Prodigious Gloat

As promised in my last post, here's a quick tutorial on how I did the skin tones on Prodigious Gloat, the ogre player for my human Blood Bowl team, the Synnetowne Abbey Manglers.

This is a simplified and customized (and less skillfully and less stunningly executed) version of the method found here. You want a trip? Scroll down to the comments to see how John Effin Blanche answered my question about Winsor & Newton inks!

I've altered the above procedure for a ruddier, more flushed result, but the same basic method can be applied to any variety of wacky color schemes with good results.

The first step is to mix up a base tone. For this I used a mix of about 1:1:1:8 (or so) Primary Red:Cadmium Yellow: Dark Chocolate Brown: White. The key to a good base coat is to make sure that it's pale enough. This can be really hard to judge...I almost always end up worrying that I've added to much white, but it's never the case.

You can see the base coat on the top half of Gloat in the picture above. The legs and feet are already on step two, which is a general wash of diluted W&N inks in a mixture of 1:1 Crimson Red:Peat Brown (this mixture is designed to represent the areas on the skin where the blood is visible, which is useful to keep in mind when designing less conventional schemes. The contrast of hue that it adds really makes the effect work.) If you do not use inks, you can make a passable wash by diluting your desired acrylic color with water and matte medium (Liquitex matte medium is a nice value brand available at craft stores), though you might have to apply a couple more coats to achieve the same vibrancy.

A final note on W&N inks: these suckers do not 'set.' If you go over them with wet paint, they will bleed and run. This can be a real pain if you aren't expecting it, but it is also something of a boon for blending if you know that it's going to happen. It basically allows for easy as pie wet blending, which makes for a really nice effect for all kinds of things.

Once the wash has dried, go back in and reapply the original base coat as the first highlight. You should notice the red/brown mixture seeping in a little from the recesses.

Now simply begin highlighting while increasing the proportion of white, and keeping the mix thin with water and matte medium. I tend to work on a wet-palette, which means I can keep a pool of my base color next to a pool of white and gradually form a gradient between them. That way if I need to go back and fix something, I can easily return to taking paint from a darker portion of the gradient.

After that, it's basically just a matter of continuing to highlight until you think the overall tone is light enough. Above you can see I'm probably on my second or third highlight. (I work quick with more dramatic steps than most; blending is not my forte.)

Once I'm nearly satisfied with the highlights, but before the final layer, I go back with a very dilute red ink and glaze over the boils, lips, nose, and nipples. After that dries, I go ahead with the final highlight, bringing everything into balance.

I called it done at this point because the Gloat looked plenty flushed and sweaty; however for a more pale/sickly/eerie effect I will often go in and apply a very faint glaze of blue mixed with brown to the raised areas. The idea there is to have the fleshy or fatty areas contrast with the reddish bloody areas. In this scheme, that means contrasting warm and cool colors, though it could easily be the reverse when painting something a little more...imaginative.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions, by building up your query in delicate layers in the comments box, just down there.

Synntowne Abbey Manglers

Still digging through the old backlog, and in so doing I found the in-progress photos I took of my Chaos Cup 2014 team, the Synntowne Abbey Manglers. This was a teamed formed by the rambunctious monks of the monastery at Synnetowne. Their enjoyment of the thrill and violence of the Gorious Sport was such that it became encorporated into their spiritual life. Never is a monk of Synnetown closer to God than when he is pushing an opposing player's face into the pitch.

Above is the undershaded team. Since I had to paint these guys in record time for me (something like two or three days) I was relying very heavily on the undershade and glaze/wash technique. (Nevermind that I've been assembling this team for literally years.)

And here's the guy I purchased specially from Reaper to round out the big guy slot on the team. His mangled mug just screamed athlete to me. Of course, I had to do some work to make him pitch-ready; I hacked off his club (and carefully filed it in my bits box for future use) and sculpted up a little football, leather helmet, and jock strap.

If you've ever played Blood Bowl, you'll know that it's not very often that an Ogre gets to handle the ball, but the pose was so perfect and the idea so amusing that I just had to go with it. 

