OldHammer Style Part 1. Trees
Yes, not hyphenated, not two separate words: OldHammer like Warhammer but… older.
According to Games-Workshop Wiki
"Oldhammer" is a term used to refer to the early days of the tabletop miniature wargame Warhammer, particularly during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The term is also sometimes used to refer to the early editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB), which was first published by Games Workshop in 1983.
See, Games-Workshop was once a very different company and one of their key focuses was you, or rather you hobbying things yourself rather than them making it. For example…
This right here is a Games Workshop official landspeeder made out of ‘bitz’ and a deodorant bottle. How can it be official if that is the case?
Well, it was made in a White Dwarf magazine and you were encouraged to do the same.
Here in my opinion is one of the best ever citadel products…
The imaginatively titled Citadel Wood. What it lacked in imaginative titling it made up for in usefulness. See, those trees are removable which makes it much easier to store terrain. As well as playability. The thing is, though your troops are plastic they probably could have climbed through these trees and taken cover as they shot from them or easily walked around them. After all, they aren’t stuck to a base they have a rich story their not just plastic soldiers right? So…
Let’s do it… Let’s make some not citadel woods!
Here is everything you need!
Or at least what I used…
Marker Pen
Hobby Knife
Clippers
Craft Paints
Cork Tile
Cork Coasters
PVA and Sand
Now obviously you need trees and you’re going to need some sort of ground cover but here is the best thing… You can use literally anything… Because this was for a client and he wanted Bushido terrain I used Raging Heroes: Heroes Infinite trees from their High Elves of the Eternal Summit.
But you could use literally anything! You could use Archon Studios: Dungeons and Lasers Encounters Trees or… (total aside they have a super cool fan group one of the most welcoming I have ever seen)
The dollar store special TopButi 48 Christmas Trees or YooKat 40-piece tree set… (I have the sneaking suspicion that these are made by the same people… but don’t tell anyone)
Chose your trees based on what you want
Each is as valid as the last, the only requirement is that it fits YOUR needs!
First, mark out the kind of design you want and don’t worry if you make some mistakes so long as you are happy with the design you can remark the holes for the coaster
Tear it and cut it out with clippers for the extras to create texture and cut it out cleanly in the interior for nice clean lines
Paint your trees and rocks and additional items separately in whatever style you want. Once you have your bases set, glue trees in three of the cork coasters and then make three separate cork coasters that are ‘clear‘.
Glue trees and rocks in place
Mix your craft paint and PVA until you have the right colour you want for the ground cover, add your sand to give texture and apply.
Now is the time to add your base ground cover, this would be items such as tea leaves, ground and shredded coconut shells, or ground and shredded bark, some may add things like flocks.
Wait until dried.
Things can actually be left at this stage if you like how it is looking, but if you are dissatisfied you should add your second lot of ground cover, I added static grass I mixed from a few sources and some gamers grass tufts to make them really pop!
And that’s it!
No seriously, get some trees make a design, cut some things, sobber it with some homemade texture paste and then you are done! You’re done!
It’s not hard and most importantly! It is useable stackable and easy to do!
Paint like it’s 1999 and the Y2K bug is around the corner so turn off your computers and get ready for the end of the computing age so we can all get back to gaming or just some fun little hobby projects.
This is Oldhammer part 1. I hope to do more throughout the year! I hope you enjoyed it, I do a mix of motivational and painting based blogs/articles, if you like what you see here please bookmark me, if you want a place to share your hobby with kind-hearted people who share your enthusiasm check out our hobby forum WAYPN (What are you painting now?!) but if all of that is too much for you just…
Keep those brushes wet!
CYA!