How to make Trees
Trees are one of the main pieces of scenery found within miniature wargames because they are often a part of the real worlds natural landscape. People often make trees with wire, I use paper instead! If you follow these instructions you can make yourself some pretty cool looking trees without the need for wire, also they can stand freely or be made directly onto a polystyrene base. First of all grab yourself a sheet of A4 and tear it in half, this will make a tree roughly the same size as the I'm making which is little under 6cm, you can use bigger or smaller sheets as you see fit.
It may be difficult to see in the picture, but what you need to do is make the very edge of the corner start to roll up on itself. Keep the curl as tight as you can, this will make for a small but long roll of paper.
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Keep the roll tight and roll all the way to the end.
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With this roll of paper I form a bend that leaves a bit of space at the bottom and cross the ends over. Then I twist the two ends together, the twisted part forms the trunk of the tree. Don't twist it fully together as the two ends will form the main branches of the tree.
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Make a smaller roll of paper, place it into one side of the twists, there will be a gap where the paper was rolled, then twist this roll of paper with one of the main branches. Again don't twist it all the way as this will create the illusion of smaller branches. You can do this several times if you wish to create lots more smaller branches, I have only done it for the two main branches.
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Once again create a small roll of paper, this time twist it around the gap left earlier when bending the first roll of paper, this will act as the trees roots. You add several small rolls to create more roots or to create more off-shoots it's completely up to you. After that you're ready for papier mache.
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So here's the tree all papier mached. By packing the base with papier mache the tree becomes stable and able to stand freely. When the paper from the tree becomes wet because of the PVA glue and water mixture it will stretch slightly and it will twist away from the shape that you initially made it but as it starts to dry you can tweak it back to where you want it. You will want at least two layers of papier mache, using either kitchen/toilet paper and a mixture of water and PVA glue (at a ratio of about 2:1).
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