Most of the pictures I've seen of other players tables usually have trees either individually based or based in small groups on either oval or curvilinear bases of one sort or another. I don't know why, but those oval bases just never seemed to look right to me and I also thought it would make it difficult to get the look of a dense woods if you put them close together.
Now I know that some of you like to just designate an area as woods with a few trees for effect so you can move troops through the woods and there's nothing wrong with that. I like woods to look the part, so prefer something a little denser but still flexible enough for me to move units through it by either using a marker for its location or moving a few stands of trees out of the way temporarily.
My solution: Wooden hexes. While the idea of basing terrain on hexes is nothing new, the system I use is meant to minimize costs while maximizing effect. Instead of buying hexes to fill the whole table, you only buy hexes to mount trees and any other little vignettes you want to have on your battlefield.
Here's my starting point: 2.5 inch wide (as measured from the flat sides of the hexes) wooden hexes from Litko Aero. (Disclaimer: I'm not in cahoots with Litko, but based on how that business has grown in the last few years, I wish I was.)
Now I know what you are thinking: How are hexes more "natural looking" than oval bases? The answer: I have no idea. All I know is that to me, they just look better. Maybe it's my roots in board wargaming with all those hexes that just look right, or maybe the hex is a naturally occuring shape in nature or maybe all the fumes from the laser cut wood bases from Litko Aero has poisoned my mind, who knows. It works for me and now I'm sharing it with you.
The hexes can also be glued together using yellow carpenter's glue, which forms a very strong bond. This gives you some flexibility to do bigger scenes. Here's an example:
Let's focus on our forests as an example. I use Woodland Scenics tree packs. They come in big 24 packs and I think are meant to be evergreens. You can get them in various heights to match whatever scale you are gaming at. The trees are simple to put together and I won't go into it in detail. Basically, there is a plastic base, a plastic tree trunk with branches and some clump foliage. I twist the trunks and branches to give them a natural look of random branches, prime with gray spray paint, brush on the scenic cement and push on the clump foliage. You can get a lot fancier than this -- giving the trunks a black wash to bring out the details, adding more flock over the clump foliage etc., but they work pretty much as is for me. Just don't glue the tree trunks to their plastic bases!
Our first step is to glue the tree bases to our hex. You'll want to vary the number of trees on each base between one and three.
Next, flock the base with the ground cover of your choice. I use Woodland Scenics. I don't recall the exact name, it might be forest floor or something like that, but it's mostly brown tones with some yellow bits here and there.
You can add some additional underbrush or some rocks for added effect if you like. Sometimes I do this, and sometimes I don't, just depends on how ambitious I'm feeling.
Now all you have to do is stick your trees into the plastic bases and you are ready to go. Here are some 25mm militia on maneuver:
The technique works for deciduous trees too, though because of their outreaching branch structure, I usually only put on per hex, otherwise they are a lot harder to store because they want to grab on to anything nearby. Here's a shot with a deciduous tree on it. These make better accent trees than actual forests.
And finally, here's a shot that has some of my multi-hex creations on it. There's a hayfield and a pig pen (sorry no Snoopy jokes) and a house with the surrounding grounds. You can fit all your hex trees and creations into various combinations. (Note: I've switched out the 25mm militia for 15mm Old Glory Prussian Line in this shot for reference, though the house is technically for 25mm)
I've also on occasion used my hex trees to outline the edge of a denser forest and then placed a few random stands inside, but more often than not, I just put several of these together to make my forest for a really nice effect.
Again, I'm not sure why, but these hex-based creations just look better to me. Maybe I haven't convinced anyone to come in off their ovals, but at least you have an alternative if you are looking for something different. Are you ready for some hex appeal?
Please leave some comments about what you think.
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