From MilesR: Tree Plates (100 Points)

Curt asked me to make some Forrest sections for him.  Now before you all get up in arms about bribery, special treatment and other nonsense, let be very clear - I DO NOT prostitute my terrain making to get favorable treatment in the Challenge.  That's a reprehensible allegation and  cash is obviously more effective.  Now with that settled lets talk Tree plates.  Like in 5 of them.

These are designed to be used with 15mm and smaller miniatures and is a way to represent larger forrest sections but still make the space playable.  A lot of forrest terrain.  Now I do need to apologize as the glue hasn't completely dried but I'm not sure if I'll get back to the house in time to post before the deadline.

I left a path through the biggest plate - perhaps to allow for an ambush?

The tops are removable which allows one to easily move figures through the "forrest" but maintain the illusion.

Here's a shot with some 15mm Roman Auxiliaries for scale.

With the top one their actually hard to see, which is great for setting up ambushes during gaming events.  If you squint you can see them hiding there.

I made the plates using 1/8 thick marine grade plywood, which resists warping.  The first step is to cut out and bevel the sections.

Roofing nails are used for the "trees" - these are 1.5 inches tall.  I did file down all the points to limit the chance of inadvertent puncture wounds incurred during game play.

Flexible tile grout was used as ground texture.  I let some of it get on the "tree trunks" to add some texture and variation to help complete the illusion.

The tops are just gator board cut to the same shape of the plate with with some EPS foam glued on the vary the heights.  

Woodland scenics clump foliage was then glued to the top.  There are a few places I need to touch up but they look good for now.

As for points, I think Curt would agree that there worth at least 10,000 points, if not more for the pure majesty of the artistry.  I'm sure you would all agree - right?

What?  Did a I just hear a round of no's?  Some of you care about fair play and rules and other trivial inconveniences?  Well, ok, if we want to play by the rules these tree plates occupy roughly 3 square feet and are 3 inches tall which translates to 1,296 cubic inches.  As all of you remember from the terrain square post (at least I hope you do because it will be on the final exam), our standard 6 inch cube has 216 cubic inches for 20 points.  If we then divide 1,296 by 216 the result is 6 "cubes" of terrain or 120 points.

Lets round that down to 100 because well, the glue isn't fully dried yet.

I may get one more terrain related item posted before the end of this year's challenge - maybe.

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Thank you Miles, these look TREEMENDOUS!! 

Really, I kill myself. 

Y'know these are totally worth 10,000 points. A bargain at half the price actually. BUT Kent and Noel might burst a blood vessel if we did that, so lets keep it to 100 points because they're really great guys.

Now, as a suggestion, I think you should come up to hand deliver them this summer. We'll talk to you all Canadian-like, feed you good and even have a game with them. You'll never want to go home. Well, at least until November... :)

Thanks again Miles, you're a prince.
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