Ok, it looks like people really like the puffy ferns. I actually do have several ideas yet to try on these things so don’t worry, I’m not throwing them out just yet. Unfortunately I am a little overwhelmed at work at the moment and it will be a few weeks before I get a chance to work on them again. This is very frustrating for me since, I think that it will work this time! Then again that’s what I thought the last time also.

I finally found some time to continue with my jungle making! I found a new material to use, and found some new ways to use some of the old ones. It took me about a week to throw all of this together this time. Quite a remarkable feat considering it was the holidays, with lots of relatives visiting, and I was packing for another trip.



I think that I must be getting better at this, because all of these pieces seem to go together very nicely. They are looking much more believable to me, as alien life forms. What do you think?

Looking brilliant! Best work you've done yet. I particularly like the touch of red in there. A flowering alien plant could make for some interesting touches to terrain. Now we all wait in anticipation with a guide to how you achieved these great results.

Thanks Hownowbrowntau! I agree with you about the flowering alien plants, a small amount of color sprinkled around does add a lot to the look. Let’s start with the red ones since you particularly liked them.




These look to me like they are possibly a carnivorous plant. Unfortunately I have been unable to determine this conclusively since most of my miniatures refuse to get too near them. The drones were the only models willing to be photographed next to them. Notice how the plant seems to be reaching for the unwilling Spotter in the photograph.




These were made by stacking heated spoons inside of each other. It’s a very easy technique to use and could also be used to make tree trunks with. The red flower/fruit is some small beads.

You're most welcome...like the flecktarn on the sniper drones by the way. So in the oven on a low heat is what I guess you did to melt the spoons? Did you need to keep them in water, or were you able to melt them dry without burning them? The small bead idea is simple but effective. Did you just use a wash to paint them all?

Yes, a low heat for just a short time. You don’t want to actually melt the plastic, just get it warm enough to begin shrinking. It’s very easy to do; just make sure that you do a test first so you know how long it will take. I did these dry, but you could get very similar results simply stirring a hot cup of coffee with one of these plastic spoons. I am using a clear acrylic paint made by Tamiya. If you are painting a clear shiny surface like lenses, windshields, eyes, or in this case gelatinous vegetation, then you can’t beat this stuff. Unfortunately, they don’t have a very wide selection of colors, and the green is very dark. What I do is start with the yellow, and add a few drops of green food coloring to give me a very light green. A wash will also work, but it won’t be as shiny a surface, and you won’t get that glowing effect.

These trees came out looking a lot more like a conventional tree than I had originally intended. They are basically the same as the earlier “Foam trees”, just made with a higher grade of materials.


I started out with these rather interesting looking spoons that I found at Walmart. I then cut the middle out of them and set the spoon aside to use on another project.


The pieces were then interlocked together in cluster of three or more.


After warming in the oven for a few minutes and a little bit of shaping, I ended up with these interesting looking trunks.


The foliage was made by mixing two shades of green and one of yellow. Instead of beads, this time I used decorative acrylic pebbles. These are the same thing that I used to make the smaller mushroom tops, just in the smallest size that I could find. I managed to get these on sale for $1 a bag, so the completed set of trees cost me less than $10.


I then spread them out in a Pirex dish and heated them in the oven. The dish gets very hot so you have to make sure that you don’t touch it (use an oven mitt and a spatula), but the plastic is surprisingly cooler. Once the plastic is hot enough to start becoming spongy and begins sticking together, I start pealing it off in chunks. The time between when it is almost too hot to touch and when it is too cool to still work with is only about a second so you have to work fast. As long as you keep it moving very little heat is transferred between the plastic and your hand. In other words if you hold it tightly your hand gets hot and the plastic is quickly too cool to work, however if you make minimal contact and work fast then you won’t even feel the heat in the plastic. You probably want to try this a few times with a thin glove on the first few times.


The resulting randomly shaped and sized clumps were then hot glued onto the trunks.

Yet another use for plastic forks! These were very simple to make, but they are one of my favorites. I think they ended up looking a little like a giant gelatinous seaweed. To make these I just warmed the fork in the oven for about five minutes then shaped them.

I found this plastic lacing in clear and tinted colors in the craft store and figured that it was worth a try. These are the easiest to make so far, no heating, just cut to length and glue down to the base. These are a filler plant, so I didn’t bother to shape the ends. When viewed from a normal distance you don’t notice that the ends are cut flat.

Wow you've produced so many awesome examples of jelly jungle terrain and they all look so stellar. I think the only issue i have is that they all have a very similar size which is primarily suited to hiding infantry. I recommend trying to make 1-2 large pieces capable of completely hiding devilfish and land raiders to create some variance on the table top.

Also, I thought about the possible uses for that mesh stuff. It might be plausible to create corpses and rotted remains from it. particularly animal spinal columns and rib cages depending on how you cut the pieces out. if its dyed red and placed under some of the carnivorous plants, I could imagine it looking like regurgitated refuse... complete with deteriorated gear

These are getting even better. I think I'm going to have to try a few of these.

