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  | AN ONGOING NEWSLETTER | July 2006 |
Not all battles take place in the inner city: Even there, any vacant lot can harbour weeds or crops. And they can hide your enemies. There are two great sources for basic greenery: Craft stores and Aquarium supply shops. Craft stores will often have stems of artificial greenery with dozens of useable 'bits' , and aquarium shops will have 'sheets' of vegetation. Corn Fields
These were found at an aquarium shop. I clipped individial stalks from the sheet, and heat-treated the ends. This technique will be used with many different greenery types.
Take the molten end and press it against something flat and cool.( I use the side of a screwdriver head.) The ball will flatten to make a rivet head.
I use fibreboard bases, so instead of putty, I use a mixture of white glue and sand. It's cheap, strong, and doesn't need to be painted. On plastic or metal bases you'll want to use putty or epoxy.
You can of course place the stalks in an irregular pattern for jungles, etc. Small buds from the craft store supplied low crops. They were clipped from their stalks and treated as was the corn. They probably would have looked better with the rows filled in more completely. They provide no cover at all, but they could be difficult terrain.
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Random shrubs, etc. The same types of plants can be placed individually or in groups on bases, and used to create areas of rough terrain or to just break up empty areas.
It's heavier than a metal base, almost unbreakable, needs no paint, and has an 'organic' shape that blends into the ground. Build the base on a piece of plastic and pop it off when the white glue is dry.
There are three different shrub types shown here: The larger is seen on the Nuclear Arms and all are seen in Tornado Town. Unlike the others, the largest is made of vinyl, so can be glued. I use it to decorate buildings, derelict cars, fences, etc.
These bushes are solid blocks of sponge dyed green, with bits torn off. The bases are plastic with wire stalks attached to 'em. Once the base is painted and coated with sand, the bushes are pushed onto the glue-covered stems.
These hedges are made from artfully-trimmed dollar store pot scrubbers. The opening gate is made as per Gate 2 in How to Hang a Door. All my fields are small, as they are untended to be hidden amongst vacant lots, but you can make them as large as you want. I haven't come close to using all the plants, shrubs & bushes I got on single stalks. A couple of stalks would fill a large area. Look closely at the plant types at the shops. There are desert plants, farm crops, decorative bushes and vines, and they are all inexpensive Best of all, they make your table look good. |