Trees!

[DCRBrown]

I’m looking for some 12mm trees to go with the Victrix 12mm WW2 range – does anyone know of any good 12mm or thereabouts scale trees?

DB

[Jemima Fawr]

Just use the same trees you use with 15mm and they’ll look fine.  Trees are always a lot bigger than wargamers think.

I use the Woodland Scenics plastic tree armatures and stick-on foliage.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[DCRBrown]

Thanks Mark,

My issue is that most of my trees are a good for for my 18mm AB Naps, but look a bit sparse/out of “wargame” scale with smaller WW2 figs.

I was hoping to purchase a bag of ready made trees at say model railway TT scale or similar.

DB

 

 

[Guy Farrish]

Trees are a great example of the weird accommodations we make with scale(s) in wargames.

The average canopy layer in temperate deciduous woodland – the tops of the big trees in woods and forests – is c130ft.

With 12mm figs we are looking at a vertical scale of c 2mm=1ft (dependent on all the usual fudges of where we are measuring to and from on a figure etc).

so an average mature tree should be c260mm high.  A few of those are going to crowd our table really quickly.

If we take the sub canopy layer, the height of the trees that don’t make it to the top, and fill out the gaps between the big winners, we are looking at c60ft, so still c130mm. More manageable but I’ll bet not many field 13/10/6cm trees with their 12/10/6mm figs respectively.

Our ground scales bear no relation to the vertical figure scales and that is where we have the problem –  130 feet tall trees take up a lot of groundspace and the clash between a 2mm = 1ft vertical scale and the usual ground scale, which is far more compressed than that, clunks when you get to trees and buildings.

Some rules use the same vertical and ground scales, but not many, and many rules don’t use any stated ground scale these days.

This often produces weird results in game play but probably makes the accommodation between tree and building footprints and heights easier to swallow.

I think basically I’m saying; use whatever looks good to you.

My very rudimentary representations of trees – horsehair trimmed and sprayed green – average about 4cm high and do service in 2mm, 6mm, 10mm and 15mm games. They turn into scrub bushes for 28mm.

[DCRBrown]

Thnaks Guy,

Do you have a pic or link to have a look  at how its done?

DB

[Jemima Fawr]

DCRBrown wrote:

Thanks Mark, My issue is that most of my trees are a good for for my 18mm AB Naps, but look a bit sparse/out of “wargame” scale with smaller WW2 figs. I was hoping to purchase a bag of ready made trees at say model railway TT scale or similar. DB

Fair enoughski! 🙂 If you want to go down the make-your-own route, the Woodland Scenics 2-3″ deciduous tree armatures are ideal for you (though I also use the 4-5″ trees with my 10mm).  57 trees to a bag for about £15, plus roughly the same again for the foliage.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Steve Johnson]

Another vote for Woodland Scneics trees and foliage. I use the ones roughly 3″-4″ high and they look fine to me.

[Guy Farrish]

I think mine are an acquired taste – and a stop gap measure I made c30 years ago now I think about it!

I do have some Woodland scenics (with horsehair foliage cut to shape and flocked) and I am looking at alternatives.

However:

More photos at Trees

 

[Norm S]

Kallistra, who do a lot of 12mm sell the 50mm K&M bristle tree.

S&A scenics does a nice small deluxe tree that looks fine with 10 / 12mm

[Andrew Beasley]

If you have time and not allergic to supergluing things (inc fingers) then you could try these stunty ones

[Jemima Fawr]

Dave, here’s what my Woodland Scenics trees look like with 10mm figures.  The smaller ones are from the 2-3″ pack (57 to a pack) and the larger ones are from the 3-4″ pack (28 to a pack).  As you can see, they look perfectly good with 10mm figures.  When playing with 15mm and 28mm figures I’ll then throw in the 5-7″ trees as well (12 to a pack):

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[DCRBrown]

M,

Yes, very nice, (and includes the drinks collection and the memo from your missus on the sideboard)!

I’ve currently ordered some pre-made trees of mixed sizes, so I’ll see what these turn out like.

If they are no good I’ll go with Woodland Scenics.

Thanks.

DB

 

 

[Sane Max]

There’s a how-to somewhere on the net to make your own ‘Christmas’ type tree in all scales, but I can’t find it. I used the technique and bodged it a bit to make something a bit more sparse and less plantationy.

I will give the basics, it’s dead easy once you get the technique right

You need an electric drill, the sort with an adjustable Chuck

Metal wire – longer the better. About the thickness of florists wire.

