Shell Shattered Woods

If I'm going to have Quar running around WW1 battlefields then I really need shell blasted trees, and lots more craters, to be honest.

Verdun

James Mogsymakes has been doing some really lovely looking Great War Chain of Command. His terrain is rather inspirational.

While rummaging about in the basement looking for something else, I found some old, abandoned attempts at making 15mm field positions out of old gift cards and CDs as bases, with plasticene to build up the banks. I thought, "Why not combine this with my use of Gorilla Glue and sand?"

Striking while the creative madness was upon me I set to, trying to ignore the Quar squawking about getting painted.

Sticks from the garden were broken roughly at one end and cut straight at the other. Flat end was hot glued to the base. I also used hot glue to build up some crater shapes before adding Gorilla Glue over top. I let the hot glue set up and then brushed water over everything. I then applied beads of Gorilla Glue, leaving the center of the craters free, and spread it around with a Q-Tip.

Before the sand

I made sure I reinforced the tree joins with more Gorilla Glue over the hot glue. I then covered each base in a deep layer of sand as the glue was applied.

In a second batch I made craters from plasticene, glued those in place and then covered them with more Gorilla Glue and sand to try and get deeper craters.

Notice foaming blob of Gorilla Glue at base of closest tree trunk. Covered with some more sand after taking picture. It happens. You just add a bit more sand to cover.

Excess sand shaken off. Awkwardly located pieces of gravel removed.

Base coat of Burnt Umber applied.

After dry brushing with tan and grey-green

Even after all that, there was still some bits of DVD base and bright plasticene not covered by paint, so those were fixed with some burnt umber and a medium pointed brush.

I then poured some Woodland Scenics Realistic Water Resin into the craters that I had deliberately left smooth and dark brown, making sure I had a level surface to leave the pieces on to dry. Two layers were needed.

Finished bases

24 hours are needed to cure after each layer of water effects. I made sure the cure was done before flocking, because that green stuff gets everywhere.

While I was at it, I also found these two hasty defensive works made with twigs and sand glued to old iTunes cards. They just needed a bit of paint and flock to make them usable for Quar HSG teams

I am so pleased with the result I started on another batch of nine more iTunes gift cards. I'm running out of sand!