So the monks took in Prodigious Groat as an initiate. It's true he was not the most pious, nor the most community-minded. But he surely was a useful fellow to have on the Line of Scrimmage, and that would give him some grace with the bloody deity of Synnetowne Abbey.

As turn counters, I slapped my extra 2014 Chaos Cup model onto a washer and rigged together a banner pole for a team flag:

Below is a (rather blurry, sorry) picture of the finished team. If you look close at the flag, you'll see that the Order's motto is Ora et Pulta (meaning pray and pummel), a spoof of the Benedictine motto of Ora et Labora. 

Thanks for looking. Next time I'll post a quick tutorial on how I painted the skintones on Prodigious Groat. 

For the curious, below is the roster I used in the tournament. The incurious but talkative may skip down to the comments box and let me know what they think. Those who are both incurious and untalkative can do whatever they want. It's their life.

Chronicles of Yore: a Bloodbowl Match

My sister came to visit me back in August (!?) and surprised me completely when, after she saw my lovely wall-art, told me that she might like to learn how to play Blood Bowl. Actually, she was downright enthusiastic. See the bloodthristy delight below:

She also turned out to be a gifted team creator. Just check out the names on this roster!

I always find teaching Blood bowl to be kind of a slow process, because playing with the time limit is intimidating to new players. This game was therefore played over the course of two evenings, the first half without a time limit, and the second half, once my sister had the rules down, with the standard 4 minute turn.

So the Fightin' Fay squared off against the (highly unorthodox) defensive line of Who-Rah! and quickly found their way down the left sideline.

Ensnarion the catcher boldly attempts to outpace the opposition.

Before the close of the first half, however, the blitzer Meatface managed to pull the same trick to equalize.

I believe he also beat down a catcher in the process.

The second half, however, saw the swift fay defense snatch up the ball from Who-Rah!'s backfield and twinkle-toe into the end-zone.

It was a fun game, and I realized how the gonzo, off-the-wall tone of Blood Bowl can make it a perfect introduction for people who do not usually play tabletop games--as long as they don't mind committing to learning the rules, which can be a bit of a bear for novices. But once you get into the second half, the time-limit really transforms the game from super deep and crunchy to tense and action-packed.

You now have four minutes to leave a comment below. Don't turn over!

Project Spacefrog

I mark with this post the beginning of a long-term project that will hopefully culminate in my having a new, entirely scratch-built and home-cast Blood bowl team for Chaos Cup next year. This will be the first of many such posts documenting my progress toward that goal.

The hope here is that committing to this documentation process will force me to succeed.

The other hope is that posting this will distract from the fact that, yet again and despite much yammering and many promises that it would  not happen AGAIN this year, there is no post documenting my experience at the Chaos Cup this year.

It's not that I didn't bring my camera, because I did. And it's not that I forgot to take pictures (though I may well have given the oportunity). No, this time, the batteries that I swore were fully charged and ready to go, were in fact dead. And no one I could find had any spares.

So no post again this year, continuing my streak as best effing blogger ever. To make up for it? I'm sculpting some Slann. 

The armatures

More to come soon. In the meantime, +1 FAME to the first person to guess all the positions.

Stadium Renovation Pt. III

Welcome to the final installment of my DIY whiteboard Bloodbowl pitch tutorial.

Do you think there are enough searchable keywords in there? Here are a few more: it's also custom, and scratchbuilt, and cheap.

But here's the best part, and the one thing that sets my board apart from any that I've seen: this sucker hangs.

So here's what I did to finish off the board. I went to the hardware store and got some rubber feet, the kind you might put on some furniture to keep it from scratching the floor. Find the ones with the shortest screws, since they'll be going straight through the whiteboard frame and you don't want them to come out the other side.

These feet have a couple of nice benefits:

• First, they prevent the board from scratching the table - almost as if they were designed to do so...
• Second, they fasten from one side of the frame, through the whiteboard layer, and into the other side of the frame, greatly increasing the soldity of the whole.
• Third, they give you a convenient place to attach some picture hanging wire, which, if you like to sculpt, you probably have around.

I attached the bottom two feet first, mostly to make sure it would work properly. If you're smart, you'll drill some pilot holes...I didn't, and fortunately nothing went wrong.