Thin masking tape

A floor brush with organic material bristles

Cut lots and lots bristles from the brush and lay them carefully and evenly across the width of a few feet of the sticky-side of the masking tape. Closer together gives a more plantation look, further apart something more like wild trees, larch etc.

Fiddly bit. cut wire about 3 times as long as your strip of tape and bend it in half. feed the two loose ends into the chuck of your leccy drill and tighten the chuck. Fit the other end, a loop, over something steady like a nail hammered into a work-bench.

Now slip the hairy tape between the two pieces of wire, so the wire goes the length of the tape. it should stay in place if you are careful to make the most of its stickiness.

set the drill to a very low speed and it will wind up the wire and ‘eat’ the tape, to give you what is in effect several feet of ‘Bottle Brush’ which you can then cut to the lengths you need and trim appropriately, then glue and dip in flock for tree-effect.

My skills in describing this are not superlative, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a doddle.

[Jemima Fawr]

DCRBrown wrote:

M, Yes, very nice, (and includes the drinks collection and the memo from your missus on the sideboard)! I’ve currently ordered some pre-made trees of mixed sizes, so I’ll see what these turn out like. If they are no good I’ll go with Woodland Scenics. Thanks. DB

Yes indeed!  The wife’s ‘Daily Insults’ thingy is a cause of constant amusement… For most of the game she had it flipped over to ‘”He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”  I think she’s trying to tell me something…

My tips for the WS trees:

Twist the trunk like a corkscrew to make a more 3D tree from the flat armature (this is actually how trees grow anyway).  The plastic is very resilient and stays in place once twisted.

I use Bison contact adhesive to stick the foliage to the trees.  It’s less runny than UHU and a lot tackier than Bostik and does the job perfectly. However, use superglue to glue the trunk to the ‘foot’, as contact adhesives tend to melt and weaken the join.

I’ve used 40mm MDF disc bases from Warbases, though if doing it again I’d use a 50mm disc for the 3-5″ trees and a 60mm disc for the 5-7″ trees.  I also glued 2p pieces between the ‘foot’ and the base to add a bit of weight and stability.

Around a third of my trees are ‘based’ on needles, so they can be stabbed directly into polystyrene terrain.  Heat the eye-end of a needle in a candle flame for about ten seconds, then quickly impale it into the bottom of the trunk (cut off the lug at the bottom of the trunk first, to make a flat bottom).  It’ll melt into the plastic for about 5mm and then set fast.  WEAR GARDENING GLOVES for this, as it’s VERY easy for the needle to slip and go straight into your fingers to the bone…

I use a mixture of their ‘Foliage’, which is rather like camo-netting that you rip to size and drape over the branches and their ‘Foliage Clusters’ which are balls of compressed sponge-flock-stuff that you rip into smaller pieces and then stick to the branches.  Once I’ve stuck the large clumps on, I then throw smaller foliage ‘shrapnel’ onto any visible excess glue.

Then texture, paint and flock the bases.  Job jobbed.  It seems like a bit of a chore at first, but I soon got into the swing of it and was knocking out a smaller tree every two minutes and managed to do over 100 in one day, with about 250 of all sizes done in two weeks.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[bobm]

If you’re not keen on making your own and you’re UK based I suggest contacting Treefellas who make a wide variety of excellent trees (bushy, columnar, straggly, weeping willow, fruit bearing) all ready based in sizes that suit 6mm-20mm gaming.  He’s a very nice chap based in Sheffield.  He does deals on multiple purchases and prices are based on height of tree.

I’ve got hundreds!!!  As an ACW gamer you can never have enough.

There's 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.....

[DCRBrown]

B,

Thanks – do you have  a link to their site?

DB

 

[bobm]

[email protected]

I believe the guy is called Robert Hubbard and he is on facebook.

I’ve only ever bought at shows…..remember them?

There's 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.....

[DCRBrown]

B,

Thanks!

I’ve also just received some of these trees which seems ok…..

DB

 

[TerrainShed]

If you fancied the tree canopy style a bit like Guy’s, I make them in various foliage styles and apart from off the shelf sets, can make any shape or size up to 8″

https://terrainshed.co.uk/

Enjoy your gardening

Les & Alison

[Jemima Fawr]

Nice busch.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Mike]

Jemima Fawr wrote:

Nice busch.

ISWYDT

[DCRBrown]

RMD,

DB

 

[DCRBrown]

Terrainshed,

Thanks – they look very good!

DB

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