My thought on the new plants was maybe cutting the lacing material at a 45 degree angle rather than at 90 degrees. It'd still have a somewhat flat surface on the end but not look completely tube-like. I know at table distance the differance may not be all that noticable but it might give it a more spikey look to the tips when viewed closer up.


The taller ones ones made from the fork tines make me think of some weird alien saguaro cactus as they have arms.

This has really turned into the thread to watch. Great work.

Thanks for all of the comments! It’s good to know that somebody else thinks that these are interesting and that I’m not just way out in left field all by myself.

At first I was a little confused by your comment since I use them for cover in games all the time. Then I realized that I haven’t posted any good comparison pictures so that you can see the larger plants next to a vehicle. Here are a few comparison pictures so that you can judge for yourself how well they can conceal a vehicle. The Hammerhead is on a flying stand and the only part of it that is taller is the very top of the railgun.








Interesting idea but unless I can solve the problem of it getting too hot and all running together, then it would just look like a melted blob. I have some success with using it for another type of plant so I will post pictures of that later.

I have to agree with you that cutting the lacing at a 45 degree angle would make them look better. If I were to do them over again I would cut them at an angle. I originally made them by wrapping multiple wraps around my hand and then cutting them all at once. If I had simply thought to cut them at an angle then, it would have been very simple to do. Unfortunately now that they are already cut I would have to cut each one individually, and it’s just too much work for such a minor plant.

Thanks, I hope that I can live up to your expectations.

All of this talk of needing bigger plants and pictures of a Saguaro cactus has got me thinking. I had a failed experiment for another project, which just might be usable for this. I had been trying to figure out a way to easily make lava from plastic. It was a failure because it ended up looking much more globular than I had thought (it was one of my early experiments). I also couldn’t get the colors correct since the yellows would overpower the oranges, and the reds would be way to strong.


These are very flat since they were intended to be used to simulate a lava flow. However if I made them in 3-D instead of 2-D.


Anyway, using essentially the same process that I used to make the vegetation clumps I could definitely make some very nice tree trunks. I also think that with just a little effort I could make something similar to a Saguaro or possibly even some sort of coral. I love the texture on these failed experiments, and think that they would make an excellent plant. This is still very much in the idea stage so what do you think?

ah well thats a MUCH better view of the plants... they did all look roughly kroot sized in the previous pics though. but with the hammerhead hiding there it really helps put things in perspective.

I think a coral growth idea would be very interesting to try, and the beads offer a lot in that department. Have you contemplated or experimented with a mushroom/fungal sort of terrain piece yet?

Boy have I missed out on this conversation in this topic. Love the new flora. Have to ask, what are you using to create the tooth edged long grass fronds? There is a small example in the foreground in your last post, top image. A larger version extreme centre left in the second image.

Been meaning to ask, much trouble with fumes/VOCs?

- Tael.

Size can be very difficult to tell without a proper reference point, so I’m glad that the pictures helped.

Just the ones that were made with the suction cups so far. I have few ideas for some other types of mushrooms but haven’t gotten around to trying them yet.

Generally speaking you don’t get any fumes from the plastic as long as you are only warming it and not actually melting it. If you are melting the plastic it depends a lot on the specific plastic you are using. As long as your oven is well ventilated then it shouldn’t be a problem. Personally, the fumes don’t bother me at all; however my wife complains that the plastic stinks. Whatever you do don’t burn the plastic because that is when you get the bad fumes. The plastics that produce toxic chemicals when burned usually aren’t used to make eating utensils, so in theory they should be safe. Whenever using a new material it is a good idea to do just a single test one to determine how it will react to what you are doing.


Are you talking about these? They are another attempt to use the plastic mesh.


Just cut them into strips of the desired length, and stick them in the oven.


You want to melt these enough that they get an organic look, but not so much that they completely loose the shape.




I originally tried to give them a nice natural look to the leaves by bending a droop into them, unfortunately the “memory” in the plastic straitened them all out again.

Yes those are the ones exactly. Hmmm, very cool. They really come across well for me amongst your varied experiments. Downloaded and noted

Thanks about the VOCs, I suspected as much but as you put very well; be sensible and shouldn't be an issue.

Cheers!
Tael.

I’m glad you liked them. Do you think that they are better than the original fern like ones?





These are the original plastic mesh plants. I am still not happy with them, but I decided to make a set of them anyways. They look really good from a distance, but up close you can see the problems. The truth is however that when you mix them in with all of the other plants the defects just don’t stand out as much as I thought that they would. My goal is to be able to cover an entire table with a convincing looking jungle. I am getting close to that at this point, but I will need as many of the smaller plants as I can possibly get to do it.

A Gelatinous Swamp





It just wouldn’t be a Jungle without some marshy ground to fight over! So I made some swamp pieces to go with the other Gelatinous Jungle pieces. Nothing new in these materials wise the plants were just based with a much wetter look.

Can we see how much of a table you can cover?