Making 28mm Forest Terrain Tutorial Part 2

 

Extra

I seem to be getting in some extra hobby time lately, always welcomed.  It's because the kids are now back on a school schedule and go to bed at a reasonable time (not that anyone is actually going to school, its distance learning).  It's like the whole evening suddenly opens up! 

Let's continue on with making some forest terrain and pretending like I know what I am doing..

Part one can be seen HERE

This is where we left off from Part 1.

Instead of doing all the bases that I just made at once, I'm gonna focus on making 2 small and 1 large one.  As a way of testing the concept of what I am trying to do, and if I mess it all up somehow, then all is not lost.  But let's be optimistic.  

Getting Gritty with It

I got my bases of hard board, and on the smaller bases I've glues some pieces of hard board cut offs to create some undulations.  Undulations is a sexy word when said right.  

On these smaller pieces, I also want the trees affixed to the base, so I glued down some tree bases from my Woodland Scenic Tree Armatures, making sure to glue these far enough apart to leave room for the tree branches.  More about trees in a future post.  Are you shaking like a leaf, but with excitement? 

Then to smooth out the undulations (see, told ya) I took some Wall Filler / Spackle  and applied it to the sides.  

Everyone likes smooth unnnndulations.
Bonus footage of my PJs at the bottom of the picture.
While the spackle dries paint a miniature or something.

Now it's time to cover the bases with a texture.  This will make a mess, so can done outside or at least on something to catch all the materials.  I used the top of a cardboard box.  Because going outside is for suckers and daredevils, which I am not.  

I'm gonna use a texture mix because I think that will work well.  The mix is abooouut a 50/50 blend of fine grit / ballast and decaf coffee grounds.   I learned awhile ago that coffee grounds make great base texture, so I just get a tin of the cheap decaf coffee.  No one should be drinking cheap decaf coffee anyway.

I got this Huuuge 1/2 gallon tub of  "#50 blended ballast" from Scenic Express.  It's probably more than I need, but I have no concept of volume.  

Pretty simple process, spread glue all over the base and then dump the mix on top, pat lightly.

Don't get glue on the tree bases

Here's the 3 bases all covered with texture mix.
Looks a little like wet beach sand.
Let this all dry before fussing with it.

Rock On

Some rock outcroppings are a fitting little detail to forest terrain so I decided to play around with some stuff that I've had for years and years.

This was a Christmas gift from I don't know how long ago.

It was easy to mix up a little cup of plaster and cast the mold.  I still have plaster supplies left over from my Lord of the Rings Terrain projects.  I picked my favorites and glued them to parts of the forest bases, and began adding littler pieces of ballast around them.  

I added even smaller ballast after these pictures.  just forgot to document it.

HINDSIGHT TIP: It probably would of been better to glue the rock outcropping to the base BEFORE putting on the texture mix, that way the rocks would be one step closer to appearing like they are coming out of the ground rather than sitting on top.  Oh well.  maybe next time.  

Dry Brushing Should be Easier

When everything is dry, prime with black (not pictured, it's be boring to look at) and then paint things up.  Base coats and dry brushes.  

Bases all painted up.
I added some Woodland Scenics 'Deadfall' to look fallen logs, which of course are just sticks.
One could go outside and just get sticks from the ground I suppose,
but I'm not an outside person as discussed.

Standard stuff:

Bases painted brown with lighter brown and whites dry brushed on top.

Rocks painted dark grey, with lighter gray and white dry brushed on top. 

There are some obvious parts where I messed it up.  I always seem to mess up dry brushing.  Some of the und---ulations were not as smooth and supple as I thought.  But no matter!  Any mess up too egregious can and will be covered up with flock.  Lots and lots of flock.  

Flock and trees in the next installment, in our tree-part saga (get it??!!  Tree part instead of Three part!  OK, I guess that not punny).  This is a shorter post than my usual, but this stage of the project seems like a nice place for a chapter break. 

Thanks for reading and commenting.  I hope you are finding these entertaining and/or informative.  

EDIT: Part Three can be found HERE