Dollar Store Dungeons - Trees (RPG Miniature Terrain Building)

Let's Build Trees

So I've been interested in terrain building since I first got hooked on D&D nearly two years ago.  I've been an avid fan of YouTube crafters such as The DMs Craft, Black Magic Craft, and Wyloch's Armory for awhile.  But I haven't delved too heavy into crafting until more recently.  While I have several projects in various states of completion, I figured I'd kick this series off with one of the most useful terrain pieces: Trees.

There are plenty of guides out there for crafting miniature trees and I've definitely been influenced by many of them, but I've taken my own spin on it with my own requirements.  Namely, I wanted to keep costs down and steps simple to make it easy and affordable to repeat.  Let's get crafting.

What You'll Need

Toilet Paper Rolls

Textured Paper Towels

Green Scrubbing Sponges

Cardstock Scraps

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

Scissors

PVA Glue

Baking Soda

Mod Podge

Black Craft Paint

Dark Brown Craft Paint

Mid Brown Craft Paint

Green Craft Paint

Light Green Craft Paint

1. The Trunk

To simplify and speed up the crafting process, I highly recommend an assembly line process.  Finish each item with one step before moving to the next step.  This will save you time switching tools or clearing your work space.

Start by taking a used roll of toilet paper.  Cheaper brands tend to work better as the glue holding the paper on is cheaper and removes more easily.

Carefully split the tube along the seam.  Be mindful not to rip the cardboard.

Rewind the tube tighter.  You can try to keep the inner edge thinner than the outer edge, but this doesn't need to be dramatic and is honestly just an extra flair.

Hot glue the bottom edge of the tube closed and snip off the excess to make a flat base.  Cut off the top edge as well.  I recommend hot glue to quickly hold the tube together.  You could try using other glues like PVA but you would need something to hold the tube tight while it dries.

Next mix up a batch of watered down PVA glue.  Just add a bit off water to the white glue until it has the consistency of milk.  Maybe a little thicker.

The next step is harder to repeat.  The brand of Paper Towels that I bought had this accordion style texture in them that looked perfect for wood grain.  I found this brand at Aldi but I'm not sure how easily you'll be able to find it yourself.  But the simple pattern leads me to believe it isn't too difficult.

If you found the textured towels, tear a strip a little taller than the tubes.  Brush some of the watered down glue on to the tube and attach the paper towel.  Continue to roll the tube along the paper towel and once it is wrapped around completely you can tear the paper towel free.  Do not cut the towel!

With the paper wrapped around, take more watered down glue and brush it over the exterior of the towel to soak in and stiffen the towel, really attaching it to the tube.

If you couldn't find the right texture towel, you can find an untextured paper towel instead.  When wrapping the tube, over-soak the towel in glue and let it bunch up as you roll.  This will create various lines and textures that will look like tree bark.  You could also try untextured toilet paper as well but will have to be more careful about the glue mix dissolving or destroying the toilet paper.

2. Basing the Tree

Once you have a collection of tree trunks, you can move on to basing.

You'll need to find yourself some thin cardboard, cardstock, or chip board to use as a base.  I cut up an empty box of juice pouches.  It was slightly sturdier than a cereal box and was just what I needed.

Hot glue the tree trunks to the base, being mindful to place the thicker end down.

To further secure the tree and to simulate tree trunks, drag more hot glue up on to the trunk and down on to the base.  I created almost a sunburst effect.

Next, trim the edges of the base to make them appear more organic and natural.

To finish the bases, spread some more glue mix along the base between the tree roots.  Next sprinkle some baking soda over the glue to add some texture.

You may want to use less water in your glue mix to help better secure your base.  You may also want to use a different basing material, like sand.

3. Painting the Trees

I do need to apologize as I kind of zoned out while painting and didn't take any progress shots.  But the process is pretty simple.

I began by covering the trees with a mixture of mod podge and black paint.  This is a classic Black Magic Craft technique as it saves a step.  You can reinforce your model, and prime it in one step.

Next I used my dark brown paint and heavily dry brushed the trees.  Moving horizontally, against the tree grain, leaves the paint on the raised edges and leaves the recesses dark.

I then went back with a lighter shade of brown and gave a lighter dry brushing, this time avoiding the base, as I wanted to leave it a muddier dark brown.

I wasn't satisfied with the hot glue roots and I went back in with the lighter shade and painted the roots normally.  I'm still not sold on them but I'm happy enough.

4. The Branches

To make the Branches you'll need green scrubbing sponges.  I bought them in packs of three from the dollar store and found that a three pack had enough material to complete two trees.  If you want bigger or thicker trees you may need more.

Begin by cutting the sponges into various sizes.  To save you from a complicated explanation, I'll just list the sizes for you.  Each tree will need one and a half sponges to create the pieces you need.  

One 4x4 inch

One 3x3 inch

Two 2x2 inch

One 1x1 inch

If cutting these from a typical 4x6 inch sponge you'll notice that the 3x3 and 1x1 are slightly more rectangular.  And that's okay.  These do not need to be perfectly square.  You will also be left with a 1x1 square for each tree, but you can save those for a bonus craft.

I recommend cutting all your squares first and keeping them organized.  Next trim the edges being careful not to make anything too uniform.  Then fold the sponge and cut a circle into the center wide enough for the trees to slide into.  Do not cut a hole in the 1x1 sponge.

Finish the trees by layering the sponges and hot gluing them into place.  I chose to leave a bit of space between each layer to create some shadows and depth.

I also chose to add an extra touch to the branches by drybrushing them with a couple shades of green, just to cut back on the cool-tone of the bluish green sponges, and to make them pop more.

Review

With the trees finished, I found myself left with several 1x1 inch sponges.  I quickly whipped up some hedge-like bushes to use as scatter terrain.  There are plenty of tutorials out there for making hedges and bushes but if you'd like to see one, let me know.

In review, I'm very happy with how these trees turned out.  If I were to make them again, I might invest in buying some metal washers and gluing them between the base and the tree trunk.  It'd be easy to hide them under hot glue and it would add some much needed weight to these trees.  I may also go back later and try to straighten out the bases by applying some watery glue underneath the bases to combat the warping that occurred from painting.

Here's a good picture of the scatter terrain in use, with the addition of the bushes, and some simple paper-craft tents.  You can see how I painted the Wolves here.  And how I converted Mage Knight minis into Mercenaries here.  If you want to see how I made the tents let me know below and I will make a tutorial for those as well.

Stay tuned, if written tutorials aren't your thing, I will be working on making a video tutorial for the trees in the coming weeks.