Distractions

Many distractions in the past two months. Hopefully they're resolved. At the very least I'd like to make some progress at least once a week.

George Sealy left a nice comment on my last entry, I'll pimp his blog here:
http://wargamersprogress.blogspot.com . He's doing some of the same stuff I am, which inspired the pic for this post.

Wire twist trees aren't necessarily the most cost or time efficient way to make trees... nor are they the most durable generally. They sure look good though. There are several resources for making your own trees, the blog I linked to earlier of course, Antenociti's Workshop has a guide: http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/extras%20tree%20making%201.htm, and the two terrain books from Osprey are good too (if you pick one I would go with the earlier one first, save the advanced for later, not because it's really advanced, just because the first one is a tad bit better).

I covered these trees with spackle right out of the container. It's a bit gloopy, but it works really well. George mentions mixing white glue into the mix in his blog, I'll give that a try as well and see what happens. Even straight from the pot though spackle works fantastic.

I use an old brush to apply the spackle, one who's bristles are so stiff it might as well just be a stick. It works well for the purpose though. I glob on the spackle and then start working it around until I have the texture I want. It's very soft and malleable. You could wait until it hardens a bit and texture then as well. I also keep an extra brush around that I use to smooth the top layer out if I want something a little less gnarly. A damp brush and a light touch gives you another way to arrive at the texture you desire.

I plan on writing up a full tutorial on tree making at some point. That will probably remain on the back burner for the time being though.

I'm playing at a closer store now, though I still intend to get to the other LGS occasionally. My wife won't be using her Circle army so I may be picking that up as my primary force. If for no other reason than there seems to not be a Circle player at this store right now.