Then, before drilling the top two feet on, I twisted the ends of the picture wire into loops that I then set the screw through, resulting in a solid mount for hanging.

Does this look crooked to you?

All that was left was to bang a picture hook into the nearest wall stud, then step back and admire. Now your pitch can hang on the wall like the piece of art that it (almost, kind of) is.

I hope you've enjoyed this long-awaited tutorial. (Long-awaited by me...I suffer no delusions as to how many readers have actually been holding their breath for this.) Here are the links to part I and part II.

Let me know what you think. I'm happy to answer any and all questions about the resources, logistics, and procedures around this project.

Just mount your question or comment into the box below while being, of course, exceptionally careful not to scratch the floor beneath...

Stadium Renovation Pt. II

Sorry for the brief, self-imposed media-blackout that was last week for me. The demands of leading a double life as the secret ambassador to an invisible but omnipresent extra-terrestrial eldritch menace means that, necessarily, I occasionally have to cede my hobby time to 'work...'

But I refuse to bore you any further with witterings on office life. If you've been following the REAL adventure, you'll know that I was halfway through showing you how to make your own customized, DIY Blood Bowl pitch out of a whiteboard.

Since last time, I finished painting the end zones and score tracks, as well as the Reserve, K.O., and Dead & Injured boxes. 

I was nervous about this stage at first, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy with a little patience. Just don't load the brush too much, since that can cause the paint to flow unevenly, and keep a clear idea of what you're trying to do, and you'll be fine.

When it comes time to start the lettering, I recommend writing out what you are trying to paint on a piece of paper that you can keep handy while you work. This will help prevent mishaps like forgetting the 'C' in 'Touchdown' and having to go back and make corrections.

Once all of the lines & letters were on, it was time to add the static grass. I found that a nice way to get an even coating of grass was to run it through a fine mesh strainer. Tapping the strainer with my palm caused the grass to sprinkle down in a nice blanket. (The strainer has actually caused me to really refine my static grass method. Hopefully I'll have a new post on that soon.)

Above, you can also see that I added a nice, big, psychadelic eye for a centerfield logo. I'll be the first to admit that it didn't come out very crisp, and that it was perhaps not the strongest thematical choice for the iconography, but something had to go there. For some really stunning examples of this kind of thing, check out Thib-0's range of awesome pitches.

That really puts this sorry effort into perspective...but you have to start somewhere.

And so here's the pitch, all ready for play. Stay tuned next time for the final touch, and what I think really makes this pitch stand out.

Comments are welcom below, but only if you hand-letter them...

Stadium Renovation Pt. I: How to Make a Customized DIY Blood Bowl Pitch

My oh my, has this post been a long time in coming. Way back in 2012, when I first started this blog, one of my very first posts was about how I wanted to make a custom Blood Bowl pitch our of foam board.

A lot has changed in that time. For one thing, I picked up a real Blood Bowl pitch on the cheap. That meant that I didn't need a cheapo DIY solution anymore - if I was to make a custom pitch, I had better make it fancy.

For another thing, I happened to inherit a 2' by 3' whiteboard.

So over the next couple of posts I'm going to show you how I made the first thing out of the second thing. Note, however, that this technique can be used to great effect for skirmish boards as well, as Orlygg so aptly demonstrated here. I do, however, take it one step further, as you will see.

So, materials:

1. A whiteboard or bulletin board. Best if you inherit it, but they can be had for around $30 at an office supply store.
2. Foam Core. I chose this over Orlygg's plasticard because is is cheaper and can be easily carved to achieve squares (or cobbles, or whatever)
3. Some kind of filler. I used woodfiller.
4. A buncha PVA
5. Some sand
6. Craft paints
7. Screw-on rubber feet (optional)
8. Picture hanging wire (optional. If you dabble in sculpting like me then you probably have some around.)
9. Picture hooks. (optional)

So for the first step you'll want to prepare your foam core by stripping all of the paper off of it. Here's an astoundingly easy method for doing so. 

Once that's sorted out, you can smear some PVA onto your board. You don't actually need that much, but coverage is important. I used a scrap of cardboard as a kind of putty knife to get a smooth, even layer.

