Making 28mm Forest terrain Part Three

 

In this post we wrap the three part saga on creating forest terrain, and see how it all came together. 

Part one can be viewed HERE

Part two can be viewed HERE

But first, an exciting discussion on the correct height of trees.

Getting the CORRECT Height of Trees is Crucial to Wargaming

No, not really.  Doesn't really matter at all and is a matter of personal taste.  Whatever looks right to you or me.  This is just my take.

My wargames based on land where trees are most likely to be found (versus the ocean) is done in 2 sizes; 15/18mm and 25/28mm, which means I want trees to be compatible with those.

Unless you are making trees from scratch (some folks are mad enough to attempt this) you are buying trees or tree making kits from somewhere.  In the not long ago, I liked using Woodland Scenic pre-made tree packs because they are easy if not a little bit samey (but more on that later) which come in useful sizes for my wargames; 1-3", 3-5", and 5-7".   let's look closer:

From left to right:
3" tree, 18mm ACW miniatures, 5" tree, 28mm AWI miniatures, 7" tree

From the picture above, you can see that all the trees are pretty much compatible with the figures. 

pretty much; but not 100%.  The 3" tree is a little small for the 28mm figures.   It's usable, but doesn't look like a tree you would find in a forest, more like the trees you would find in a new housing development or in the middle of a road island.  The 7" tree is too big for the 18mm, though is probably closer to being in actual scale from a human to a tall tree.  But it just looks weird, unless you're explicitly playing a wargame in the Redwood Sequoias.  Probably a game called "Squirrel Wars."  

From left to right:
3" tree, 15mm building, 5" tree, 28mm building, 7" tree

However you don't want to forget about buildings.  Battlefields will have often have buildings as well as forest areas.  Least all the cool ones do.  ME. myself, and in my own opinion" I like it when the trees are as tall or taller than the houses.  That looks right to me.  Again, the 3" tree doesn't match the 28mm house; it's too 'full' or mature to be that small compared to the house.  And again, the 7" tree is way too big for the 15mm house.  It towers so high above it that the two look kinda silly together.  

Ground scale is always out of wack in miniature war games, and that's alright, we're not building model railroad tables.  But I think it helps if things aren't too out of wack, or at least as close to being in scale as able.  Which means that I like to avoid those extremes on either side of the spectrum as illustrated.

All of That, Just to Say:

3" trees are too short for 28mm, 7" trees are too tall for 18mm, 5" trees are just right and fit both pretty well.  But since I want some variation in heights of the trees because it is pleasing to the eye, I get the whole spectrum.  3-5" for 18mm, and 5-7" for 28mm.  

I know that's not very interesting.  I was kinda bored halfway through writing it.  But it took effort and time to write and take the pictures.  So there it remains. Sorry I tricked you. 

Trees for the Forest; Think like a Tree, Be the Tree

I'm gonna need a lot more trees.  WHY do we always need more trees?!  I already have a bunch of 3-5" and a few 7-9" trees.  And because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided that I wanted to make them as pretty as possible.  Because the whole point of this forest project is threading that needle between pretty and functional.  As I was saying before, you can buy premade trees.  I have PLENTY of these that are made with clump foliage.  These look fine, but altogether a little too neat and factory uniform.  I thought that with a little more effort I could make trees more leafy and unique.  I could of just bought more expensive prettier trees but where's the fun in that?  

 I watched some videos online on making trees and found a method that produced good results and was easy enough to try...

I got a bag or two (or three) of the tree armatures.
Notice that they're 5-7".

How one looks out of the package.

Shape the tree trunk and branches.  Snip off branches and twist the truck to get a suitable tree shape.
I found through experimentation that cutting off about 1/3 to 1/2 of the branches makes a nice shape.
Also, to twist the tree trunk you'll need two pairs of pliers, one to hold the trunk at the bottom
and one to grip and twist.  Unless you have fingers like vices from hard labor.
Mine are soft and delicate from playing with dolls.

After you twist it, give the truck and branches a quick heavy dry brush of light grey or tan.
It actually really helps with the appearance.

Bases for individual trees.

As discussed in the last part, some trees are gonna be based on larger terrain bases and some are gonna be based individually.  For the individual trees, I glue the tree base to a metal washer and use concrete patch for the ground texture (I use the same on my miniatures, because it's heavy like concrete).  This will make the tree bottom heavy and more stable.  Paint it up and add some details as you wish.  

