Monday 14 January 2019

Brambles

Made some nice clumpy bramble terrain, as this months Azazelx painting challenge - https://azazelx.com/2018/12/24/january-2019-paint-challenge-terrain-centrepiece-models/ - is one based around making terrain, so I thought I'd follow through on an idea I've had for a while.

Brambles - nice easy, multi purpose terrain, fits almost anything and is a nice bit of table dressing. Noones gonna argue about them being an utter pain to try and move through!

Theres also the whole matter of brambles being protection from vampires, an utter annoyance to Lucifer, warding off evil spirits and being full of healing power.

Here they are, tastefully modelled by the Duke of Wellington..........







HOW I MADE THEM.

Had a couple of spare bits of MDF I've had laying around for.............7 years. Formed those into a suitable shape, coated with sand and PVA glue. Once that had dried, I painted them first in a lighter sand colour, then washed a dark brown over the top. 


Once that had dried, I drybrushed back up with the sandy colour for some definition. Then washed again with a brown all over, then washed particular areas with a greeny colour to add some variety.

Next stage - I've a load of spare rubberised horse hair I bought a year or two ago and done nothing with really. Vile stuff, to be honest, but it looks good. Sprayed these dark brown and then got busy with the glue gun and glued big patches of that onto the bases.


After that - greenery. Now, most of my trees (the good looking ones, anyway) are made with flock and rubberised horse hair, which is what made me purchase some for myself, even though this is the first project I've used it for.

As my trees are all stored in plastic boxes and over the years of use, lots of the flock had come loose and gathered into a large dusty, sweeping, pile at the bottom. Emptied that out, dabbed the vines with PVA and scattered the flock liberally on top.



Finally, added some tufts and random growths that I've got kicking around and "Ole, we're in Rio" -  one set of brambles for next to nothing.


6 comments:

  1. This is very cool! I don't like the sound of thebrubberised hair though ...

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    1. Cheers! The hair is horrible stuff, but its horsehair thats been covered in a rubber spray and coloured. Comes in large packets which you cut pieces off and then pull into shape. For making hedges, trees and bushes its by far the best material.......once you get over the "this is bloody HAIR" factor!

      At some point, I wouldn't mind getting some of those citadel trees and using it to make the foliage, just to see how it turns out. Suspect it'll look quite good.

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  2. Nice work. I sort-of looked into getting some rubberised horsehair awhile back for this very kind of projects. Finding it wasn't straightforward, so I quickly forgot about it, but as you've proven here, the stuff can be made to look very good!

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    1. Thanks very much! I bought mine off ebay, big pack of it which'll last a long long time for about £4.50. It's fairly easy to use as well it needs to be pulled out into shape before gluing down. Suspect the citadel trees plus horsehair plus flock will improve their look far beyond the plastic greenery that comes with them.

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    2. That sounds like something to look forward to seeing. I picked up the pack of trees just before Christmas, but haven't had time to do anything with them yet, so I'll continue to hold off until I see how yours turn out!

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    3. Well, it may be some while - I've got about 30 trees already, so its a "that would work if I did it" idea than a go project for the moment :)

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