Flock on the cheap...great for Trees! (completed)

Making flock for the trees is going to be a breeze, but it will take some time to dry. I should have done this days ago, but in all honesty, forgot all about making it.

Start with a cheap bottle of acrylic paint. For this batch, I'm going to use a dark green.

In a large mixing bowl (guys, ask before you take because this is going to stain whatever you use), mix the paint with 5 parts water. Put the lid on the bottle and put it a side for a later use. Waste not want not, right? You will need it later, promise!

Once you have that done, add in 3 cups of fine sawdust.

Start mixing. Keep going until you have no big clumps. If you still have clumps and everything is mixed together, add a LITTLE more sawdust. Once it's all mixed, line a board with wax paper. Place the sawdust on the wax paper and put it in a place that no one will mess with it (animals, ie cats can be a bane on this one). Now you let it dry. This can take up to 2 or 3 days depending on thin of a layer you put on the wax paper. Mine is pretty thick as I'm running out of room for all the projects I have going on at the moment. I'll check it every day for the next 3 days, stirring it up when I walk past it.

I'll let this dry and we'll finish it up. Not to much longer and I'll have enough flock to cover every tree I'm going to make and then some!

Once your sawdust is dry, take that empty bottle I told you to keep and fill it with water to give it some weight. Put your flock in a strainer (a good metal one, not a plastic one) and begin to sift the sawdust thru the strainer by using the water filled bottle.

Once you sift it, you will be left with odds and ends that wouldn't fit thru it. You can either pitch the remains or save it for use later. Sift it again using the same technique and your done. Why sift it twice? I found that by doing it twice, I remove all of the bigger pieces and am left with a much finer material.

Mission complete - dark green flock for trees that need to be flocked.

Trees 101 - (completed)

With the table project starting, I will need to get a jump on making trees. Yes, I'm going to make a complete forest for this table and here is how I'm going to do it.

144 cheap plastic paint brushes - $5.00

100 chipboard 1 inch cirles - $5.00

1 piece Furnace filter - $5.00

Cut the tapered ends of the paint brush to the desired hieght(s) and mount it to a chipboard circle. I used crazy glue gel. *I have learned NOT to do this, use a hot glue gun to attach these. It provides a much more secure bond*

Coat the base of the tree and the tree itself with brown caulk and then spray paint about 1 1/2 inches of the handle brown from the base. *I also learned that I will need to weight down the trees. I will be adding a washer to the bottom of the chipboard circles*

While those are drying, start pulling pieces of the furnace filter apart. Seperate it to a wispy, thin material about the size that you need for the branches. Once the trees are dry, start layering the filter small-big-small-big-etc-etc, leaving a gap between them. I only glued the tops of the tree down.

Spray paint the blue filter black and then give a light coating of brown over the top. Make sure to where gloves when doing this otherwise you will end up with paint all over your hands.

While these are drying, I'm going start making some flock for these. Yes, I make my own flock for trees and I'll even show you how do that next! And you don't have to use your own flock. You can use any that you desire, I just like using my own for this purpose.


Shape the trees with a pair of scissors. Try and get it into the shape that you desire and also removing any stray branches that do not look correct.

Coat the tree with a spray adhesive and add the flock from the top. Once this is done, set the tree aside and let it dry. I finished up 4 of the 5 last night and here is how they look once it's all said and done.
Terrain up the base after this is dry and it's all done. Coat everything with a good matt sealer. That will help keep the flock on the trees as well.

Project #2, Tile 1

So it has begun. With the roads now dry, I can now start on detailing each tile. I figure I might as well start with the hardest one first.

I want this to be nice and green and have a static grass feel to it. So, I'll be using Heki grass mats for this. I love these mats and if you haven't have the opportunity to see one, let me tell you about them. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. Unlike Woodland Scenics mats, these are not plastic backed. They are paper backed so it makes cutting a breeze! I'll be using the medium green for this project.


I'm going to line the roads and edges with Alenes Tacky Glue first. That will make sure that I have a good bond around the edges. On the inside, I will use a spray adhesive. But before I do that, I cut the mat to the size that I need and "block" an area out and I'm NOT going to use this for the rounded edges. I'll do those with my grassinator as these areas will need to be the toughest part of the tile.