To create the canopy of leaves I'm gonna be using this stuff called Poly Fiber.  It's kinda like pillow stuffing but not. Take little pinches of the stuff and pull it in all directions to get light fluffy irregular shapes of varying sizes.  "Wispy" would be the word to shoot for.  

When you have enough for the tree, simply glue them onto the tree branches where you like..

Like so.  starting to look like a tree now.

Most of the videos I watched on this technique used Hobb-e-Tac to glue the poly fiber to the branches.  But I know from previous experience that Hobb-e-Tac...sucks.  sucks hard.  So I just used white glue.  

HINDSIGHT TIP: I'm actually showing the 6th or so tree I've made and I've picked up some lessons along the way:

When it comes to amount of poly fiber to put on the tree, LESS is MORE but there is such a thing as TOO LITTLE.  Basically this stuff will form the foundation of the leaves and there is a "just right" amount.   If the poly fiber is dense then the leaves will look really dense.  What looks better is when you can kinda see the branches through the leaves. It took me some experimentation / trail and error to nail down. 

When the glue is dry it's on the next step; more glue!  I should invest money in glue stock, seems like everyone needs it.  This next step really brings the tree to life...

Use a spray glue, gently spray the poly fiber to cover it.  I used a glue from an aerosol can because it's what I had, but a glue in a pump spray would probably work a better. 

I couldn't show this next step because I needed both my hands; but take some flock like course turf or what ever you think will look good, I've been using a variety just to experiment as will be seen later, and then SPRINKLE it over the poly fiber.  Try to avoid the tree truck.  What will happen is that the tiny bits of flock will get stuck in the poly fiber and the whole thing will start to look a lot like leaves.  

HINDSIGHT TIP: I do mean sprinkle.  Like when you take a pinch of cinnamon and sprinkle it over a delicate pastry (we all do that right?).  "Drizzle" might be a better word.   If you use a shaker it'll go on to heavy and loose some of the cool effect.  Truussst me. 

At the end, it comes out looking like this:

It's Tree-riffic!

Put It All Together to Make a Forest

Was this all worth the effort?  I dunno, but one gots to do something beside watch TV after the kids go to bed. Let's put the bases and trees together and see how it all turned out.

B to the T to the W: I didn't show flocking the terrain bases.  I figured most folks already have a handle on that (put down glue, put down flock, voila), and the colors and styles are all personal tastes and what someone has available. 

Smaller base #1

Smaller base #2

Both together, with some random 28mm Shepard looking dude, just for scale.

I'm thinking they came out pretty good.  I guess these can be used on their own to line a road or something, but the plan was to place these on the larger base as a way to add more character to it.

Speaking of the larger base...

The larger 10ish by 11ish base.
With some of the individually based trees I made.

Proof of Concept

Smaller base on the larger...

I do like the look of the smaller base on the larger.  I'm not sure how to describe it, but the smaller base with all the crap  extra details on it  helps to break up the flatness of the larger base.   Not sure it is really necessary though but what is in this silly hobby? 

More importantly, I think it looks pretty and should be functional since I can take off most of the stuff to make room for miniatures.  I'll call it a successful experiment. 

Top down look.

Final thoughts: While I called this a tutorial, everything I did I copied from something or someone else I saw on the internet, who did it better.  I really have two goals in doing this project;  the first is to get some cool terrain for my tables (obviously).  The other is just to add to the body of knowledge that is already out there and provide some encouragement to try it out.  So if you liked the way these came out and want to give it try, you should go for it.  

Hope you enjoyed this series of posts.  Now I have to decide if I am gonna do the rest of the forest bases or get back to painting miniatures.  

Thanks for reading.

Making 28mm Forest Terrain Tutorial Part 2

 

Extra

I seem to be getting in some extra hobby time lately, always welcomed.  It's because the kids are now back on a school schedule and go to bed at a reasonable time (not that anyone is actually going to school, its distance learning).  It's like the whole evening suddenly opens up! 

Let's continue on with making some forest terrain and pretending like I know what I am doing..

Part one can be seen HERE

This is where we left off from Part 1.

Instead of doing all the bases that I just made at once, I'm gonna focus on making 2 small and 1 large one.  As a way of testing the concept of what I am trying to do, and if I mess it all up somehow, then all is not lost.  But let's be optimistic.  