Lay the foam on there. Lay some books on there too. Some big, heavy ones.

Now let it dry for at least a day. 

Just like basing a mini. Imagine the cavalry figure that would go on that base.

When you come back it'll be time to fill, carve, and texturize the surface of the foam. The first part of that is easy. Just fill in the cracks with your wood filler/spackle/putty.

Next, you want to create the squares on the board. In my opinion, the best custom pitches have squares that are carved or cut into the surface rather than drawn or marked on. I find that more markings cause greater visual distraction, making it look more like your figures are playing on a board and less like they're playing on a hard-packed stretch of earth and crushed opponents.

So using a carpenter's square and a soft pencil, lightly sketch the grid onto the board. Follow over it with a ballpoint pen, pressing hard and scoring the line two or three times to get a nice deep impression. You'll want to keep using your square even though the lines are marked, because your pen is going to want to wander off course. (You could get really fancy and use an x-acto mitre to cut actual angled grooves like this, but I opted for the far simpler method - though my board is not nearly as impressive as Thib-0's. That guy can really craft.)

Once your grid is down, you can apply the sand. Pretty straight forward really, just watered down PVA and sand. Staple of the hobby. (Okay, I guess you could use coffee grounds or tea leaves if your worried about damaging paint jobs.

My workshop table, as sprawling as ever.

Now your board will look something like the above. You're going to have to walk away again, I'm afraid.

Once it's dry, it's time for paint. I didn't prime mine because I couldn't be bothered to mask the frame. You can do that if you like. Then hit it with a bunch brown craft paints and follow it over with washes of various yellows, greens and dark browns for a nice mottled effect. Finally, you'll probably want to drybrush it. It's a slog, though, so be warned.

Check out my proud coach's headgear top left.

Above you can see the beginning of the endzones and score tracks. Masking tape works okay, but be prepared to do a couple of thin coats (another staple of the hobby) since applying too much at once will result in the paint bleeding under the tape and requiring touch up (which is odious, and a pain).

I'll be back in the next installment with pictures of the painting and flocking process. In the meantime let me know what you think. Note, however, that getting fouled while in the comments box may result in penalty kicks.

The Axeman!

If you drive a car, I'll axe the street,

If you try to sit, I'll axe your seat.

If you get too cold I'll axe the heat,

If you take a walk, I'll axe your feet.

Axeman!

Cos I'm the axeman, yeah I'm the axeman!

This guy only took me perhaps 3 hours total, spread over an evening, which is blinding speed for me. It is also my favorite mini that I've painted so far, and not just because I have wanted to own a White Lion since I was young.

Everything just kind of worked on this model. The non-metalic metal, which I have been struggling with, is the best I have achieved so far, and in two different colors too! I especially like the side of the helmet pictured above. The axe head is another story...I'm not saying I still don't have plenty to work on.

But it is an encouraging step... so encouraging that I'm now thinking of converting some Mantic elf scouts into a Pro Elf team for the Chaos Cup this year, and that would mean plenty more NMM in this style. I'd better get moving, though. That's coming right up!

I was surprised by just how un-systematic painting this metal was. Sure, I had to plan somewhat carefully (you always do), but the things that really helped were 1) having all of the colors blended on my pallet, and 2) not being afraid to go back in with a color I had previously used. It is a much more 'painterly' approach, very different to the mindset in which you highlight with one color, move on to the next, and rarely go back.

I am also extremely pleased with the face. I don't often achieve that kind of expression, and it is quite gratifying. I think the reason it came out so good (for me) was that I was able to leave the deep shades in tact during the highlighting process, which really helped to define the features.

...Speaking of Blood Bowl conversions, I would also like to welcome a few of the new followers who I haven't formally acknowledged yet. These are Paaor, The One, Fireymonkeyboy, and Sir Skofis. Welcome and thank you for reading!

Firemonkeyboy is a contributor on multiple blogs that I read, and it is an honor to have him following, you should check out the links to his blogs on his profile.

I have only recently discovered Sir Skofis's excellent blog Sir Skofis's Workshop. He has excellent articles on converting and sculpting figures for Blood Bowl (which put my efforts to shame,) as well as astounding scratch-built 40k vehicles. Check him out! He deserves to be followed!

