The Eaves of Mirkwood

Did you ever look at those modeling trees on the gaming table and think of how strange they look? Especially deciduous trees can look out of place. Those (expensive) Citadel trees seem to be of a very strange breed...

I've experimented with different materials for trees. The best looking results I got by using real branches, with seaweed and flock. The problem with those trees is - they just cannot be stored without damaging them.

Then I built wire trees, experimenting with texture paint for bark. They looked better, but not really as good as I'd have liked. And then a friend of mine brought FIMO® to my attention. This is a modeling clay that's heat-hardened and most often used to make pieces of jewelry.

So, I combined methods (one of my favourite ways to grapple difficult problems) and started my first tree. I've tried to get that 'Mirkwood-feeling', so you can of course do those trees in any shape you desire.

Materials used: Wire (I use covered wire for garden fences) and FIMO® soft (which is easier to cover the wire frame with)

First step is to cut about 6 strips of wire abou the same length (I use 25 cm length). Those are bent in the middle and twisted to form the trunk.

Now, cut the loops and begin forming the roots by twisting two strands of wire together.

The same procedure is used to form the branches of the tree.

Now, I bend the tree into the desired form, roughly shaping the overall silhouette. As I said above, I want the slightly crippled Mirkwood-look.

That's all rather easy and fast, but now we've got to cover the whole thing in modeling clay. I'm using thin patches, which I press onto the wire like a kind of stockings.

Don't use too much clay, especially on roots and branches. After all the effort, the tree should look something like this:

Now, add small bits of clay as smaller branches, and model the bark. Modeling tools come in handy here, but you can make do with wire and a knife.

Now, the thing has to go into the oven at 110°C for about 30 minutes. After that, the tree is hard and dry, but leave it some more time to cool down and finally set. After that you can use acrylic paint on it (there are colour clays, which makes base-coating obsolete).

When the paint has dried, we'll need something to hold our foilage. I used cotton wool on my first trees, which works fine, but then I discovered felt wool. It's cheap and can be bought already coloured.
Just get some PVA glue on the ends of the branches and drape the wool over the tree.

After the glue sets, I spray the wool with spray glue (I use NOCH® but any good spray glue works) and apply flock. Add some highlights with lighter flock. Finally, fix the whole thing with a coat of clear paint and base it. The tree is ready for the gaming table!

Just to give you an impression of what can be done and how those trees look on the table, here're some pictures.

That's the self-made battlemat from the other tutorial, by the way. As you can see, you can even do something like Old Man Willow. 😊

Including all the materials, one tree clocks in at about 3,- € and about 2 hours of work (depending on how detailed you want it to be).