As an avid maker of models for tabletop wargames, I am constantly enthused and excited by the thought of something new. I spend a lot of time wondering what would look good in my collection, or what would offer up interesting gameplay, or how I could adapt an existing kit into something unique.
Unfortunately these thought processes have led to a completely unrealistic quest to build and paint every single model I've ever conceived of, or dreamt about. And not just centrepiece models like dragons and heavy tanks. I often find myself wanting to start with the basics – like a massive collection of troop units to base an army on, or an extensive collection of multiple terrain types to switch between. Not only does this take up a lot of space in my home, but it also leads to a significant backlog (the dreaded pile of shame), and the mildly terrifying realisation that I will probably never be on top of my hobby goals.
But on the plus side, it does lead me to try a bit harder. To be a bit more motivated. To organise myself and try to get stuff done. And last year I really managed to make a few dents in some of the projects on my wishlist.
One of those was something I was first introduced to right back at the beginning of my hobby journey, in the mid 1980s: a woods. In fact it's less of a woods and more of a copse, but the idea is that two or three similar models could be combined to create a larger wooded area.
So I made two.
I started by shaping a couple of bases from 12 inch by 6 inch rectangles of thin MDF. I gave each board a kidney bean shape, rounded all the corners, then tapered off the edges to create a slope. I stuck bits of an old, broken cork table mat over the middle of each board, in order to raise the height profile a bit, and give myself something extra to stick the scale model trees into.
The first couple of trees came from my old collection of random bits, but then I bought some new ones from Amazon and a couple of online hobby shops (most likely Element Games and Wayland Games), taking care to find trees of differing heights, colours and textures. I had to thicken their trunks with green stuff (two part modelling putty), and also, wherever I could reach them without knocking all the foliage off, give the obvious plastic bark areas a bit of a drybrush with a more matt-looking paint.
Once the trees were secured to the boards with superglue and a bit more modelling putty (roughly shaped to look like widening tree trunks, or exposed roots), I then used some polyfilla (or spackle) to fill some of the gaps in the cork, and shape it to have smoother sloping edges. A few flat but textured stones from my garden were also superglued to the boards at this stage.
When that was all dry, most of the top of each base was coated in PVA, leaving the stones and a few root or cork details exposed. They were then carefully dipped in a mix of coarse sand and small stones, left to dry, and then liberally coated with a final PVA and water mix to ensure everything was stuck fast.
Painting the base was a simple affair of washing and drybrushing, before various grass flock, tufts, leaf litter and lichen/foliage effects were glued in place. The very final detail was a small sprinkling of hand-made paper leaves, cut with leaf punches, carefully glued into prominent, but natural positions.
After spray-varnishing, my wife saw them for the first time, and instead of her usual allergic reaction to all things wargaming, surprisingly she said she really liked them. Really really liked them. So much so that she thought they would make lovely little desk ornaments, even for people who aren't addicted to the idea of miniature armies clashing on fantastical tabletops.
So I then started all over again, in order to create two, smaller, new ones. One for her, and one for a friend. I gave my wife hers at Christmas, and delivered the other last week, but annoyingly for the purposes of my collection, I think these new ones are a bit better than their earlier prototypes. So... I guess that means I have to make at least one more.
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