Wargaming Terrain for Wars of Ozz – part 2 – Cacti, Oases, and Trees

On the last time that I posted, I shared my Scarecrow Girl statue that I cobbled together. After Christmas, I was able to add even more to my scatter terrain with a myriad of pieces. In the case of this post, I’ll share how I built out and painted up desert/cactus pieces and some oases. I also did a bit of tree build and rehab work that I will share here.

It’s all for my Wars of Ozz games. I needed some more desert pieces – especially now as I have significant numbers of desert units from both the Whim Whim and Temujican factions. I did previously use some cacti from Hobby Lobby in my Mesoamerican games.

Two Christmas gifts from my Mom – cacti and trees (both kinds the types for model railroads or dioramas) – brought me an opportunity to go further. On a side note, she says I’m tough to get a gift for – to which I say I really don’t need any at my age – but I do appreciate her a lot and it was very thoughtful (she’s probably reading this too!). In any case they will outlast golf balls for sure…

The cacti were great for building some scatter terrain. Additionally, I needed to make objective markers for one of my desert games – and oases seemed appropriate for that purpose. Lastly, my deciduous and evergreen tree collection (which is mostly second-hand from a flea market) needed an upgrade badly as they were looking like victims of Agent Orange defoliant. So, Mom’s tree gift of three Hobby Lobby trees was another scatter terrain opportunity. I’ll discuss the cacti scatter bases first, then the oases build, and lastly the trees.

Cacti Bases

The cacti are from JTT, and are plastic, and hence, they have that glossy look. I used a wash to knock off the glossy appearance and to give some depth to the plants’ striations. This was easy to do as the plants are set in the package into a styrofoam base. That base holds them loosely enough for applying a sepia wash and removing the cacti and bushes afterwards was simple.

As for bases for the plants, I decided it was a good opportunity to clear out a bunch of different plastic and wooden bases from my collection. One was even the same as I used on the Scarecrow Girl statue. You can see them below – I ended up with 20 bases. All of them got appropriately-sized steel washers underneath.

I glued the plants to the base, then added the AK basing paste, let that dry, then added pigments. When that was set, I added flocking to match my Whim Whim and Temujican unit basing schemes.

When I sent my mother these pictures on my phone, she thought they were cookies! Below you can see all 20 of them in a Really Useful Box.

Oases

Some of you may remember that for my Conquistador/Maya game, I built some sandy scrub-like terrain pieces, that had a few palm trees. These did not look like an oasis to me – so I decided to make some that did. I found some model landscape palm trees on Amazon from OrgMemory.

The plastic palm trees would need (similar to the previous situation with the cacti), a sepia wash. To ensure that a sepia wash would adhere properly, I washed all of the palms in soap and water and let them dry. This would also let me figure out what sizes would be best to use on this scratch-build.

While the palm trees dried, I used my scroll saw cut up four polystyrene sheets into random shapes for the oases’ bases (that rhymes?). Apoxie Sculpt was applied on the sheets to create the shapes of the terrain. In the end, I only used three of the four sheets. I’ll save the other for later use.

Once all the flocking was in I added the Vallejo Still Water in – mixed with some Secret Weapon Washes blue ink.

I then mixed and matched the palm trees to see what worked. The cured Apoxie Sculpt was pliable enough – yet strong enough – such that I was able to use an awl to make the holes for the trees’ prongs you saw above to set in the oases. This allows them to be removable, which is a plus, while the holes stay strong for reinsertion of the trees.

Lastly, here is a video of them and a brief description by yours truly:

Here is the Instagram link for the same video:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mark Morin (@markamorin84)

These three oases are the objective markers for my game, “The Desert Wars of Ozz“. The flyer for that game is below. You can see the some of the cactus bases and the oases – though they lost some color on the flyer being in the back.

I will be running this game (or a similar one) at multiple gaming conventions this year.