Getting Gritty with It

I got my bases of hard board, and on the smaller bases I've glues some pieces of hard board cut offs to create some undulations.  Undulations is a sexy word when said right.  

On these smaller pieces, I also want the trees affixed to the base, so I glued down some tree bases from my Woodland Scenic Tree Armatures, making sure to glue these far enough apart to leave room for the tree branches.  More about trees in a future post.  Are you shaking like a leaf, but with excitement? 

Then to smooth out the undulations (see, told ya) I took some Wall Filler / Spackle  and applied it to the sides.  

Everyone likes smooth unnnndulations.
Bonus footage of my PJs at the bottom of the picture.
While the spackle dries paint a miniature or something.

Now it's time to cover the bases with a texture.  This will make a mess, so can done outside or at least on something to catch all the materials.  I used the top of a cardboard box.  Because going outside is for suckers and daredevils, which I am not.  

I'm gonna use a texture mix because I think that will work well.  The mix is abooouut a 50/50 blend of fine grit / ballast and decaf coffee grounds.   I learned awhile ago that coffee grounds make great base texture, so I just get a tin of the cheap decaf coffee.  No one should be drinking cheap decaf coffee anyway.

I got this Huuuge 1/2 gallon tub of  "#50 blended ballast" from Scenic Express.  It's probably more than I need, but I have no concept of volume.  

Pretty simple process, spread glue all over the base and then dump the mix on top, pat lightly.

Don't get glue on the tree bases

Here's the 3 bases all covered with texture mix.
Looks a little like wet beach sand.
Let this all dry before fussing with it.

Rock On

Some rock outcroppings are a fitting little detail to forest terrain so I decided to play around with some stuff that I've had for years and years.

This was a Christmas gift from I don't know how long ago.

It was easy to mix up a little cup of plaster and cast the mold.  I still have plaster supplies left over from my Lord of the Rings Terrain projects.  I picked my favorites and glued them to parts of the forest bases, and began adding littler pieces of ballast around them.  

I added even smaller ballast after these pictures.  just forgot to document it.

HINDSIGHT TIP: It probably would of been better to glue the rock outcropping to the base BEFORE putting on the texture mix, that way the rocks would be one step closer to appearing like they are coming out of the ground rather than sitting on top.  Oh well.  maybe next time.  

Dry Brushing Should be Easier

When everything is dry, prime with black (not pictured, it's be boring to look at) and then paint things up.  Base coats and dry brushes.  

Bases all painted up.
I added some Woodland Scenics 'Deadfall' to look fallen logs, which of course are just sticks.
One could go outside and just get sticks from the ground I suppose,
but I'm not an outside person as discussed.

Standard stuff:

Bases painted brown with lighter brown and whites dry brushed on top.

Rocks painted dark grey, with lighter gray and white dry brushed on top. 

There are some obvious parts where I messed it up.  I always seem to mess up dry brushing.  Some of the und---ulations were not as smooth and supple as I thought.  But no matter!  Any mess up too egregious can and will be covered up with flock.  Lots and lots of flock.  

Flock and trees in the next installment, in our tree-part saga (get it??!!  Tree part instead of Three part!  OK, I guess that not punny).  This is a shorter post than my usual, but this stage of the project seems like a nice place for a chapter break. 

Thanks for reading and commenting.  I hope you are finding these entertaining and/or informative.  

EDIT: Part Three can be found HERE

Distracted by Trees; Making 28mm Forest Terrain Tutorial Part 1

Once Bitten

SO there I was, innocently and dispassionately painting up some 28mm AWI militia...

When all of a sudden I felt a small pain in my foot, not a hurtful pain, but a sharp pinch, and I looked down to investigate and saw...

It's the Terrain Bug!

I was bit by the Terrain Bug.  This sometimes happens to wargamers, where instead of painting miniatures you are filled with an unreasonable desire to make terrain.  I feel that I am more susceptible to the Terrain Bug because I usually enjoy making terrain more than painting figures.  Terrain is more about persistence than it is about talent, and usually more forgiving.  Unlike some women I've known..

Once bitten by the terrain bug there's nothing for it but to do a terrain project.  Inevitably, the 28mm AWI militia were placed to one side ("Will we never be painted?"they cry), the hobby desk cleared off, and out come the power tools and glue.  Also online shopping for materials.  It's fun to buy things.  

