How … making canopy woods

How is going to be the generic term for how I do things or make things. It may not be in the title but I will tag all of the how posts with that word going forward and in the next few days I will go back and add the tag to earlier posts.

I’m starting off with how I make canopy woods as a few people have commented positively on them and in some cases asked how I make mine.

First things first I suppose I should define what I mean by a canopy wood,  it’s a model of a wooded area where instead of using individual trees the entire wood is modelled as a single entity.  It works best for 6mm and smaller figures as the look is more in keeping with a view of an entire wood from above.  The top of the wood, the leafy canopy covering the branches and trunks is made as a single item so it can be lifted to hide troops moving through the wooded area.  Hence canopy woods.  Most of what follows is based on other people’s work and isn’t my own original ideas.  So I’m not taking credit for any great original concepts here.

To make these you will need:

Clump foliage (I use the smaller ‘bush’ sized stuff)

Felt

A flexible material to glue the foliage to

A glue similar to UHU or Bostick 

Some aluminium cooking foil (optional)

A sharp set of scissors

A Sharpie or similar fine permanent marker pen

An understanding wife or partner (construction could get messy)

I pick up materials from a number of places.  The felt and ‘flexible material’ are from craft stores (Hobbycraft here in the U.K.) the flexible material is a thin foam/rubber sheet available in Hobbycraft in a number of colours.  I use black as it creates a shadow effect if I miss small spots when applying the flock.  

Foam sheet - you can see it is flexible

This is the product data for the UK item

To start I cut two identical outlines; one in the foam sheet and one in the felt.  Using the Sharpie I draw on the felt creating the traditional map symbols for woodland (a sort of wavy curved line repeated to symbolise foliage) although that's not vital it’s just that I'm a bit anal like that.  This creates the ground foot print of the woods that the canopy part will sit on.  That’s the quick and easy part done.

Next turn to the foam sheet.  First make sure that you are going to work on the correct side of your cut out shape so the completed canopy will match the felt foot print.  Before you get really serious test the glue on an off cut of the foam to make sure it doesn’t melt it!

Felt location marker and foam canopy base with a start on the foliage gluing.

  If you wish you can now scrunch up some aluminium foil into a tightly packed shape.  Push it down hard onto a firm flat surface to create a flat base.  This will be glued to the foam to create some height for the clump foliage to be glued to to give the illusion of taller trees in parts.  It only needs a couple of small areas to create the effect.  Using this technique does have a downside as it stiffens the canopy and prevents it conforming to any hills you might like to drape it over.

Scrunched foil.  Note the flattened base

Next comes the messy part, gluing on the foliage.  Smear a layer of glue to an area of about one square inch and add foliage and press it into the glue quite firmly.  The idea is for some of the glue to be soaked into the foam foliage.  Don’t add glue to too large an area as it will go off before you have added the foliage.  I usually start somewhere in the middle and work towards the edges.  Once the top is covered and the glue dry flip it over and add a small strip of foliage all around the edge of the underside.  Let this dry and then fill in any parts around the edge where the foam shows through and any areas on the top where there are gaps.  Sounds easy but the glue will get stuck to your finger tips followed by foliage pieces, bits of foliage will get lifted out of place on your sticky fingers and other small items will probably get stuck to them too!

Top done no bald spots or unintended extras glued in!

The strip around the underside lifts the canopy off the table

Fill in any gaps on the edges and it's finished

You can see how the use of a foil 'core' lifts part of the flocked area to create an illusion of taller trees in the centre of the finished woods in the photo above.  I only tend to add between a couple of millimetres and a centimetre of additional height this way as trees don't vary in height too dramatically in the real world. 

Now set the completed canopy to one side and let it dry.  I mean really dry so overnight is good.  Next spray the canopy top and bottom with a sealer of your choice.  In the past I have used hairspray, matt varnish and watered down PVA.  The one thing I have never tried is the stuff woodland scenic makes specifically for the job!