Tree Builds and Rehabilitation

My tree collection that I have used for years was in need of rehabilitation. The other gift from Mom was a JTT product that you see below:

These were nice trees, but the foliage was a bit stringy in places. Plus I needed to wash the plastic limbs and trunks down with sepia and a darker wash. I assembled and mounted these three on large 2″ steel washers. Then I went to my tree collection and stripped off the stringier foliage on the older trees I already had. I applied Woodland Scenics Hob-E-Tac to the older trees and the newer ones. After the glue had turned clear, I used Woodland Scenics Light and Medium Green clump foliage to finish them off. There were 32 trees in all.

As trees are just so essential to a tabletop, I was happy to have these in better shape for my games going forward.

That wraps up part 2 of this mini-series on terrain. I think I got a lot done here and it was fun. The cactus bases and the oases also qualify for Dave Stone’s annual “Paint What You Got Challenge”. Please, check it out – Dave is a great guy and runs this every year between Christmas and the end of February.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, as always, let me know in the comment section.

And part 3 (the last one) in this series will be coming soon…

Final Note

Want to learn more about Ozz? Well, if you do want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them and to get the rules (and I make no money from this). The game rules and the figures are available from the next two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

And the new Wars of Ozz Supplement is available as a PDF download from the following two websites:

• Drive thru Cards
• Wargame Vault

Below you’ll see the list of paints and the like that I used on these – and they are more useful for me when I need to recreate a color scheme in the future than maybe you – but in any case that’s why I post them.

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my earlier posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE CACTUS SCATTER TERRAIN BASES:

1. 2 packages of Cacti/desert bushes from JTT Scenery (SKU 95666)
2. Homemade wooden hex base
3. 1½” wooden disks from Michael’s
4. Games Workshops 3½” Plastic bases
5. Games Workshops 2½” Plastic bases
6. Unknown 1¼” Plastic bases
7. Unknown 1½” Plastic bases
8. Unknown 2¼” Plastic bases
9. War Games Accessories Steel Bases (FOW1)
10. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (shade/wash)
11. Vallejo Surface Primer “German Dark Yellow”
12. PVA Glue
13. AK Terrains Diorama Series “Sandy Desert” (texture/basing paste)
14. Small stones
15. Army Painter “Battlefield Rocks” (flocking)
16. Vallejo Thinner
17. Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
18. Vallejo “Light Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
19. Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
20. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
21. Vallejo Premium Color “Matte Varnish”
22. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Pink Sunset” (flocking)
23. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “4mm Badlands Tufts” (flocking)
24. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Nightmare Tufts” (flocking)
25. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Scorched Earth Tufts” (flocking)
26. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “4mm Neon Orange Tufts” (flocking)
27. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Flaming Harvest Tufts” (flocking)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE OASES:

1. SIBE Automation White Polystyrene 8″ X 12″ X 1/8″ Plastic Sheet
2. Apoxie Sculpt
3. Vallejo Surface Primer “German Dark Yellow”
4. AK Terrains Diorama Series “Dry Ground” (texture/basing paste)
5. Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
6. Vallejo “Light Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
7. Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
8. Vallejo Thinner
9. OrgMemory Assorted plastic tropical trees
10. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (shade/wash)
11. Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” (shade/wash)
12. Vallejo Mecha Color “Turquoise”
13. Gamers Grass “6mm Light Green” (flocking)
14. Gamers Grass “6mm Dry Tufts” (flocking)
15. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “4mm Neon Orange Tufts” (flocking)
16. Gamers Grass “Tiny Beige 2mm Tufts” (flocking)
17. Woodland Scenics “Prairie Grass”
18. Vallejo “Still Water”
19. Secret Weapon Washes “Blue” (ink/wash)
20. 2″ Square War Games Accessories Steel Bases (SKU Number 21)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE TREES:

1. JTT Super Scenic 4″-5″ trees dark shade deciduous (SKU 92158)
2. Everbilt ASC 2″ steel washers
3. PVA Glue
4. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (shade/wash)
5. Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” (shade/wash)
6. Woodland Scenics Hob-E-Tac adhesive
7. Woodland Scenics Medium Green Clump foliage
8. Woodland Scenics Light Green Clump foliage