A wood full of trees

My tendency to have several things on the go at once works for me, but at times it can bear additional fruit. Perhaps that should be 'foliage', in this case.

I use a homemade basing material comprising a mix of sand, paint and PVA glue, with a bit of dried coffee grounds and tea leaves for added texture. Since my last post, my plan had been to apply some of this basing material to a few figures that have been 3/4 finished for many months. I would then add the finishing touches/highlights to those figures and also apply more base coat colours to my early French. This all changed at step one.

I had some green basing material that I made up late last year. Trouble is that, with several warm to hot summer days, it had, literally, taken on a life of its own. One of those metaphorical 'science experiments'. So, I scraped off the mould, ignored the smell that was akin to the 'bog of eternal stench' and decided that it would be best applied quickly, and in bulk to get it out of the container, exposed to the air and drying—as soon as possible.

I had just thing. A heap of trees that had been on my table for... perhaps a year, maybe more, waiting for me to have the time and inclination to attach them to bases, add the basing material as well as a bit of fixing up (in some cases).

These now moved to the front of the queue!

Seeing the wood full of trees

Amongst the trees were some that were trunks and branches only—to which I added various bits of lichen and other green materials. There were also some well-worn trees which had lost most, perhaps all of their former foliage. I wasn't planning to renovate these, thinking that I'd leave them as autumn trees, but a post on Matt's Storm and Conquest blog—part two of seven as it has turned out—inspired me to extract the digit.

Above and below: some of the well-worn trees with basing added.

Some of the finished trees with added foliage (back and left)

Renovated trees
Small ones ex-orchard trees, originally purchased when Dad & I first began wargaming.

More renovated trees

Some more modern, speccy trees that I purchased around the turn of the century

Most of these were from a mixed bag of scenery
that I picked up second-hand in the 90s from a railway shop

More from that 'mixed-bag', plus some more recent purchases of Dad's at the rear, some former Christmas tree 'leaves' at left—and even a couple of cacti from my friend Mark N.

While it delayed getting any figures painted, it was great to finally make the time to sort out these trees and to have them now based, foliage added and even some renovated. They are finally off the table and ready to use.

The Frankfort am Main regiment and artillery markers ready for the final touch-ups.

Similarly for these four battalions of the Vistula Legion.

Now it is back to the original plan: finish the Frankfort am Main regiment, Vistula legion and artillery markers, while getting the white, red and a few other key colours on the early French. That is, of course, unless something else jumps the queue!