Man all of these things look great! Once you put your photo of everything together they look even better.

The large dark green ones with the kroot among them are my favourite.

The secret to finding good ideas is having lots and lots of ideas that aren’t all that good. I like to walk around in the craft section of stores and ask myself “what would that look like in a piece of terrain if I melted it?” The vast majority of my ideas are complete failures, but sometimes they lead to other ideas that actually work. Two bad ideas when combined together sometimes make a good idea. I do a lot of experimenting, which usually results in a “well that didn’t do what I thought it would do”. The point is that you can’t be afraid to experiment. When I was working on my crystal forest I had several experiments that looked great, but were way too organic looking to be use as crystals. One thing led to another and now I have a gelatinous jungle. Also it helps a lot to get somebody else’s perspective on something, and that’s why I enjoy hearing from my fellow gamers.


I do feel the need to point out that the sniper drones are” hidden from human eyes” because of their advanced stealth technology, and would be capable of doing that in any terrain in which they were placed.



I also love the way they all look when placed together. With this wide a variety of plants it really starts to look realistic I think. The large green ones were actually the easiest ones to make. Sometimes the simplest solution really is the best.








These were made with fishing line, but this time I spread them out a little as I was gluing them. They need the spread at the top to look good I think, and I just didn’t have that in the earlier ones. What do you think have I finally found a use for the fishing line? I personally think that they make an excellent small plant to fill in the spaces between the larger plants with. Nothing spectacular by themselves, but they should complement the others nicely.

I was a little disappointed with these, because they don’t glow as much as some of the other plants. I wasn’t sure why at first but I think that I have figured it out now. If I were to do these again I would try using a lighter shade to get more light into each stock of grass. It’s all about the light gathering of the plastic piece I am working with. It seems to me that small pieces like this need to be painted a very light color in order to allow more light to pass through them. The larger pieces get a lot more light passing through them, so they still have that glow when painted a darker color. Some of the other larger, pieces (like the spoon trees for example) probably have too much light and could possibly look better if I darkened the color up a little.

One of my all time favorite quotes if from Winston Churchill, and it goes something like “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm”.

These are nothing more than some clump foliage glued to a stick. To make the foliage clumps, I spread a single layer of plastic beads on a glass dish. The beads were then heated until they got a little soft and rubbery. I then pried one of them up and began rolling it like a snowball when making a snowman. The beads stick together in clumps, in a very random fashion and are very easy to make in whatever size you desire. They do cool off very quickly, so you will have to keep reheating them to keep them at a workable temperature.

Really liking the last two entries. The stems of the "foam trees" has really come out natural and meandering in their roots. What were you using for stems that time?

Tael.

They do actually look a lot like they are made of foam don’t they. It’s funny that I didn’t notice that, since it's very obvious now that you have pointed it out!

The stems are made from some heavy duty plastic fork tines. They were leftovers from an earlier experiment that didn’t work like I had planned. They ended up looking very much like the flying base rods after they were heated, so I just found another use for them. The root portion is just some hot glue that was applied to the bases after the stems were glued down.





These were made the same way as the “foam trees”, just bigger. I used the full length of the fork handles for the trunks of the trees. I also tried a little experiment with the beads and mixed an assortment of different colors in the foliage clumps. I am still a little undecided on how I feel about the multi colored foliage. If I could find plastic beads in multiple similar shades then it would be perfect. Unfortunately I am stuck working with what I have.

Ahhh hot glue, of course. More obvious in the recent images.


The more recent versions are just as fun, but I understand the desire for differing shades of the green beads.

- T.

A very interesting bit of background fluff you have! Did you write that specifically for this vegetation, or is it a coincidence that it just happens to explain what I made? Either way it’s very interesting, and I would like to read more on it.



Here are a few close up shots of the third wave projects all mixed in together, so that you can see how they all look next to each other.






Here is the mandatory wide angle shot showing a typical use of the terrain in a game. This is a very fun table to play on, since it doesn’t look like any other table I have ever seen. It really does feel like you are playing on an alien world.


Unfortunately this particular game went very badly for me since it was my first game playing against the new Necron codex.

Oh wow. That looks great Vet.

The collection comes together so well; it's quite inspiring. Pity about the loss

The Foam Tree expose is something I made up on the fly, run with it how you wish, just enjoying your creativity and spawning an idea off it

Half expecting Willy Wonka to jump out..

