Tree Life: The Making Southern Pines My Way.

   
  As I had mentioned in a previous blog post, I was to going to write up this tutorial about tall southern pine trees. Due to my iPhone being an asshole, some of the imagines are going to be sideways and upside down for this. So for those who were quick reading, you are probably laugh at yourself on the re-read of this thinking that you were drunk. However, this is really a combination of the iPhone acting up and my computer refusing to save my photo rotations. I will just count myself lucky that there were any saved images at all!
    Back to the task at hand! Things you will need for the basic pine woods are:

1.    Tempered Hardboard or MDF.
2.    An electric saw to cut the board in shapes. I used a cheap jig saw.
3.    A small mini-hand saw for cutting dowels.
4.    An electric drill with two sizes of drill bits. Sizes of bits depend on your needs.
5.    A Phillip's Head Screw Driver.
6.    1/2 wood screws.
7.     Wooden dowels. Sizes vary on your needs.
8.     Woodland Scenic Large trees or Sturdy branches that are similar.
9.      Duct Tape or Masking Tape.
10.     Super Glue. I use Loctite Control Gel.
11.     Sea Foam of Sage Tree kits. I get them from Scenic Express.
12.     Static Grass. I used 57.7 cm static grass. The color does not matter.
13.     Two tones of  flat green spray paint  (hunter green and lighter green) and dark brown flat spray paint. 
14.  A knife you can carve with.

     It seems like a lot for this project. It is! However, you can make a large amount of woods it you don't run out of everything like I did. I did not fully plan my venture. The good thing is the I have a better idea on what I need to complete my mission for the future.

    In starting the project, drew out shapes I what the bases in on the Tempered Hardboard I bought. I made it a point to not make the shapes too small or have too many dramatic curves, because I was going to cut this with a Jig-saw. There is no need to break blades or injure yourself doing this. Below was an example of a shape I cut out with it.

As you can see, I changed my mind on following the lines. 

      After cutting the shapes out, I decide to shave down the edges. I could do this with an electric sander, but the way I plan on basing it is not going to need to be perfect. I just carved the edges off with a knife. You will also note in the picture below, I used the other side with the rough texture. This can be used for basing with plastic or wood filler to built hills up if I should desire to. Below are the images of the steps!

I would suggest using a stronger knife if you decide to go with MDF instead of the Hardboard.

   Next, it is time for the dowels of the project. You want to size this up next to the miniatures to get an idea on how high you want them. Southern pines can be 40 to 80 feet in the air. The troops that I want to move through the woods, I want to move through without worrying about hands or figures hooking branches. I also have to consider the flags as well. You can make the dowels for preferred height. Also, keep in mind that you might trim off more branches. After this, I take the little hand saw of mine and cut the dowels into different various sizes around the height I want. This gives the various heights of trees like in nature. The saw you can get for $3.00 or a little more at a local hardware store.

"I think I will call him Mini-Saw!" Yes! Another sideways picture!

And this one is upside down! I used some smaller dowels, so you could get more than 5 pieces.

       Now that the dowel pieces are cut, I drill a hole on each one on the side I want for the wood screw to go into. I also use the same for the hardboard. Because I am using Woodland Scenic Trees, I used 1/2 wooden screws and I drilled the holes using 3/32 drill bit. Once, I drilled holes in everything, I mounted them securely together. It is after this, I switch to a 7/64 drill bit and drill holes on the top of the dowels. I move the drill in and out a lit for a tad extra room for the Woodland Scenic trees in stick into. 

Another upside down picture, but you get the idea.

The mounted dowels.

The hole added to the top.

And as you can see, they stick right in!

         After being satisfied with the results, I glue the trees in. There is no written rule that you have to do this for or the next step. If you travel on the go for wargaming, it might be beneficial to not do this for easy storage and break down. However, I am trying to make more permanent pieces. To get the trunks a more unified look, I decide to glue the Woodland Scenic trees down to the dowels. This can also make the tree more stable if you want more top heavy trees. I use tape to wrap over the joint seams. You can also go over a few times to build up a thicker ore tapered trunk. Now, I used duct tape, because I was lazy and I saw in the room. You might get more textured results with masking tape. But, since duct tape is rather smooth, I roughed it up with with the back end of scissors to get some texture. You could also, coat it with glue and add sand or saw dust for texture purposes. In either case, it is important to have sort of texture for when you later dry-brush this.

My duct tape trees!

This is after I roughed them up for talking back at me!

     When you got your trees ready, you can now mount the sea foam branches. I am not going to say that this is the easiest of tasks. I use Loctite Control Gel for a good reason. I can usually count to 30 and I can move on to the next branch. Sometimes the times can vary, because some the Sea Foam branches want to bow out. I just say to be creative with your colorful language while you are being creative. And really use colors when around children. Son of a Blue, Purple, Green!
     Really, it is not too bad. It just takes a little time and patience for the first branches. After you gain more confidence, it will start to come natural.

Some with the Sea Foam branches.

In this, you can see I trim off some of the lower branches. With some of these tree, less can be more.

    Now, I did not have the rest of the photos saved for the rest of this. The earlier tree making tutorial I made covers mush of the same things done for these trees. The difference is that I used static grass. Now, the color of the static grass is not that important after I add it to the trees, because I found I can just spray paint that. I go over it with a darker green as the base. The lighter green is from highlight that I spray lightly from afar. You can also use Superleaf or Noch Leaves to other types of trees. There nothing saying you cannot apply this method for other terrain ideas. Below where some recent results.

As you can see, this is a work in progress for a Cypress swamp.