Iranian Trees – 15mm ish

[Angel Barracks]

What do people use for trees from the Middle East, these kinds of things:

[Rhoderic]

For palm trees, you may want to look at the plastic ones being sold for very low prices (albeit often in bulk packs) out of China, the sort that are originally intended for architectural models. You should find them on eBay, and I think some wargamers in the West have ordered them straight from Alibaba (“Chinese eBay”) as well. They may take a bit of work to get tabletop-ready (if you’re a perfectionist), and you might just have to make your best guess as to which of the numerous varieties available is the best size for 15mm (some may be too small, others too big). Still, a lot of wargamers have been using them lately, and there are some re-sellers in the West now as well. I got mine from Minibits (at a mark-up, but still cheapish) but they don’t carry them anymore.

Another alternative is the plastic palm trees from Pegasus Hobbies. They’re more expensive but still affordable, and better-looking for less effort. They have one set of 5 made for 1/72 – 1/87 scale, still a tad big for 15mm (I’m making that judgment looking at the ones I have in front of me right now) but you might be able to make a go of it if you shorten the trunks. The other two sets, the ones with 3 trees each, are 1/48 so they’ll definitely be too big for your purposes.

There are further alternatives for palm trees as well, but I’m content with the aforementioned plastic varieties so haven’t really looked all that much into other avenues. I know there are some etched brass palm trees on the market nowadays, but they’re probably expensive and not very durable.

Those pine trees (or whatever they are) in the first photo are the sort of thing I’d make from scratch myself, but then I’ve spent a long time experimenting and practicing with terrain-building and gathering all sorts of materials for it (various types of foam foliage, etc). It’s a particular interest of mine, and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Ready-made realistic deciduous/coniferous/pine-type trees can vary a lot in price, but most are quite on the expensive side, so the question gets to be how much of the table you want to cover in forestation.

[Anonymous]

If you are doing triple canopy settings like I do with 15mm Tarzan games then you want “oversized” trees for the top (canopy) layer.

[Angel Barracks]

Cool, just ordered some ebay cheap ones.
Will defo have to paint them once they arrive.

Was indeed looking at some very nice ones made from brass etching and stuff, about £15.00 each or more, very nice but cant afford that kind of carry on!

Rhoderic wrote:

Those pine trees (or whatever they are) in the first photo are the sort of thing I’d make from scratch myself, but then I’ve spent a long time experimenting and practicing with terrain-building and gathering all sorts of materials for it (various types of foam foliage, etc). It’s a particular interest of mine, and may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

I for one would be very interested in this.

[Rhoderic]

Angel Barracks wrote:

I for one would be very interested in this.

So, I’m doing a small, terribly scatterbrained, terribly imperfect write-up for you on the subject of scratchbuilding trees, but I may not get it finished tonight (I’m just being distracted by other stuff, the writing itself isn’t much effort). Just so you know I’m not ignoring you.

[Rhoderic]

Angel Barracks wrote:

Cool, just ordered some ebay cheap ones. Will defo have to paint them once they arrive.

Depending on which ones you got, you may also have to spend some time removing mould lines from the trunks. I’m choosing not to use the trunks at all but rather to scratchbuild my own (I really just bought the trees for the fronds), though I haven’t yet perfected a satisfactory way to do that.

Oh, and if you mean to paint the trees “from scratch”, basecoat and all, the way I do, then this is precisely the kind of thing where gesso comes in handy. It adheres quite well to plastics like these. But of course I’m aware that I’m an oddball in that I choose to re-paint all my plastic trees with basecoats and all, whereas most people are content just giving the bare plastic a drybrush, a paint/ink wash or both.

[Angel Barracks]

Full on repaint, not just the leaves.
😀

[Rhoderic]

Damn, it’s turning out to be quite a wall of text that I’m writing. You’re not going to thank me…

[Rhoderic]

Seriously, I can’t stop writing it longer and longer. Mike, you’re going to be so angry with me when I post it 

[Mike]

[Rhoderic]

7000 words now, but nearing completion… at which point I’ll probably be banned from TWW for writing excessively long forum posts 

[Mike]

Maybe split it up over several posts?

[Rhoderic]

I’ll post it as a separate thread and present it as a WIP. It’s sorely lacking pictures at this point and I could start gradually adding those and refining the text in the future.

Almost 9000 words now. I’ve lost containment. Evacuate! Evacuate!

[Author]

Posts