Terrain Basics - Forests and Rivers

So. A little progress.

It’s been a few weeks and although I haven’t posted, I have not been idle.  It’s been a little bit busy at work and also with my other hobby – dancing.  With it being end of year, lots of deadlines at work and a few display dances that require practice.  Couple that with preparing for Christmas and something had to give – and it was the writing of blog posts that suffered. As you can see from the title – November Progress – I am a wee bit behind writing the articles.

Anyway.  What have I produced since the last update?

I have produced a further 3 forest bases, with another 4 in various states of completion.  I have figured out that I can produce 1-2 of these per week, the limiting factors being space and time.  Because I am using sculptamold, they need to be left to cure for a few days and I don’t have a lot of space so I am limited to 2.  I have started a sort of production line to try and workaround that.  On any given week I will make one or two new bases and leave them to dry, then I will take the two from the previous week and finish them off; painting, flocking, detailing and adding the trees.

The first one is just a basic stand of trees, similar to the test piece.  However I did decide to add a little fairy circle, or rather my daughter told me I had to add one.  Either way it looks pretty good, and shown below being fittingly modelled by some middle earth wood elves

The next one I did I experimented a bit with relief, making one end of the base higher than the other and adding a small ledge.  I also added a fallen log using an old twig, which I baked in the oven for 20 minutes to kill off any bacteria.  I glued flock to the top of the log to look like moss and added some fallen leaves around the base of each tree.  As with the test piece I added a couple of strategic Mushrooms.

The last one to be completed was a much larger piece, almost twice as big as the others.  For this, I wanted to create the impression of deeper forest, the larger footprint allows more trees.  I raised the topography at each end of the stand and created a gully down the middle, across which I added a fallen tree.  The gully I filled with dead leaves and I also added some flat topped mushrooms.  One of the things I like about the 3d printable mushrooms over the GW resin ones, apart from the fact that they can be scaled to more reasonable proportions, is that there are some more interesting varieties.

In addition to the completed items, I have a number of pieces in production.  I have found that I can do a sort of production line of these and can produce 1-2 per week, depending on the size of the pieces and the level of detail I want to go into.  I am limited by time and space when making these.  Time because I am using sculptamold which really requires several days for it to set and dry fully and space because I don’t have a lot of it to leave things lying around to dry.

At present I have two reasonably large pieces that have been flocked and are ready to have trees etc. added to them.  One of them will also have a small pond in the middle, so that will take some time to do with the water effects.  The other has a much higher level of elevation than the others and has a small cliff face at one end and what will eventually become a hidden shrine at the end of a pathway that leads through the forest.

In addition, not pictured below, I have another two small stands that I am making.  These are being photographed at every stage of the process with a view to making a tutorial, although my next article will likely be showing of the two in-progress pieces when they are finished and also looking at how much of a 4′ x 6′ gaming area I can currently cover with what I have made so far, hopefully that will be done before Christmas