You could call the job done now and for 2mm or 3mm figures the canopies will look fine.  Alternatively you can add more height by placing spacers between the felt and the base of the canopy.  Some people use things like cocktail sticks or flat headed roofing nails.  Personally, I think this risks making the wood look too 'leggy' so if I use anything at all I use small cubes of wood about 1cm a side.  If you look at real woodland from a distance the trunks of the trees are almost invisible.  The foliage comes down to within a few feet of the ground and often seems to meet the woodland undergrowth.  The only time where this isn’t the case is with some pines and spruces where the first 15 feet or so have no foliage and the pine resin dropping to the ground inhibit the growth of ground cover.  All my woods must be broadleaf deciduous ones, yours don't have to be though!

I don’t make my own clump foliage instead I buy it.  I use the summer foliage colour, a sort of mid olive green tone.  I don’t add different coloured clumps as I don’t like the effect.  I also don’t use autumn colours as it limits the usefulness of the models by restricting the time of year it applies to.  I know that it could argued that using green does the same but most battles are fought in periods where trees are in full leaf so summer green is my favoured colour.

I have said this before about painting but it is true for terrain builds too, the key skill is observation.  Really, really look at woods from a distance see what is actually there not what you expect to be there.  Then recreate that look in miniature.  Good aerial views will help with the look of canopies from our playing view point (you know, the 1,000 foot general viewpoint). A quick trip out to the country or use of Google Maps Street View feature will also help with the table level look.

Look at the woods here on the Yorkshire Wolds (Bing Images) 

So that’s how I make my canopy woods, hopefully it was useful.  If you don’t like the effect this gives don’t be afraid to experiment, after all it’s your table not mine they are going on.

If you want to make individual larger trees see my article on using the cones from Alder trees which is here Small but Perfectly Formed: From Tree to tree - making 6mm trees. (elenderilsblog.blogspot.com)  the same technique would work on other formers than alder cones and I have used scrunched up foil on a cocktail stick in the past.

So good luck with the miniature forestry I hope you like the results of your sticky fingered work.

From Tree to tree - making 6mm trees.

From Tree to Tree

Or how to make trees for 6mm and smaller scales from cones from Alder Trees.

First find your tree

Alders like damp conditions so the best place to go looking for them is near lakes streams or rivers.  They are easy to recognise in the winter when they have lost their leaves but still have cones and catkins on the tree.  Alders have both cones and catkins on the same tree which also helps identify them.  As you can see from the photo below they are quite a slim tree rising to a distinct point.

This is what you are looking for, an Alder in winter.

It’s the cones we are after these are best collected after a couple of dry days so that they are not damp.  If you can only find damp ones don’t worry as they dry out easily.  When you collect them, the cones will probably still have some seeds in them.  I find that putting the cones in a plastic bag and banging them against the palm of your hand (do this quite hard or use a harder surface to bang them against) will dislodge most of these.  Don’t worry about damaging the cones they are pretty tough.  Test a couple to see how hard to hit them to dislodge the seeds.

These are the cones as they come from the tree (UK 2p coin and ruler in Cm for scale)

Cut the “stalk” about 1cm below the base of the cone with a sharp craft knife.  You can also trim off a couple of rows of the segments that make up the cone from the base to give the cone a more tree like shape.  So you end up with something like this.

I base mine on UK 1p pieces.  To do this I use Milliput, a blob about 5mm in diameter should be about right to create a flattened dome on top of the coin deep enough to hold the stalk of the cone firmly.  If they come loose a drop of glue in the hole is enough to hold the cone in place.  Set these aside to let the Milliput cure until firm.  I usually leave them overnight.  What you have now should look like this.

Now to add the foliage, I have found that a light foam flock such as Woodland scenic fine turf works well.  Mix some PVA glue with a little water until you get a consistency similar to single cream.  Paint this onto the cone starting at the bottom and working upwards towards the pointy end.  It doesn’t need to be 100% coverage the cones are wood coloured anyway so any you miss will just look like the branches.  Now dunk the cone in the flock and give a good tap to shake the loose flock off.  If you want to make a bigger tree use a chunkier foam such as the course turf or shrub size foam flock, but either don’t water the PVA down or use a stronger glue such as Bostick.  The result should look like these.

So all that is left to do is paint or texture the Miliput base and Bob’s your Uncle.  From a big tree into a teeny-weeny tree!