Having recently received two bags of palm trees last week in the post and with some warm and sunny weather predicted over the weekend. I thought it would be a good time to get them ready for tabletop use as the warm weather helps speed up the drying process.
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| Getting the palm trees to be tabletop ready. |
Fortunately, most of the palm trees had a peg at the bottom, which made it easy to secure them to the bases. For the trees that didn't have a peg, I drilled a hole in the base and used a toothpick to create one. I cut 3mm MDF to size to create the bases, painted them, and drilled holes for the trees. Then, I glued the trees as I slotted them into their bases and trimmed the pegs off.
Of all the activities, I think getting started with the first activity of cutting out of the bases was the most laborious activity, all the other activities seemed to go quite quickly as the grove of palm trees started to appear on the painting table. Great motivation.
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| The trees, one has been drilled and a peg added, and the painted base with holes drilled. |
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| Trimming the bases. |
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| A palm grove appears on the painting table. |
The final step was to apply a coat of PVA glue to the bases and dip them in fine sand. Once this was dry, I coated the bases with thinned-down PVA glue to keep the sand in place. The photos below show the finished palm trees with some Arab Rebellion figures to help show scale. I completed 26 bases of trees in total. This used up pretty much all the suitable trees in the two mixed bags of palm trees, leaving the smaller scale trees for my 6mm WW2 Western Desert terrain needs.
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| A view of the collection as seen when wargaming. |
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| A closer view showing the scale with 1/72 plastic figures. |
Overall, I am very pleased on how it all worked out, and purchasing two of the mixed bags was a good idea as the contents of the bags did differ.
Nice result!
ReplyDeleteThey look very good Peter! Based upon your earlier post, I've ordered some for my games, but they will need trimming a bit to suit my 10mm figures. Hopefully they will arrive by the end of the week.
ReplyDeleteThey had a lot of smaller palm trees which would be suitable for both 6mm and 10mm.
DeleteReally nice work Peter and a lot cheaper than exactly the same model palm trees would cost if you bought them from the likes of Flames of War!
ReplyDeleteAll up the cost for these trees has been $28 including postage, and I still have the smaller trees to do my 6mm terrain.
DeleteThey look great, the photo entitled 'A view of the collection as seen when wargaming' in particular is brilliant - the variety in the size and shape of the trees is so convincing. Are you working on the 6mil trees now?
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am waiting until next weekend to cut out the MDF bases for the smaller trees.
DeleteIf you're using the same thickness MDF you might want to chamfer the edges a bit more as they'll be quite a step in 6mm.
DeleteYes, the MDF can look very chunky without chamfering.
DeleteExcellent result Peter.
ReplyDeleteThanks, it all worked out ok.
DeleteNice result, palm trees instantly set the scene, very evocative.
ReplyDeleteThanks, grouped together they certainly do set the scene.
DeleteBlimey your turn around from delivery to tabletop is amazing. They look fab.
ReplyDeleteWhen the weather is good working on terrain always goes to the top of the list. The arrival of the trees aligned with the good weather.
DeleteThe mix of different kinds of palms works really well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I was fortunate to have a good variety in the bags of trees.
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