When I blocked out an area, I had to go back in after the glue had started to set and trim up the road and edges. Remember, I didn't put glue on the roads themselves. Make sure to trim up the roads leaving the tiles to 1 3/4 of an inch. Yes, it's smaller than the roads, but once the glue dries on these (overnight with some weight on it), I'll make the roads. You'll notice that I did over cut some areas on the grass. I did that intentionally so the roads won't be uniform and look natural. But for now, I have to let these dry overnight and I'll start on the roads in the morning.

Now that this has been glued firmly to the foam, it's time to clean up the road. For this, I will be using a thin layer of brown caulk. I spread it with my finger to cover up all the road surfaces. I let that start to dry and scattered some ballast over it lighltly. Once the caulk looses it's shiny color, it will be dry and I can start painting it.

Now that this is dry, I'll put a wash of dark brown over the top of caulk. Again, it's hurry up and wait time as it dries. The good thing about doing this on the dining room table is there is a ceiling fan. Speeds drying time!

Project #2, So it begins...

The foam floor mats arrived today while I was at the dentist (A 3 day turn around time from buying it to it being delivered, I told you these folks were quick!) . I came home and immediately opened the package and layed it all out. As you can see, I am not using the "bumpy" side. I'm using the BACKS of the tiles to do this.


The overall measurements for this table will be slightly larger and 4 ft by 6 ft because of the edge trim that goes around it. But that's okay as the table this will be on will be larger than 4 ft by 6 ft. So that's okay.


Now it's time to lay out the roads. I want the roads to be approx 2 inches wide. I used a 2 inch piece of balsa and put a mark at the 1 inch halfway point to get me started. I measured in to mark the roads using a black marker. I made sure to mark on the over lapping tile as well to make the roads leading into it. Once I made all entry points for each tile, I checked to make sure that they matched up with one another to make this truly modular. They all matched up so it's on to the next step.




With the entry points for each tile marked, it was time to mark the actual roads on each tile. This will be a starting point for the roads. Please don't think that this is going to be the actual roads. I need a starting point so I can color between the lines. To do this, I used a 2 inch foam brush and some cheap brown acrylic paint.

Now it's time to let this dry properly. Pull the tiles apart at this point to make sure that the paint does stick them together. When the paint it dry, I'll start working on each individual tile. The good part about doing each individual tile is that I don't need the entire dining room table.

From here on out, I will work on each individual tile. It will be labelled Project #2, tile #?.

Project #2, Wolfkrieg Table

Once again, I'll be making a table for WolfKrieg. With any project that you do, you want it to be better but yet different from anything that you've ever done before and this time is going to be no different.

When I've done this in the past, the tables I made were a pain to transport. This time, I'm going for something light weight and easy to transport. I want to be able to transport this easily without having to have other folks help me carry it in. I've got an idea to do this and it should work. But let's come up with a map first.

This is the table that I'm going to be making.

If you look in the upper left hand corner, you will notice that this is no more than a scan of a map from the game "Cross of Iron" from the classic ASL gaming system. I've added a grid system to it to help me get a feel for this as I go along. The thick heavy black lines divide the table into 2 foot square blocks. The thinner lines break them down into smaller grids of 1 foot square and 6 inch square respectively.

After I made the grid system, I had to modify the map itself as I want this to be a modular system. I'm NOT going to make this a one off table. I've done that in the past and they (the tables) are great for that one game, but can become quite boring after a while. This will be something that I can add on to later if I want.

Why 2 foot square you ask? That's easy. I will be using the 2 foot square interlocking foam mats like these

I get these off of Ebay from http://stores.ebay.com/kenmissyr . You can find these just about anywhere, but I want to make sure that I can always get these if I want to add on to it. Ken and Missy have always offered this product for years now and offer great service. I highly recommend them. I order these on 12/7 so I should have them by mid week. That's how quickly these folks ship. So, when I have these, we'll get to work! Now, back to making trenches.

