks for looking!

 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
Okay, to whet everyone's appetite I have some "action shots" of me painting this monster. I can't help but notice how much I resemble a bearded pear in a t-shirt in these photos. Sigh.

(Pictures removed as not relevant to comment.)

More photos as I get more done. Comments, critique, suggestions always welcome. As always, thanks for looking!

Looking pretty good, as for your geometric configuration dude at least your beard gives your face definition... I don't even have that going for me... Check out the early pics of me losing my mind painting for Templecon 2011 to see what I mean.

Okay. So I looked at this off the bat because simply for the title, since my entire terrain collection is urban warfare based and expanding.

Thank you so much for the trees! I've never seen an easier, cool way to do them. Amazing. I am going to let my hot glue gun do the talking from now on. Very nice. Subscribed!