Thoughts on Forest Terrain

Ahhhh, the ways of trees.  One can never have enough trees for the wargaming table.  I'm pretty happy with the way I represent forest in 15/18mm gaming.  In my ACW games woods tend to dominate large areas of the table and I am happy with just covering those areas with trees.  The woody areas tend to extend all the way to a fence or a road, and I also use logs or clump foliage to mark where the forest ends if not.  Like seen here on this ACW game "A Clearing in the Wilderness." 

This table is mostly woods with a cleaning marked out by the fields and logs.

But for 28mm gaming, especially skirmish, I like everything to have it own base.  I have long wanted to improve my forest bases.  And I'm gonna need more forest terrain for my 28mm AWI tables (and not to mention Dark Ages, which I'm suddenly back into after it's recent return to the gaming table).  

I want the forest terrain to be pretty and functional.  Unlike some women I've known.  What do you mean I've already used that joke? It's called 'a call back,' it's a joke that gets funnier each time.  Currently in my collection I have forest terrain that is pretty, and some that is functional.  

The Pretty

Here are some forest bases that I bought from Architects of War several years ago before the company went bankrupt due to launching 'All Quiet on the Martian Front.'  (remember that? It was quite the hobby scandal).  These are sculpted resin bases, painted and flocked, with some trees glued into the holes provided.  These look really nice (if I do say so myself) but because the trees are not removable, it's actually super hard to place troops onto the base.  You just can't get your hands in the right places, like some women I've known (SEE, it is getting funnier).  The problem gets worse when you group the bases together to make a large area of woods that might take a turn or two of movement to get through, because you can't physically move your troops through it.  You have to do that thing where you grab a miniature by the top of his head or upheld sword and drop it into place.  

Sometimes I think there's almost TOO much detail.

The Functional

I could of placed more trees but I got lazy and you get the idea.

Here are some forest bases that I got from Gale Force 9 also years and years ago.  As you can see, these are just some textured bases with some flock on them, and the trees are just placed on top.  It's a nice kit because the bases come ready made with little bags of flock for you to glue on where you want, and come with trees.  These are obviously very functional because you just move the trees off the base when you're moving troops into the forest area.  Very gamer friendly.  But it's not especially pretty.  I mean it looks alright, average, but nothing you would cheat on your wife with (not that I would or have done that, I just like the phrase).  

Other First World Problems 

Other problems that aren't really problems: I don't like using these sets together on the same table, because they're not consistent with each other.  It's jarring to my eye.  So I end up using one set or the other.  There's also not enough of each set to really cover a table well.  I'm always wishing I had 1 or 2 more forest bases, especially the large ones.  Overall, my forest bases are NOT satisfying me, like some wo...(alright alright i'll cut it out now).   None of this is really a problem except that I got his mildly painful bite on me foot.   Itching.  

The Plan for Forest Bases

With all that in mind, I'm gonna set off to make some forest terrain for my 28mm games.  I'm gonna try to thread the needle between the bases being pretty and functional, and eventually make enough to satisfy my needs.  A Supermodel with a doctorate degree.  That might be shooting too high, because we all have to settle in life.  I know I did.  Settled hard.

I've never done a project like this before, though for blog purposes I'm gonna pretend like I know what I am doing, that's why I'm calling it a tutorial.  I have made some tree bases on CDs that came out alright (See post "Make like a Tree Part 1 here and Part 2 here).  

Starting off: make some bases. 

For the bases I'm gonna be using hard board.  I have these hard board sheets left over from when an IKEA dresser bit the dust.  These are the wooden panels that make the underneath of the drawers.  There's probably a joke in there about the word drawers.  Forest drawers?  meh. 

Draw out the size of the bases you want in sharpie.
My large bases will be around 8" by 11".

Time for power tools!
I'm doing this outside on the side of my house, so I can hide from the family.
And because it's gonna be messy.
I still got the COVID 19 hairstyle.  Think it's been 5 months now without a haircut.

Cut out all the shapes.
Told you it'd be messy, but the jigsaw made short work hard board.

I then took a sharp knife and beveled all the edges.
This was not hard to do, even a guy like me with tiny biceps found it pretty easy.
I often say that 'my guns' might be small in caliber but they're high in velocity!

People laugh and laugh.

 

Moving inside, here they are all cut out and beveled.
6 large bases, a number of smaller ones,
and the bottom left squarish one is gonna be a hayfield.

