Operation Battleboard - Phase Three

Tools/Materials:

• 18Gauge wire
• Wire Cutters
  
• Needle Nose Pliers
  
• Primer
• Paint & brush(brown paint)
  
• Lichen - various colors

Trees

One accessory for any battle board is ground cover. This includes trees, hills, buildings, rock formation etc. Prior to making this battle board I would just dump a lump of lichen on the game board and say "those are light/heavy woods". However it was very visually appealing.

My next attempt was to take some plaster and jam twigs into it. Then I'd glue so turf to the ends and had trees. This was a good start but I couldn't find good twigs to make the trees look nice.

Next I read about some people using wire to create trees. I tried it. I love it, especially how they look.

Step 1 - Cut Wire and Twist

Buy some 18 gauge wire and cut it up into 4"-5" length. Take 4-5 of these sections and twist them together, leaving about ~1" on either end untwisted. Using needle nosed pliers helps with this.


2 - Basing with Plaster

For my first attempt I decided to make some plaster bases. I bent the wires in a fanning position so they would stay flat with the base. I then poured plaster into a cardboard mold I made. Some paint, flock, and lichen later I had a nice look template of trees.


My second thought I had, now that I was making a battle board, was to make a spike at one of the wire. This would allow me to just stick them into the foam anywhere I want. I liked the idea and went about making it happen.

3 - Painting

I sprayed primer on the trees, so the paint would last longer. I then used a brown paint to cover the trees with one coat.

4- Basing it without Plaster

Next I took a glob of brown paint and slopped it to the base of the tree. This gives it a more realistic look imho when in the foam.

5 - Add the Lichen

The last step was to add the lichen to the top of the tree. I used the ends of the wire to spear the lichen on. Then I bent the wire to form a hook so the lichen would stay on and also to mold the tree top to look more realistic if needed.




Finally, I had a forest. This took me about 3-4 hours of work to create 64 trees. It took about 30 yards of wire as well. Factoring in the paint and the lichen, made this a very cheap way of having trees for my battle board.