Small Distractions - Stan’s Wargaming Blog: Homemade Terrain

Tuesday, 28 April 2026

Homemade Terrain - Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Howdy folks,

Picking up from my last post. I have since been able to finish all of the scratch-built trees and terrain. All in all, there are 16 x 4 inch tree stands, 16 x individual trees, and 6 x treeline segments approximately 6 inches in length. Within all of this, there are over 105 trees, 16 coaster, 6 strips of MDF, and a large number of wooden tokens. Not to mention the homemade basing compound, the overlay using AK diorama mud compound, and half a can of dullcote.

The process was somewhat involved. The trees that I got from Temu did not come with bases...very annoying, but I did get about 70+ trees for about $40...I took some wooden tokens or chips that I got from the DollarStore and drilled into the middle so that I could use these as individual bases for the trees and also on the strips and stands. The 4 inch coasters were a bit of a gamble, in that I wasn't sure how durable they would be, but I needed a quick low cost solution. As I was putting the compound on them, which had a fair amount of water in it, I figured that given they were coasters that they should be able to handle any moisture without warping.

Happy to report that they did not in fact warp.

Anyhow, after I put the base compound and AK diorama mix on, I then used a layer of Cinnamon Brown crafters paint. I then did a drybrush layer of Territorial Beige...which turned out okay, but wasn't overly pumped by it. I took a semi wet/dry brush layer to the overly beiged up parts using Vallejo Beige Brown. Surprisingly, this did not take a large amount of paint to rectify. I then took some Vallejo Stonewall Grey (I think) and painted up some rocky elements to give the eyes something else to look at. I followed this up with some Army Painter Soft Tone to accentuate the rocky features and give some light variation in some of the recesses of the basework and then hit everything with a very dry brush of Vallejo Tan Earth.

Very satisfied with the result, I then took everything outside to the sunny 18 degree day we were having and zapped it all with a matte overcoat. This was to give some protection to the base, but also some stability to some of the trees. Surprisingly, the Michaels trees were somewhat 'foamy' and some pieces were coming off, so I was hoping the dullcote would seal the materials in.

Here are the pics...next stop, the gaming table.