I don't really think the hard board is gonna warp, but as an extra layer of protection I then primed both sides of the bases.  I think this is gonna seal the wood more, because I'm gonna dump glue and texture materials all over them, and then paint them, and then glue more stuff on them.  

Priming the bases is just something I saw other people do on the internet, so I don't know if it's actually necessary, but can't hurt.  

The Plan in More Detail

I am open to feedback on this plan:

The large bases will get some small details like rocks and maybe a fallen tree, but ultimately will remain mostly flat.  The smaller bases will have the trees glued onto them and given lots of details and have some undulations.  Then the forest terrain proper will be made of the large base with small bases and some individually mounted trees placed on top.  So the whole thing will look really pretty with all the details, but still be functional because you can just take things off / move them around to accommodate miniature troops.  

Something like this.

 Next steps in part two!  Can you stand it??  

(EDIT:  Part two is now posted HERE)

Thanks for reading.  I appreciate it.  Stay healthy and safe. 

AWI buildings; From Bare Wood to...

 

Hello all; I've cobbled together my 28mm AWI buildings from Sarissa.  In this post I'll show what I did and pretend that I knew what I was doing and ya'll can nod your head and play along...

Let's begin, it'll be fun.

MDF Buildings need Love Too.  A Lot of Love it Turns Out

Alternative title: Set expectations to 'presentable.' 

I'm still procrastinating starting the lead pile of American AWI infantry so I tackled some more terrain. 

After all, I didn't buy these Sarissa North American houses for nothin. 

As I was putting these together I was struck by how very plain the MDF kits were; really just basic wood shells with very minor details.  The kits are fine in themselves, went together smoothly and are solid enough to withstand clumsy wargamer hands.  In these initial phases I kinda regretted not getting buildings from 4ground.  4ground buildings once built are done and ready to go (the only negative is that each one looks like every other 4ground building) and these Sarissa buildings once done still require effort to make them look pretty. 

It's like the difference between men and women; men get out of the shower and are ready to go and women have another 45mins of hair and make up.  Unless you're into man-scaping, I don't judge, I had a metrosexual phase too.  

So these buildings will need a little love before hitting the table; problem is that after loving Wife #1, The Kids, Select Members of my extended family, and strangers on the internet, I don't have a lot of love left to give... in other words I wanted them to look decent but not put in too much effort.  Let's see if I was able to thread the needle between being lazy and getting some presentable results. 

As a refresher, the buildings started out looking like this:

"Please love me" they say.

"Come Closer"

Were You Born in a Barn?

One time saving / lazy technique I tried was simply to spray paint the buildings the color that I wanted them, versus priming them white or black and spending a lot of time painting them.  This worked OK.  I learned that if you spray from far away the etched details (like seams in boards) are maintained.  

I also learned that you have to seal the spray paint with a varnish before you paint over it.  Otherwise the spray paint just sorta repels the hobby paint and it takes several coats.  There probably some cool science-y explanation for this. 

The Barn was spray painted red, and the windows and doors picked out in white.
I thought this looked suitably Barn-ish.  Aren't all barns red?

But I was bothered by how bare the inside appeared.
It just looks unfinished and like it's missing something.

It's the floor that is then most jarring and needs help.  What goes inside a barn?  Obviously hay and straw.  But I've never been in a real barn so what do I know? 

I found THIS helpful post from Pat over at the blog of Wargaming with a Silver Whistle, well known for his terrain, on how to make hay stacks from door mats.  Thought I would give it go..

Take a door mat and cut it into small strips.
I have lots of this door mat material lying around from my FoW days.
It's ubiquitous for fields in 15mm. 

Then using my manly strong hands I cut the material off the strips.
Slightly messy, but getting a pile of straw / hay raw materials.

Covering the floor of the barn with white glue, I suddenly thought:
"Wait! Maybe I ought to try this out with a spare base of something...eehh, too late now.
Fortune favors the bold and all that."

The "straw / hay" was then push into the glue along the floor and let dry.
When does straw become hay anyway?

After it was dry, I dry brushed it with a dark yellow and then a bright yellow.
Overall, came out looking pretty good.  A big improvement over the bare floor anyway.

Some troops in the Barn

And now for the roof.  Again, being lazy and not wanting to be crazy like Lazgun over on his blog making his own shingles (and buildings), I simply bought some premade ones.  I was alerted to the existence of these from hanging out on the TMP forum.  