Synntowne Abbey Mangles: Blitzer Conversions

Having (quite a while ago) completed my plastic Orc Bloodbowl team from the Bloodbowl box, I have since let my human team sit gathering dust. Well it's time to change that.

However, the models provided in the box make for a silly line-up. To get a working team, I need to make some changes. The first (and maybe only--I haven't really decided) step is to turn a couple of the many linemen into a more useful position--blitzers.

This kind of project can be tricky, but when I thoroughly mutilated and reconstructed a couple of Orc linemen, they actually became my favorite models on the team. So I had every confidence I could do the same for these measly humans. What I had in mind was to re-position both the legs and the right arm of a lineman to achieve a running pose similar, though not exactly alike, to the standard blitzer models. Here's some of the preliminary surgery:

I went on to cut the leg on the left into three pieces at the knee and ankle. After a bunch of pinning and careful, strenuous drilling, I was ready to roll!

...Until the newly glued foot fell off and skittered into oblivion. Then I was ready to cry.

So, after much tossing aside of possessions in the ensuing search, I carefully set the first model aside and decided on a more conservative conversion for the second blitzer. A simple arm re-positioning and a sculpted knuckle duster.

Fortunately for me, by the time I got to the sculpting stage on the second model, the missing foot dropped back from oblivion into plain sight where it patiently awaited me. NOW I was ready to roll.

The Finished Blitzers

There was, of course, much gap filling, but the really important putty work needed to sell these guys as blitzers. I needed more than just the pose. Looking at the original models, I noticed the distinctive leg padding. So I slapped some on. An easy step. I also gave them some plumes by sticking a tiny length of paper clip into the tops of their helmets to use as support for the sculpting. Finally, I slapped on some fun, ridiculous, custom visors. My favorite.

The finished blitzer's arses.

And that's that. Ready for basing, priming, and paint. I still need to decide whether I want to try and convert some of the team into more catchers, since the box only comes with two. However, the box also comes with two throwers, which I think might be one too many. Now what would be really cool is if I could figure out a way to convert the extra thrower convincingly into a catcher... we'll see. Oh, and I have to decide if I want to sculpt an ogre.

I also need to come up with some fluff for this team, for as we know, teams with a story always play better. So far I'm thinking they might be the sporting initiates of some violence-loving brotherhood of monks. We'll see what I can come up with.

On another note, I've begun stripping my second-hand citadels from my last post, as well as some plastic dwarf warriors which I really messed up on my first try. I'm trying a solution of dish soap and water to see how well it works. Stay tuned to see the results.

Oh, and if you have anything to say, too bad. It's not like you can comment or anything.

First Sculpt Ever!

So I've finally taken the plunge and started sculpting my own Troll for use in Bloodbowl. I have to say, its rather exhilarating, and not quite as difficult as I imagined. Granted, I have spent a lot of time swearing under my breath while trying to manipulate the knead-a-tite, but once you get the hang of it, it really isn't so bad. Granted the quality is no where near a professional standard, but for my purposes, I think it'll do nicely. And it'll cost much less money than the $30+ Trolls that you can find elsewhere.

As I've said, I have very little money-- but tons of time.

Pictured above is the first step of layering putty onto a paperclip armature into the rough form of the body. I decided to leave the arms off for now, as I think it will make sculpting some of the torso detail a little easier.

Since this Troll is a Bloodbowler, I decided he should have some shin pads. Don't know why, but the idea of a Troll in shin pads makes me smile.

To make them, I simply took a couple of small cones of putty and squished them flat with my ruler. Make sure to keep both of the surfaces lubricated so the putty won't stick. I then got a roughly uniform shape with my sculpting tools (right now i'm using bargain dental tools, but I'm going to try making my own soon) and then presses the lines in to represent padding.

Then I just transferred them to the figure. I made some straps and a belt in much the same way, using a roll instead of a cone.

 For the shorts, I just flattened out some putty 'discs' as thin as I could and slapped them on. I didn't worry too much about tears and holes, since I figured a troll probably wouldn't bother with a sewing kit for his uniform. The best part was that the putty wrinkled itself in much the same way that real cloth would, and so required very little shaping.

