In part four of my tree logs, I am working on my transport terrain trees. That is to say the trees that I have in my general terrain box that I use to set up random games when gaming away from the house. Most trees I do look good, but require a bit of care and bulk when storing them. They also have a tend to shed a bit, so stacking is not a good idea. For my traveling terrain, the point is to get as much terrain as possible into a small box with all my other easy to use terrain. Also, the terrain has to be very rugged to handle a lot of use and tight storage. I already had some of these, but decided I needed more for more forested tables.
For this type of tree, I prefer the brush type of tree. The are hard and sturdy and do not shed. Maybe they are not as good looking as some other trees, but they look fine on the table top.
The other thing is that this type of tree does not work on Muti tree bases. It’s one tree per base and the base has to have some weight to it, so the trees do not fall over. The solution for these is to use round washers of the appropriate size (normally 1-1/2′ or so). These glue easily to the plastic tree base that comes with most trees. You then just cover this with ballast to give texture and better secure the tree to the base.
Simply paint the bases brown and dry brush them up. I used Minwax as a dip on these. I just dipped the entire trunk and base and let it dry. this gives even more strength to the basing but paint will work fine. I then drybrused these up and hit the whole tree with flat sealer from krylon. This toned down the gloss from the Minwax and secures the flock on the brush tree that much more.
These types of trees make easy throw terrain. Just put down a base and set the trees on top. When it is time to put them away, just through them into a box or bag and no worries!
- Manteuffel