How to Build Quick and Easy Terrain

Cheap and Quick Hedgerows

I've been revamping my hedgerows lately, starting with some taller treeline-like hedges and then moving on to low hedgerows. Both these are distinct terrain types in the Battlefront WWII ruleset, and a must have for anyone who is gaming Normandy scenarios.

I thought I would document my process so I could share with others, as in a short amount of time and little cash outlay you can create some fairly authentic home made hedgerows. My previous hedgerows tended to be uni-foliage in design and I was looking for something a little more varied, having admired some of the terrain I've seen elsewhere on these forums. I'm making these for 20mm WWII gaming but they could be used for other scales as well, and other periods of gaming of course.

These hedgerows take about five minutes each to make.

1. Adhesive velcro strips

I've been using these for a long time now for various bits of terrain. I purchase mine in packages of 30" strips at our local dollar store, but they are also available at fabric stores. The key is they are super adhesive one side, once the protective paper strip is removed.

I take out the "loop" strip of the velcro and set aside the "hook" strip for other uses (see road verges in a future post). I like the loop strips for use as hedgerows because they have a bit of tooth on their down side that allows them to be placed on fairly steep terrain without sliding away, but not enough that they grab each other.

I cut these strips into manageable lengths, usually about 5" long, but some shorter to give me flexibility in laying them out on the board. I then trim the corners (so they merge better with the foliage) and remove the paper backing exposing the sticky side of the strip. I also cut strips of black foam core (white would work as well, but you would then have to paint it so it disappears in the foliage) 1/4" high, and about 1/2" shorter than the velcro strip.

Velcro strip, sticky side up with foam core strip in centre. Clockwise: clump foliage (two colours), stiff lichen picked up on travels, model railroad lichen, sprig of dried foliage from craft store.

2. Attach foam core

I then attach the foam core strip to the adhesive side of the velcro strip, centering it. Be sure that the foam core has the paper to the sides and the foam showing at top.

Foam core strip centred on velcro strip.

3. Apply glue one side

Apply white glue one side and then begin attaching bits of foliage to that side. The glue keeps the foliage attached to the foam core while the adhesive quality of the strip anchors it. I use a variety of foliage to create the varied effect I'm looking for, mostly railroad scenery "clump  foliage" (two colours of green) interspersed with bits of lichen. I'm also using some bristly lichen that I picked up on my travels (center top).

4. Apply glue to reverse side and top

Do the same for the reverse side and top, building up the sides first and then covering the top of the foam core.

5. Finished hedgerow

Here is the finished hedgerow. I have also addded a bit of vertical foliage, in this case a piece of dried foliage material I picked up at a craft store, to break things up a bit.

6. Hedgerows in situ

Here are some of these hedgerows incorporated into a scenario set up.

7. Tall hedgerows

I used the same technique to create some tall hedgerows, using a taller piece of foam core for my base. In this case I textured the foam core and painted it a dark green as more of it might end up showing through. I used a bit of florist's wire to keep the lichen upright, representing trees.

Cheap and Quick Trees

I'm too cheap to buy the commercially made gaming trees, and find them a bit too coifed and static for my liking anyway. So whenever I'm out and about in natural surroundings I'm constantly on the look out for likely bits of flotsam that I might be able to turn to my advantage. One of the tougher things to find are small bits of foliage that can serve as armatures for trees, and often I've resorted to the Woodland Scenics armatures. 

But once in a while you get lucky, and when I was in the Azores this summer I came across a small dead bush, an evergreen, I think, that had these intricate little branches. 

I snapped off a few and brought them home and then left them sitting around, looking for inspiration. I bought a couple of cheap bags of moss at the dollar store and tried draping that in the branches but it was looking clunky. So I went rummaging in my bag of flocking materials and came across some Woodland Scenics Coarse Turf Yellow Grass I had bought years and years ago and never found a good use for. That, I thought, might have some potential.

So here is a small forest of poplars, probably late fall, or maybe even early winter still with leaves. Good for some Russian Front scenarios or even Europe, and something different from what I have now as far as trees go. All of these took about 2 to 3 hours to pull together.