These were very handy and easy to use.
Just glue them onto the roof in overlapping strips.

Completed Barn viewed from the outside.

Our House, is a Very Very Very Fine House

I have 4 of these Sarissa houses that all basically the same.  I don't know if that will be a good or bad thing once they're on the table because maybe it'll be too uniform.  But it's what I bought so it's what I got.  Maybe they all just belong to the same HOA.  (I don't like it when my house has an HOA, but I love it when your house does!)

During the process of building the houses I took pics at different times because I was not organized and was kinda finding my way, completing a step on one house influencing how I did the next...

First up I spray painted the houses like the barn, using off whites or whatever color and then sealed them with varnish.  When dry I painted the window and door frames and what not.. 

Work in progress shots, you get the idea.
Paint up the outside as you see fit.

Some of the houses had a stone pattern along the foundation and all the chimneys have stone etched detail, which I did NOT feel like painting.  Instead, I remembered this tip from The Tactical Painter (who is MUCH better at prettying up these Sarissa kits) of using embossed paper with a stone or brick  pattern.  

I picked this up from the same online store that I got the roof shingles.

It's a simple matter of cutting the paper to shape, and gluing it onto the model where you want it.

Instant foundation and chimney.
You can see another house in the background

BUT WAIT A SECOND!  Are those bricks in the chimney going vertical instead of horizontal?  What a silly mistake.  I'm sure no one will notice even though I just noticed and I'm sure I only did that once...

GAAAAH! Both of these.  I'm gonna have to fix it because it'll bug me.

That's better.  Actually looks more like a chimney.

The inside floors of the houses have some lines denoting floor boards so that is alright; enough detail for me.  Just paint it brown.  Everyone in the AWI has hardwood floors.  Which just leaves the inside walls and chimney looking a little out of place.  

Bricks can go in for the inside chimney, and I had the idea of using dollhouse wallpaper for the insides of the house.  These aren't log cabins after all, so a little finery is not out of place.  At first I was thinking of purchasing some in the appropriate scale, but then I found some printable designs on the wonderful internet.  Yes, wallpaper existed back then,  it's called the Federal Era.  Extra knowledge exploding all over your brain.

I printed the patterns on cardstock (I raided my wife's supply like a thief in the night) and just cut and glued it into place.  I used the parts of my 4th house kit as a template.  At first I tried to make it one sheet of paper per wall with the doors and windows cut out precisely but this turned out the be hard to do, and started to feel like effort, so in the end I just guess-ta-mated and just glued cut out strips around the windows.  

So far so good.
Wait! Are those chimney bricks VERTICAL again?
AND I forgot to leave a hole for the fire place.
What an Idiot I am.

Completed interior.
I think I'll leave the chinmey as is because I'm starting to get a bad case of the
"its-close-enough-itis."
Besides, don't I have infantry to be painting?

(I actually didn't steal any card stock, I told my wife I was gonna print out wallpaper and was told "That's the cutest thing I've heard."

I think this one came out better.
"Shoot out the windows guys!"

The roofs of the houses were done using the same premade shingles.  

Success? From Bare Wood to...Presentable

Largely a success.  While I was saying in the beginning of the post (you did read the text of the post right? not just skim through and look at the pictures?  I never do that..) that I had some buyers remorse with the Sarissa kits because of the extra effort.  However, now that they're done and each is a little unique building I like them a WHOLE lot better.   Each looks pretty good from the outside, and on those occasions when troops enter a building there's a little something extra inside to keep up the illusion.  There's something of a rabbit hole on how many details you can start to model, but on the whole I did what I wanted; the wargamer standard.  One thing I wanted to do was add some window sills and such to the insides but I seem to be out of balsa wood.  Though I didn't have any and it seemed like a small thing to go out and go shopping for during PANDEMIC...so that will have to wait.

Mind Games (and Final Presentation)

Because what I want in my terrain is that momentary trick of the brain; where we see the terrain items and not the material it's made from.  Our brains all know that these things are not the real thing, but it's more fun when our brains tell us "that is a house...made of paper" versus "that is paper..shaped like a house."  This momentary illusion is helped by having more stuff that around that set's the scene.  

Recent terrain projects with some old trees

Not too shabby for colored paper glued to wood.

I think the AWI project is coming along slowly but surely.  Thanks for reading today.