Forest Terrain Part 2

Now we're going to move onto the finishing details and adding foliage to the trees. I made a few tall grass outcroppings by just putting a little hobby tac on the bottom of some field grass by Woodland Scenics. I'll be placing them to the outside edge of the piece.

I then got three tupperware containers and put in three different colors of green clump foliage, I then added the appropriate highlight colors of bushes to the foliage. There are two ways about going about attaching the foliage to the trees. The first is to cover your armature with hobby tack and once it is dry you can start dunking it in each color turning the tree around as you go. This works great if you are pressed for time or only using one or two colors of foliage. Here I am using six so this method looked unnatural.

So I used the second method, which is to apply the hobby tack to the armatures (pictured below) and once it is dry, start with the darkest color of foliage and starting from the inside of the branches (closest to the trunk) pressing it down one clump at a time by hand. When applying the hobby tack try to leave a few gaps on each branch so it will show through the foliage. Then move onto the medium green color and start applying this the same way to the middle of the branches. Finally use the lightest green foliage on the tips and into the top of the branches.

One thing I have found with "hobb-e-tac" from woodland scenics is that it is indeed very tacky, but the bushes don't really stick firmly to it. I had some fall off as it was sitting and had to re press some areas that wouldn't hold. I imagine I will have to do this every time the terrain piece gets used, but it isn't too hard to deal with. Another thing is, DO NOT follow the directions on the back when it comes to applying scenic cement to the foliage you attach to the trees. I did this thinking it would give the piece better hold. What ended up happening instead, the scenic cement liquid dissolved the hobb-e-tac, and all the foliage I had just stuck on started falling off the tree in huge clumps.

I ended up taking it all off and putting it in a tupperware container, keeping the foliage somewhat separated and let it dry up over night, I then used the first technique to save time. Now when you look at the piece the tree on the far right looks weird compared to the first two from the left. This will give you a visual reference to my example above. This is the first time I have used hobb-e-tac and there was a little bit of a learning curve. I'll probably go in later and fix that tree on the far right when I do the other ones. I plan on making 4 separate forest pieces in general, I'm just waiting to get some magnets to finish them off.
                                                        
                                            

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*EDIT* After just finishing the trees on a second piece, I ended up using two glues trying to give the clump foliage better holding power, and it worked out way better than the first time. What I did was apply the hobb-e-tac like I did above and once it was dry I went back over the ends of the branches with a spray adhesive called "Super 77" by 3M.

This in conjunction with the hobb-e-tac really bonds all the foliage to the branches perfectly. I was spinning it by the trunk, back and forth between my fingers, and very little foliage came off.
                                                
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Here's how it turned out

I didn't get a chance to get a picture with the rocks painted or the tall grass added yet but I'll put up some pics when all four pieces are done. Next up I suppose I will do a product review of a few things I got for the holidays, and hopefully have some pics of the finished slayer. Happy gaming!