Putting the finishing touches on the straight pieces

I've been working on a few pieces tonight and I figured I might as well show everyone the progress so far on these. I've flocked them with static grass and then added brown caulk as mud. I let the caulk form a "skin" on top and then loaded a few rocks here and there in it for more detail. The problem with using caulk is that it does take some time to dry.

I'll let the caulk dry overnight and do some more on them on the morning. I should be able to color in the mud and add some weed/dead grass patches. So far, so good.

Well night has come and gone it's now time to put a little more work into these. The brown caulk has firmed up well but really doesn't have the color that I want. So it's time to wash them down with a dark brown. Again, I use a cheap acrylic paint from Walmart for this and thin it down with water in a seperate cup for mixing. These are good enough now to take the field. Well, after I put a few thin coats of sealer on them, but I want them to look even better. So it's time to hit the drawing board and see what else I can add to them!

Making Flames of War Trench Sections

With the upcoming Wolfkrieg 09 tournament (http://www.battlevault.com/Events/Wolfkrieg-09/WolfKrieg09.htm), I'm going to need trench sections. So, let's make some! I'm all about making something versus buying it, just something about the satisfaction of it all.

Well, let's get to it! Here are the steps that I use to make these. I'll try to provide photo's as I go along.

Start with 3/8 inch base shoe cut into 8 inch sections. I get my at home depot for .37 a linear foot. It's label is "oak 127" with a UPC of 095624184601. A mitre box will make this so much easier for you, so invest in one! It will come in handy later, I promise. For those of you with a bandsaw, I envy you! Don't worry about cleaning up the edges at this point.

Next, get some 1/16 inch balsa strips and cut them into 4 inch pieces. I get all of my balsa strips from "The National Balsa Co." (http://www.nationalbalsa.com/index.html). When I order from them though, I order a lot of things at once as their minimum order is $25 and at .11 for a 24 inch piece, you will have a lot of these. So if you need something else from them, now would be the time to order.

This next step is the most time consuming part. So be prepared to have the time to do this. Apply a good dose of glue to the short edge (see photo) and start layering the balsa strips. You can (and I recommend that you do) cut some at different lengths when layering them. It will give a more realistic look. When I do this, I use Alene's tacky glue. It sets much faster than regular PVA glue and holds just as well.

Once you have the rows glued and they are dry, take a ruler and draw a line on the 1,3,5, and 7 inch mark on the rows that you just glued down. Take a small piece of balsa and glue it on those marks on a vertical axis. (see photo below).

Clean up the edges now. I use a dremel with a sanding drum on it. I also try and bevel the balsa edges at a 45 degree angle.

Spray paint these a dark brown. Coat everything except the bottom. You won't be able to see it so why worry about it?!?! : )

While this is drying, cut a piece of floor tile to a size of 8 inches by 3 inches. Why use floor tile? It's cheap, it's thin and well, it just works for anything I want to do. For this piece, I'm going to be using the sticky side of it. Put a thin layer of brown caulk down the center of it and drop some small pepples in the caulk as it dries. Once the brown paint is dry, drybrush the balsa wood a lighter brown. I use a cheap acrylic paint from Walmart. Nothing special, but something to add a touch of detail. Once that's done, I lay a small line of super glue along the long edges of the floor tile. I do this before the caulk has had a chance to totally set. I also take a medium base for FoW and make sure that everything fits before gluing it down.

Now it's time for the fun part. Flocking, texturing the whole thing. For this I use my custom made "Grassinator". It make static grass stand up and works like a charm on 2mm, 4mm, and 6mm sizes. I'm very happy with the results, but I digress.

When choosing your flock, please remember what your actual table is going to look like. Get as close to that as possible. As all my figures and the table I'm going to be making later next week use Noch Springtime mix, that's what I'm going to use on these. I'm not going to tell you how to flock and texture your trench sections because everyone has their own special way of doing these things. This gives you the basics of making a straight trench section. I'll be making some angled, end and entrance pieces as well and I'll make sure that I update this to show you how I did it.

And once I get done terraining this piece, I'll put up a pic of it as well.