- Tael.

FYI I just bookmarked the FACE off of this thread. Maybe when I get some time...

I think that the game Candy Land, or the Jolly Rancher or Lifesaver candies would be a more appropriate comparison, but point taken. Besides I don’t think that Willy Wonka, would be a problem, it’s those sneaky little Umpa Loompas, who you need to keep an eye on!


Glad you enjoyed it! It’s all the experimenting and trying to come up with new plants that took all the time. Actually making them was very easy and fast. The hardest part was finding a time when my wife would let me use the stove!


Now that I have a little better camera, I thought that I should take some better pictures of the original fishing line ones, since those pictures were so bad! These things are really hard to photograph, since they are so thin, but trust me, they look much better in person than they do in photographs.

Oompa Loompas or.. PPSMM

The lower photo definitely gets the fishing line concept across. Good thing the Kroot are changing tones to match

What brown are you using for your bases? Very earthy hue.

- T.

Ok Tael you have me, what in the world does PPSMM stand for?

The bases aren’t painted at all; I am simply using crushed volcanic rock. I bought a $5 bag of decorative landscaping gravel many years ago when my son first started playing Necrons. All it takes is a little tap with a hammer and I have course ballast,fine powder, and everything in-between. It’s probably been seven years or so and I have hardly even made a dent in that bag. When I started a Tau army it was just natural to make them be from an arid cactus infested world. Now I have almost as much terrain flocked to look like the surface of Mars as I do in the standard Earth green flocking.

Poor Poor Space Mole Men, an ATT tradition of sorts. When requiring some hapless filler foe, they're your guys.

Volcanic rock? Well.. that certainly rates up there in my all time unique basing materials. Great colouration.

- T.

Wow, the whole board of them looks amazing!

Alrighty, cleaned up the crazed cries due to mentioning of the unmentionable foe. Apologies Vet, I underestimated their influence!

Back to gelatinous gardens and how best to tend them.

- T.

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I have something a little different this time. This is one of my failures, but it was such an interesting failure that I figured that I should show it anyway.


I am sure that almost everybody is familiar with this material. Ever since I discovered that they make it in clear I had figured that I needed to find a way to use it. After thinking about it for a little while I came up with an idea that I figured should work.


I started by cutting it into the rough desired shape, and cutting all of the vertical lines but one (leaving it to act as the central spine). I quickly learned that it had to be cut strait, like with a knife. When I tried to use clippers (which were much faster) it would flow together instead of separating when heated.


The big problem is how sensitive this stuff is to heat, unfortunately that makes it very hard to mass produce. I had some so melted that they were completely unusable, while others ones on the same cookie sheet hadn’t even gotten warm yet. Even portions of the same leaf would get too hot and begin flowing together.


The end result was just too hard to make in mass quantities. It’s also not completely clear, so it doesn’t draw as much light as I had hoped. I haven’t completely given up on it yet, but haven’t come up with a practical way to use it yet. Anybody have any ideas on a way to use this stuff?

Awe-inspiring. They may be difficult to make, but those are the most beatiful and realistic plants so far
I like the fact that they have a vage resemblance with real plants, and yet they are gelatinous enough to be alien. And now, please post some bad ones, I'm getting tired of my chin dropping to the floor every time I open this tread

Y'know, you could melt these into sections of concave cavern scenery, washed in blacks you'll have something not far removed from a gieger-esque hive?

For reference: HR Giger's Alien Derelict Cockpit. -D&G

Thanks for the complements, but I do think that “Awe-inspiring” is too strong of a word, because you are making me blush. I did up some other ones that were painted a much darker color, and they unfortunately looked very plant like and not at all gelatinous. I didn’t even bother taking any pictures of them; I was so disappointed in how they had turned out. They were actually the point at which it dawned on me that thinner pieces need to be painted a lighter color to let in enough light.


That is a very interesting idea Tael. I am going to have to think about this for a while, but looking at that artwork done by HR Giger has given me some ideas. No way of telling where a string of experiments along those lines will take me.

The harder something is, typically the more worthwhile it is to do! In this case, these are my favorite of all the plants you've created.

I think it is all fantastic. I love the way they look like big swollen fronds of some alien fern. I'm imagining having to navigate a densely packed forest of this stuff, struggling to push these bloated trunks out my my way. I have to imagine that it would be much, much worse for a race of diminutive subterranean dwellers.

Really great job on these!