How to build

Cheap Trees

Back to How To Projects

I have started fiddling around with improving my terrain. Believe it or not, I have not a single 28mm tree for my VSF guys to fight in! While browsing the amazing Terragenesis terrain site, I stumble on this article on making trees using of all thing a towel. Please give the original article a look, here is my attempt. As always, click the photos to enlarge.

First I gathered my materials. A "Sage Green" bath towel from Wal-Mart (cost $2.88), a cheap can of brown spray paint ($0.98), a couple of packs of pipe cleaners ($0.68), floral wire (~$1), white glue, a foam core board I had left over from another project, and a McDonald's coffee cup full of playground sand I nicked from the park a couple of blocks away.


I have made pipe cleaner trees before, about 8 years ago, so I made about 38 trunks, some with 4 branches and some with 3. This should be enough to cover quit a bit of table.

Next, I based my first test batch (8 trees) on beveled foam board and spray painted them thickly with the brown spray paint. I did not get the coverage I wanted, so went back over them with a brush and burnt umber paint.

After it all dried, I used diluted white glue and sand to cover the bases.

I next cut up strips of the towel, into sections about 3/4" or 1" by 2" - 3". I then bound the towel strips in pairs using the floral wire per the original directions. I canted the towels into a slight "x" when binding them, see below. I then took them outside and lightly sprayed them with dark green spray paint.
I then did a dry brush job on the bases with a black undercoat, then green, sand, and a littel bit of white. I am not thrilled with the way it came out, may re do it.

I then attached the towel strips and bam, trees! I think I might do another pass with the green spray paint to make them a bit darker, but they look pretty good. Not what you would see on the cover of Wargames Illustrated, but it does the job. I see terrain as background props for battles and am aiming for "good enough." These do the trick and at <$0.20 a piece, can't be beaten.