Warhammer - Beasts of Chaos

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Hobbyist extraordinaire John Shaffer shows us how to build some scenery for the Under the Hanging Tree Mega Battle in the using the Citadel Wood Set. Click any image to enlarge.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

2 Citadel Wood Sets
Plastic Glue
Pink Insulation Foam
1/8" Wooden Dowel
Floral Wire

Mordheim Zombies
Cage from Warhammer Giant
Epoxy Putty (Apoxie Sculpt)
PVA (white) Glue
Sand

Citadel Paints
Green Stuff
Sculpting Tool
Hobby Knife
Hobby Saw

STEP 1

Begin by assembling the trees for the wood as normal but don't attach them to their bases. When the glue dries, take your hobby saw and cut some the limbs and reposition them so the arrangement branches out in several directions, not in a linear pattern.

STEP 2

Take the tip of your hobby knife and drill a hole into the bottom of each tree to house a section of your 1/8" dowel. Sharpen the tip of the dowel with your hobby knife and glue the dowel into place. Glue dowels into the tree bulb sections as well, but angle these dowels at a 45º angle.

STEP 3

Carve an irregular shape out of the pink foam block to represent the tree trunk. A slight "S Curve" generally looks pretty good. Push the plastic trees into an attractive configuration on top of the pink foam, and stab the plastic tree bases into the bottom of the foam in a triangular configuration.

STEP 4

Take some two-part putty and cover over the seams to cement the plastic "limbs and roots" to the foam trunk. Bulk out the form to make a smooth transition from the trunk to the roots. Glue the tree to the supplied base that came with the Citadel Wood. Take some tree trunks from your second Citadel Wood sprue and glue these around the base to suggest roots. Use putty to smooth the joins and fill in the circular wells in the base. Let this dry overnight.

STEP 5

Cover sections of the trunk in a 1/8" thick layer of putty. Using the tip of a dull pencil (or a sculpting tool), draw parallel lines in the putty to simulate bark texture. Periodically use the eraser end of the pencil to make large knot holes to break up the pattern. This is a time-consuming process to get the texture smooth and neat. Use the bark texture on the plastic limbs for reference and sculpt the trunk in sections, letting each part dry before moving on to the next. Take your time and smooth out the marks evenly with a sculpting tool after the putty has set up a bit.

If you're comfortable doing so, add some anguished faces to the bark texture by making three holes, two for the eyes and one for a mouth. After making the holes, shape the surrounding area by pressing in gently with your sculpting tool. Indentations about 3mm under the eye holes make convincing cheekbones, and an indentation 3mm or so above and in the middle of the eye holes can make a convincing brow ridge. Practice a little until you are comfortable with making the forms and then go to town. Put down mounds of putty and press some rocks into the surface as you see fit to add interest to the base. Finish the base by coating it with white glue and sprinkling sand on it.

STEP 6

John decided to use Mordheim Zombie models, (which are available from Direct services,) to decorate this grisly tree, though you could use any suitable undead miniatures for the job. After removing the models from their base tabs, bend the feet at the ankles to point downward for a more natural appearance. Use ropes made from twisted floral wire to "hang the models". Take a pair of needle nose pliers and kink the end of the wire rope to make a hook. This hook will go into holes drilled into the limbs of the tree. Use greenstuff to re sculpt hair over any unsightly cut marks used to get the rope around the model's necks.

STEP 7

Once the putty on the tree has dried, decide where you want your corpses to hang. Drill a hole into a plastic limb where you want to hang a body. Insert the end of a long piece of twisted floral wire into the hole and wrap the wire around the limb a few times. Use a dab of super glue to affix the wire rope. Leave a little gap of exposed plastic limb when wrapping and drill a hole into the limb. This is where you will insert the hooked end of the rope attached to your hung models. This process allows you to paint the models separately and attach them easily and securely to the tree once painted.

STEP 8

When it came time to paint the tree, John used a number of spray paints to lay down the base colors. Layers of various browns and grays and a slight spray of black at the tips of the branches did the job nicely. John then dry brushed the model with Adeptus Battlegrey and then highlighted the tree with several layers in varying mixtures of Scorched Brown and Astronomicon Grey. The base was dry brushed Bestial Brown then Bleached Bone and any bloody bits on the model were painted with a mix of Scab Red and Brown Ink. The rocks were picked out with Astronomicon Grey and then given washes of a Shadow Grey and Knarloc Green mix followed by a wash of Bestial Brown. The ropes were painted Calthan Brown and were highlighted by adding Bleached bone to the base color.

After the model was painted and the models were affixed, a little static grass was all it took to finish this monster up.

UNDER THE HANGING TREE - Click to Enlarge Images

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