Monday 9 July 2018

Rainforests - how hard can they be?

   It's been a while since I've started a post with a blurb about a new project, so because I can't seem to keep focused on anyone thing for too long, here we go with a brand new project;
   I have recently been travelling around the forests of Costa Rica and it's been hard not to come away so heavily inspired that I knew I needed to try building some. I've not tried to reinvent the wheel and have taken heavily from Sir Michael Awdry, so I won't go over how I made them in any more details than anywhere I have diviated from his method.

   First up, I thought I would go over my inspiration. Costa Rica turns out to have multiple different types of tropical forest*, including; Rainforests, Cloud Forests and Dry Tropical Forests, with variations in between. This has meant I have seen the classic palm tree style forests, forests that look like British forests except for the heat and forests that have plants that would be unbelivable if modelled in 28mm unless you were planning on using them exclusively for sci-fi games.
*Rainforests aren't the be all and end all that I assumed
  




 
 
   My dilemma then came when I tried to put what I had seen into practise, how do I get the sheer range of plants and thickness of the vegetation onto the gaming board and make it survive playing games with. Ideally, I want to have a mix of tree types (for my practise ones I was happy to just use palm trees) but I need to work out how to use other tree types without it looking like I have just put British trees in a rainforest board, but that is a problem for later.
   Ultimately, I am pretty pleased with the outcome of my morning's work, the bases need a certain something but that will come with time I think, although any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

28mm wargaming rainforest scenery board

   As these were supposed to be a test bed for a number of thing, namely; how many more plants do I need to buy, does my idea actually work and can I make them thick enough, I limited myself to 3 bases of trees and a single bit of scatter terrain. In the future I would like to fill a 6/4 board as heavily as makes sense.


28mm wargaming rainforest scenery board
Spot the bird.
 

 
Thanks for reading

10 comments:

  1. Looks good so far. As for adding a certain something to the bases, I'd suggest adding some dried herbs as ground cover - once the PVA has dried go over them with some very thinned brown paint to stain them.

    It's worth taking a look at The Terrain Tutor channel on YouTube - his "Big Burma Build" vids should be quite helpful.

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    1. Thanks Tamsin, I will have a look at both of your ideas

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  2. Great job Mike and thank you for the shout out! They look great and I would definitely use Tamsin's idea if you can. I found that using some clump foliage and some tufts of various lengths helped to really convey a feeling of depth. Inspirational shots at the top of the post too.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Advice gratefully accepted.

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  3. A cheap floor of dead leaves solution is to use the dried contents of a tea bag stuck down. Mulchy looking .... maybe a resin puddle or two.

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    1. That makes a lot of sense, thanks Phil.

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  4. Brilliant Mike! I have a box of similar plants and will look back on this and Michael's post as a guide - and I have to say the dead tree makes the whole thing come together. That is a huge miss everyone makes, not putting those in. Looks grand!

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    1. Thanks Ivor.
      I think most gamers have a box of bits for a planned jungle board, I know I did, it's just getting round to actually doing it.

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