DIY Terrain: 10 Step Trees
To kick off our series on DIY terrain, we wanted to start with something key to most tabletop battlefields. Trees not only look great at a small scale, but they’re relatively easy to produce. This particular style of tree uses wire armatures and a few basic hobby products and is perfect for beginners. One of the best things about it is that this method can be tweaked to make trees of any height or scale. For the purposes of this tutorial the measurements are for 15mm scale, but can easily be increased for larger scales.
Tools & Equipment
For our method we used the following:
- Garden Wire
- Grass Flock
- Foliage Bushes (Light)
- Brown Paint
- PVA/School Glue
- Hairspray
- Base
- Pliers x 2
- Wire Cutters
- Paint Brush
It’s worth noting that almost all of this can be substituted if you don’t have the materials on hand, or if you want to customize your look.
Step 1 — Cut off 2 or 3 pieces of garden wire at just under 3 inches. Each piece will result in 2 branches, so you can vary between 4 and 6 branches with your trees.
Step 2 — Bend the wire in half, then bend it again at 45 degrees. It will start to look like a T shape.
Step 3 — Using two sets of pliers, twist the wire until it begins to look like a tree trunk.
Step 4 — Adjust the wire ends so that they form the position of tree branches. Then bend out the loops that have formed at the bottom of the wire.
Step 5 — Trim the ends of the tree branches so that they are between a quarter and half an inch in length.
Step 6 — Glue the armature to your base with PVA glue. Alternatively, you can use superglue if you want a faster and stronger bond.
Step 7 — Once the glue for the armature is dry, you can paint your armature brown using either the spray paint or by hand with any regular brown acrylic paint.
Step 8 — When the paint is dry, generously brush PVA onto the base. Then dip the base into your grass flock.
Step 9 — Brush more PVA glue on to the branches. Then attach a suitable piece of foliage bush to the top, try to adjust it so the ends of the wire branches are not visible.
Step 10 — Spray the whole thing with hairspray. This helps hold everything in place.
So there you have it! Relatively simple DIY trees. Something to keep in mind while working with materials such as glues, flock, and wire cutters is safety. Make sure your space is well ventilated, and be extra careful to wear glasses (I just about lost an eye cutting the wires). Also be mindful that your obligatory craft time cup of tea will attract bits of flock and foliage. So remember to keep it at a distance, because the aim is make the tree without eating its components.
