Forest for the Trees – Part Six

I picked up a few tree bases for Pulp recently while at an aquarium shop. They had four bases on sale for cheap, so I figured I would pick them up. They are a bit higher than the last batch I did, so I thought they would be nice to add a little height to set ups using those bushes. The were aquarium plants that came mounted to a black resin base. The base is somewhat lightweight, but still has a little weight. The bases were full of holes to allow air flow in aquariums, I would have to deal with these, as they look strange for my purpose!

My first step was to work on the bases. As mentioned, they came casted in black. I was going to dip them in Minwax to seal them and add some brown to the coloring. This step normally takes forever to dry completely, so I opted for a different plan. Instead, I hit the bases with some Woodland Scenics dark brown wash and let that dry. I was not thrilled with the coverage, but at least it gave me a nice surface to work with. So, I then dry brushed up the bases using some browns and tans.

My second step with the plants was to add a little more color to them and tone them down a bit. So, I hit them all with some light olive spray paint to achieve that.

Finally, I had to finish up the bases. My first set was to take some dark forest turn from Scenic Express and attach it to the upper areas of the bases. This would match my last batch of trees and I hoped would fill in those pesky holes. Well, that dried and I still had all the holes… So, I needed a plan B. I figured the easiest thing would be to use some grass tufts to cover these. I went into my tuft box and pulled out some extra ones that I had that I did not think would be useful for anything else (I have moved to Gamers Grass tufts, so am trying to use up my other manufacturer tufts). I found some from GF9 and used those, as they had a thick and leafy look that I thought would work. A little white glue and all the holes were covered with tufts and the bases also had some additional character! With that, more terrain for my Pulp games!

• Manteuffel