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I have made a bunch of individually based trees. I see lots of forest bases with a little circular depression made into it for the trees to sit on. Personally, I am not a fan of this style because it means all you can do is remove a tree from the base, rather than just nudging it out of the way. I think the bases look better with the trees still on there as much as possible. Having a clearly defined area is important for several games.

So I was thinking about making a forest base shape out of MDF and then texturing it with sand, fallen leaf flock, some grass flock and maybe a fallen log or two. This would probably look great, but my trees would probably sit a bit wonkily on the flocking, and it will be a pain to store these largish bits of mdf and I think it is inevitable no matter how much I try and seal the flock on that I will gradually lose it.

Another option would be a flat mat, with no texture but a nice image on it. For example:
https://www.deepcutstudio.com/product/game-mat-forest/
I could get the cloth or mouse mat versions of this and cut it to fit the shape I want. Looks alright, durable, and does not take up much space, and my trees should sit nicely on it. Problem? Hefty price tag!

I was wondering if you guys had any experience with making something like this yourselves. I suppose I could get some material and paint it up like a canvas to look like a decent forest floor, but I am worried about the paint flaking out of it if it rolls up or crinkles. Any advice on this, or any experience with doing so?

I have faced this tricky situation, and tried several methods, none of which were perfect so take it for what it's worth.

In one case, I did exactly as you have with the trees (individual bases although a few were doubles). I then magnetized the bases by sinking a good magnet in it (like a 2 mm by 5 mm disc magnet). I then made my large area terrain style base out a thin sheet of galvanized. This got covered with flock etc, and the trees stuck through it. it allowed them to be mobile etc, yet they stayed upright. The drawback? Sometimes moving trees was a pain, and the whole process took time and effort, particularly getting the sheet metal cut to an irregular shape (tin snips tend to leave sharp edges and curls).

I then began playing more 40k style games, using area terrain rules. At this point I began to build my trees and similar terrain in groups. Generally three trees on an arcing base perhaps 3-5" long. This allowed the terrain to sit on my board, yet it was movable, and the curved bases gave the feel of an irregular blob of forest.

The idea of mat style cut up is a good one. Maybe you can get something used and cheap and save some money.
Here's some pictures of the second style that my group uses. Not great quality, sorry. Hope this helps a bit.

Definitely fabric simply because there may be a time you want to have a large forested area.

Get some simple coloured felt to match your basic gaming mat and then hit it up with some colour, some flock, some pebbles, etc. I tend to use my foam hills as the definition of my forests because it's just simple. I don't think you'd comfortably get huge pieces of MDF on the table for basing large forested sections, so definitely go fabric or - the expensive route would be the mousepad idea (get a 4'x4' and careful cut it up so you don't waste much?)

There are a number of vendors that sell mouse pad and flat plastic terrain pieces with forests (among other things) printed on them that you could use as a base. We used them a lot during our Warmachine games, as 3d terrain was a pain when movement was so critical. You could slap some trees on those and have a hybrid version.

You could also check with a local print shop and see if they print on canvas or nylon (for banner signs). I have a whole kill team mat printed on nylon, and while it doesn't lay quite as flat as mousepad (it's not as heavy), it is super easy to transport.

 Da Boss wrote:
So I was thinking about making a forest base shape out of MDF and then texturing it with sand, fallen leaf flock, some grass flock and maybe a fallen log or two. This would probably look great, but my trees would probably sit a bit wonkily on the flocking, and it will be a pain to store these largish bits of mdf and I think it is inevitable no matter how much I try and seal the flock on that I will gradually lose it.

That's pretty much what I did and it's worked out well so far:



The trees are on smaller bases so that they can be selectively removed to allow units to occupy the terrain. The MDF bases are actually sanded, but the tree bases seem to sit fine on top (and there doesn't seem to be any noticeable 'hovering').

IMO the end result of having some 3D foliage on the MDF base looks nicer than flat neoprene material, and it was certainly a lot cheaper. Of course, there's a more substantial time investment, as well as tools required (primarily scroll saw to cut the shapes).

Thanks for the advice and examples guys! I think I am gonna combine ideas from you guys and also from this video on how to make flexible rivers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIG5lMytswM

I will get some canvas, texture it with acryllic caulking and then a little sand, paint it up and away we go.

I have a lot of MDF as spare parts from a Christmas Project that I have available to me. As I am a fan of the 6th edition of WFB and other games of that time that have similar terrain rules, I am going to make a few forest bases out of them. My plan is to try to color code or change the terrain basing on them so that everyone knows when a model is withing 2" and able to be targeted or not for shooting.

That is a good idea! I am hoping to put mine together over the next couple of days, so I will post them here when they are done.