1/600 Forests

As part of my Operation Sealion campaign, the latest battle calls for 39 hexagons of fir tree forest.

Because of the number of units involved in this engagement I decided to play it in 3mm or 1/600 scale.

And so I began my forest construction.  My first priority is playability and my second is that it should look reasonably realistic.  In my terrain design I had to allow for the insertion of WW2 bases of 15 x 10 mm and earlier (2mm) periods of 60 x 5 mm.

The first step was to use my hexagon tiles bought from Warbases, and then to add trees purchased from Busch.  Many of the Busch trees were far too large for my game, so I adapted them.  The first step was to cut the top half from the tree and use it as a separate tree.  The remainder was trimmed with scissors to form a second tree. Then the trunk  was cut to the minimum level to facilitate glue adhesion.   Occasionally a brush of dark green paint to the exposed wire on the top of the cut down tree was needed, after the trees were attached using a large dollop of “very sticky glue”, available from “The Works” or “Hobbycraft” in the UK.

This photo shows: a Warbases hexagon base, two bases after painting with Basetex, a small tree and a large tree, the large tree separated into two, and finally the two trees made from one large tree ready to affix.

And here is a view of the 39 hexagons drying out on my bookshelf (most of them appallingly out of focus, because the picture is taken with a smartphone).  The out of focus technique prevents fellow gamers from reviewing my book collection and comparing it with their own.

I will post a view of the finished battlefield soon.

NB “soon” is a wargamer’s term approximating to the Devon/Cornish term “Directly” or the Spanish “Mañana”.  i.e. “When I get around to it”