Building a Bridge: Phase 2 Foliage

The second part of "big terrain pieces in a rush" brings us to the Badger Airbrush Stynlrez  primers, along with a few other shades.  Getting into all the crevices rapidly without damaging all of the details is best done with the airbrush.

The colors are not very important, since the vast majority of this will be covered with foliage.  It is more about setting up that foliage with some grayish browns.

I spent a little more time putting shades and highlights on the rock sections and tree stumps.  Again, various shades and textures of flock will go over the top of this.  Putting a number of layers of the primer over everything helps to seal it, and make a better surface for the layers of glue to adhere.

Now we are all set to get the foliage onto this massive piece, which is about 4 feet long.  I have done a number of foliage articles already on the blog, in case you wanted to put trees on yours.  

I have since realized myself that I can create separate tree stands that can be used for such things.

Using my wood glue and a touch of spray adhesive, I started to place the moss.  Once this is flocked, it really does look like tiny trees!

As I mentioned before, I wanted to leave some open areas for infantry to advance, but have enough clumps of trees for troops to hide behind.

If you recall my past episodes on the winter tree stands, I really fell in love with the dried out recycled loose leaf tea!  It has a great color already, and it makes perfect dead fall when it is slightly ground up.

If you are curious, it is a combo of Chai tea and Earl Grey. 

Once again, using the watered down wood glue in the misting spray bottle, as well as the spray adhesive, I placed my clumps, dead fall, and a few plants in strategic areas.

The magic of the flocking process begins!  Most of my flock (of all types) is from Woodland Scenics.

I have a number of tutorials on how this is done.  Here's one link for you:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/05/roadside-forests-new-tool-for-trees.html

In these images, you can see the difference that the flocking can make!  The bottom image has both sides completed, as well as the road on the top.

I mentioned in the first post that I was not going to sculpt in the ruts of the road, since I also wanted to use this as a hill or something else.  There will be some images in the final post that shows how I was able to place my smaller tree stands along the top of this ridge to completely alter its appearance!

When I saw this piece sitting on the table, I realized that in a matter of months, my terrain pieces have become vastly more realizstic.  They also take a fraction of the time to produce!

I was really pleased when I saw how this turned out, as I have a LOT more rocky/mountainous terrain pieces that have to be created for the Caucasus, Italy, and so on.  Those will present a whole new kid of challenge!

Balancing realism, playability and durability along with time and expense can be very tricky.  I think I have managed to figure out the best balance between all of them at this point.

You will be seeing this terrain piece in very next battle report, following up on Blood at Arras.  The British will be featured once again in a desperate retreat to the beaches of Normandy!

Here's the previous battle report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njN4D64zH1k

I am still trying to work out the logistics of doing terrain tutorial videos.  These can get very messy, and a bit physical, so finding a place for the camera is not always easy!  Many experiments with a variety of tripods have been done... I have actually had to turn to some very old free standing photography tripods in order to prevent the camera shaking.

Anyway, there is more equipment that is needed, such as sound tiles, materials, and so on.  Any support that can be offered on the Patreon page is very helpful. Should the funding be available, I can even add in terrain tutorials as a pledge level!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel