Pendraken trees - mounting to bases

[Nosher]

I have a shed load of PD trees and very lovely they are too

I am an absolutely sh*te modeller so would welcome some tips on fixing these little beauties to 2mm mdf boards. Speking of which where can I get my hands on 2mm MDF? I went into B&Q and the bloke looked at me like I was mad!

Some of the PD trees come with base integral to the trunk - I'll simply glue these in place

Some come with pegs, which I guess I can drill a pilot hole for and then cut the pegs down a bit so they dont come through the bottom of the MDF

The last trees come with wire wound trunks - drill a pilot hole or spread the wires out a bit at the base and use some greenstuff to mould them to the base?

Any hints and tips from mater modellers most welcome!!!!

[Leon]

I'm far from a master modeller, but I've mounted all the different types for the show displays.  

For all of mine, I've used two pieces of MDF, with holes drilled through the top piece.  I glue the two pieces together with PVA, and while it's still drying, I glue the trees in with superglue.  (The superglue reacts with the water in the PVA and sets quicker.)  For the wire trunks, as long as the hole is a snug fit with the trunk, they're fine.  For the palm trees, I snip the peg down to 2mm so it fits the hole nicely, and with the new bush-types with integral bases, I just superglue them straight to the base.  I then add the flock and grass afterwards, as it all helps hold the trees in place, and with some of the bigger sizes, I also put a couple of rocks next to the trunk for extra stability.

You could always go three sheets high for the bigger trees, with the pilot hole going through two of them instead.

Mine go up and down the country in the van, and they've not fallen apart yet!  

These are pics of the original displays, I've actually just redone them to include the new types.


TRD35 (10) and TRD48 (10):



TRD50 (10) and TRD60 (5):



TRD90 (4) and TRD115 (3):



TRC85 (4) and TRC118 (3):



TRP30 (10) and TRP40 (10) (and yes I know they've got Romans on them, it's all I had to hand!):



TRP50 (10) and TRP70 (10):

[Nosher]

Cheers Leon - those suggestions look helpful. Managed to source some 3mm MDF through Wickes who have an outlet locally but that would mean 6mm bases which is way too thick for what I'm hoping for.

What sort of dimensions are those bases?

I'm aiming for irregular shapes with 3-5 or 5-8 trees per base to make random wood/orchard/tree lined hedgerow shapes and planned for having chamfered/sanded edges. Might just have to go with 3mm to get irregular shapes big enough to feel like woods but small enough not to take up too much storage space.

[Malbork]

Like Nosher I'm not the world's most gifted modeller and am looking to do something similar to produce "exândable" woodland as it were.  Would these Pendraken trees fit in with 15mm (yes, boo, hiss I know ) as well as 10mm figs?  Thinking economics here (and storage space).

[Leon]

Cheers Leon - those suggestions look helpful. Managed to source some 3mm MDF through Wickes who have an outlet locally but that would mean 6mm bases which is way too thick for what I'm hoping for.

What sort of dimensions are those bases?

I'm aiming for irregular shapes with 3-5 or 5-8 trees per base to make random wood/orchard/tree lined hedgerow shapes and planned for having chamfered/sanded edges. Might just have to go with 3mm to get irregular shapes big enough to feel like woods but small enough not to take up too much storage space.

The 2mm MDF is harder to find, usually it's a special order job.  If you've got any picture framing places knocking about, they might be able to help, as it's used as the backboard for those as well.

The smaller display's are on 135x80mm bases, and the larger ones are 140x110mm.  When I get a bit of time to work on it, I'll be doing some irregular bases packaged in pairs (one slightly larger than the other) for people to make little tree bases.

Would these Pendraken trees fit in with 15mm (yes, boo, hiss I know ) as well as 10mm figs?  Thinking economics here (and storage space).

The trees would fit with any scale really, they're not Pendraken-specific.  I started with the smaller sizes for 6-10mm first, and then I expanded upwards.  The biggest we do is currently 115mm, which is fine for 15-20mm easily, and wouldn't look out of place on a 28mm game.  I will be getting some bigger ones in over time.

[fred.]

I've used hot glue to good effect for basing wire stem trees.

I used coins as the base as I wanted free standing trees but this would work well with a fixed base.

Bend the stem to form an L shape, then curl the right-angled bit round. Make sure that the tree is still standing upright at this point. Put a blob of hot glue on the base, insert the tree into the hot glue, hold for a few seconds while the glue cools. I think for some of the bigger ones I may have superglued the tree first, the put a couple of blobs of hot glue round.

The hot glue can be painted brown and gives the impression of the roots being a little out of the ground. there are some photos on my painting diary thread but they aren't that clear as they are of lots of trees at once.

[Rubicon]

I second the hot glue gun idea - I've been using it with similar trees for a few years now. I use 0.5mm plasticard for my tree bases (nice low profile). With the palm trees I snip the entire peg off, rough up the base by rubbing it on a fairly coarse sandpaper, apply and blob of hot glue and attach to plasticard. I usually leave them overnight to fully cure before texturing the base and painting. I do a similar thing with the wire stem trees, snipping off the bottom 0.5 mm or so with a pair of snips (worth wearing safety glasses for this as you can get little bits of flying wire..).
The plasticard base makes them light enough to bounce if they're dropped and I've never had any fall apart.
Be careful with the hot glue gun though - molten glue + skin = big ouch!!

[GordonY]

Nosher, http://www.mindsetsonline.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=911 try that link. Roughly 12"x8" for 60 odd pence.

The Google-fu is strong this morning.

[Serotonin]

3rd'ing the hot glue gun idea- I love mine!

Here's what I have knocked up with mine

Woodland



Jungle

[Nosher]

Chaps some absilutely stunning advice there and hyperlinks

Serotonin - what diameter base are those cricles and what are they based on MDF?

Rubicon - I wouldn't have thought plasticard could have coped with this job but might need to invest... I need some to create 6mm fences/walls on some BKC/CWC building bases I am hoping to create.

Gordon - thanks for the link

[Malbork]

The trees would fit with any scale really, they're not Pendraken-specific.  I started with the smaller sizes for 6-10mm first, and then I expanded upwards.  The biggest we do is currently 115mm, which is fine for 15-20mm easily, and wouldn't look out of place on a 28mm game.

Thanks for info Leon.  Next order may be larger than I was intending 

[Nosher]

Glue gun and sticks, some 0.5mm plasticard and 2mm MDF sheets on order...?

Now I just have to teach myself some patience to try, try and try again to get a modelling project right without resorting to throwing my teddy out of the pram!!!

[Hertsblue]

Can I suggest an alternative; work out the base of the trunk with Green Stuff so that it forms a flat base. Then glue to the mounting board. Mine are all based on pennies and two-pence pieces - actually cheaper than steel washers and don't rust!

[Womble67]

Hi everyone I am not a very good at model making but this is what I do to make woods

I go to my local DIY centre and buy a sheet of hardboard it's only about five pounds per sheet and a couple of millimetres thick.  I then cut it into irregular shapes and rasp the edges to give it smoother appearance, then using some of the offcuts I stick these on top approximately where I want the trees.  I then paint the entire board using polycell textured paint allowed to dry and then paint and flock.  The next stage is to drill small pilot holes for your trees I then use a hot glue gun to stick them in place.











I hope this helps

Andy

[nikharwood]

Serotonin - what diameter base are those cricles and what are they based on MDF?

Unless I'm very much mistaken, those are CDs...