1. Armatures

I carve out irregularly shaped bases from black foam core, bevel the edges, cut cross-shaped holes in them, and then put a dab of white glue on my twigs and push them in. Allow to dry.

As I mention above I got lucky in finding these twigs this summer, but there are things out there in the wilds that will do just as well. Often the roots of bushes and trees, dried out, can work well, as the roots often mirror the above ground part in miniature. Cedar roots especially, as a first class model maker friend of mine once pointed out, are convincing. The trick is to find something with enough twiggy stuff going on to create a useful armature.

2. Flocking

I dump a small bag of Woodland Scenics Coarse Turf Yellow Grass (thinking at the time that I could probably get the same effect by taking a piece of foam and putting it in the food processor!) into a tray. I then sprayed the upper parts of my tree stand with Elmer's Spray Adhesive and quickly dump it in the tray, piling on the flocking and making sure the branches are well covered. I shake off the excess and set it aside. There's no reason one couldn't use a different colour of flocking for spring trees, or mid-summer. The key is to get the right coarseness.

3. Flocked Trees

Here they are flocked. You will notice that I glued some larger bits of twig as fallen trunks onto some of the bases, but mostly I like to space these trees so that a stand or two of infantry can fit between the trees, (vehicles not so important, they shouldn't be roaming around in the woods!!) so I keep the bases pretty uncluttered.

4. Flocking Bases

I then take a big old paint brush and brush white glue over the base. I place the stand of trees in a tray with my ground flocking and cover up the base, again dumping the excess. For these I'm using dried green tea leaves, crushed up - again, too cheap to buy much of the commercial stuff and I like the texture and tone of green tea for a forest floor. (I drink a lot of green tea!)

5. Finished Trees

Here are the finished trees. As I say, this group took two to three hours to pull together - maybe even less, as I did it in bits and pieces over a couple of days.

6. Trees in Situ

Here are some of the trees incorporated into a scenario set up.

Quick and Cheap Hay Piles

So far a couple of years now I have been patiently watching our front coconut fibre doormat unravel, snatching up bits and pieces for grass effects when basing my figures. But this spring the mother load arrived when my partner decided it was time for a new mat.

It sat in a bag in my studio for a few months, but finally I dived in, going on a hay-making marathon, first producing some wheat stooks, then hay piles, and finally rows of cut hay. I documented the last as it is very quick and easy to do, each row of cut hay taking only a minute or two. 

1. The Mat

Here it is in all its grubby decaying glory. I have seen a lot of people use these types of mats for wheat fields but not so much in this capacity.

2. The Fibres

Here is a bit of it unravelled.

3. Preparations and construction

Cut up the fibres into 1/4" lengths with a scissor. In the photo belowou can also see my trusty velcro adhesive strips, cut in about 5" lengths and then cut down the middle  to form strips about 1/4" X 5". I use these strips extensively (see my hedgerow tutorial) purchasing them at our local dollar sore. They are also generally available in fabric and sewing supply stores.

When the materials are ready it is a simple matter of pressing the strip into the cut fibres, getting alot of them stuck to it so that the strip is no longer visible, and then rolling it between the palms of your hands to create the "piled hay" effect. 

FYI I use exclusively the "eye" part of the strips, so they don't connect with each other in storage. I like the "hook" strips for other terrain uses, like road verges, as they grip the terrain cloth, but for these I think the "eye" half works better.

As I mentioned, these take a minute or two for each hay strip.

3. Hay rows in situ

Here are the finished hay rows, placed on a purchased mat of pressed moss (or lichen) that I picked up at a craft store.

I couldn't resist throwing in a few hay stacks (stryrofoam carved in a ball shape, spary-painted black and then covered in spray adhesive before rolling in fibres) and the wheat stooks (bundles of fibre wrapped with thread, glued in groups of three and four which I inserted with a small wire stand for stability before topping with glue and chamomile powder).

And as a bonus pic, here are some of the stooks and hay piles dressing up a Russian collective agricultural village for the playing of our upcoming Sowchos 79 scenario.