 All in all, I'm having a lot of fun with this project so far. There is some serious zen to sculpting, perhaps even more so than with painting. And it really doesn't take too long to get some good results. I only really work for around 45 minutes at each stage. Beyond that and the putty will start to harden and become difficult to work.

Scratch-building Trees pt. II: the Foliage

So now you have an awesome tree trunk. What now? You could just leave it at that, especially if you are modeling a winter scene. But really the key to a convincing tree, the part that will make or break your original, lovingly scratch-built terrain piece, is the foliage.

This is also the part that provides the most problems for budget modelers, since the products out there for modeling foliage tend to be pricy, and to make your own tends to require special equipment (like a blender) and materials that are tricky to find (like cushion foam.) Foliage also presents problems in terms of durability, since delicately made trees will not stand up well to transportation, and will often scatter material all over the place if handled roughly.

I won't pretend that I've solved all of these problems. But my method does produce a tree that looks awesome, is reasonably sturdy (I mean, don't go, like, throwing it or anything...) and is extremely inexpensive. That way, even if somebody does grab it around the trunk and shake it vigorously until it falls apart, at least it didn't cost you 25 bucks to make.

Here's What You Need: 

• Polyfiber (Less than $5 at a Joan Fabrics or Michael's, and enough for 5-10 *ucking FORESTS. I got lucky when my boss gave me some for free. He gave me less than a quarter of his giant bag-- a whole shopping bag full!)

• Black Acryllic Paint

• PVA Glue

•  An old paintbrush

• Cheapo Hairspray (Mine was $1.25, cheapest on the shelf, works great)

• Magic Wash in a pump action spray bottle (A.K.A. 1 part Pledge Floor Polish With Future Shine: 4 parts water). The Spray Bottle will cost you around 3 or 4 dollars, but it's worth it, since spraying magic wash on things is a simple yet durable clear coat. Plus, you can put acrylic paint diluted with isopropyl  alcohol in there and you have a poor man's non-toxic spray paint-- great for terrain, especially for large areas of sand which soak up paint and destroy brushes. Also, it is illegal to sell spray paint in Chicago, so...

• Newspaper, or other surface on which you can smear paint

• Some colored flock or ground foam. The tea-leaf flock I made is designed specifically for this purpose, and is super-cheap to make.

   

   What to do with all this crap: 

  
  

  Step 1: Preparing the Polyfiber

  First off, pull of a small lump of polyfiber, maybe about twice the size of a ping-pong ball.
  
  
  Got that? Good. Now here's a picture of what you're not going to do:
  
  
  
  
  
  DO NOT just go sticking on giant clumps of polyfiber in the hopes of making a gloriously verdant tree. And for the love of god do not continue to do so as pictured below:
  
  
  
  
  This was my first experiment in foliage making, and it turned out horribly. Pictured is just the dry-fitting stage (not necessary in the correct procedure I outline here). I had to then try and color these giant puffballs all the way through--which proved impossible; then I had to try and glue them to the tree in a secure way-- which also proved impossible; and finally I had to try and adhere the foliage to the puffs without weighing them down so much that they would fall off-- which proved the most impossible. I eventually had to cut these guys off, leaving a residue of white fuzz covering the branches and nearly ruining my tree.
  
  INSTEAD what you want to do is take that little lump of polyfiber and tease it into a thin sheet. I actually divided my lump into three and made three different sheets, as it made coloring them easier.
  
  Once that's done, put a squidge of black paint on your newspaper. add a squirt of water or Isopropyl alcohol to thin it a little. Then take one of your poly-sheets and smear it around in the paint. You're trying to get it entirely coated in pigment, while avoiding clumps where possible. Repeat until all of your sheets are colored. Note that this is messy, and if you don't like having paint on your hands, you should wear gloves. Also note that you may have to rearrange your fiber into sheet form, as the smearing process can cause them to ball up.
  
  Set these aside to dry. Maybe make some flock while you're waiting.
  
  

  

  Polyfiber sheets drying.

  
  

  

  A close up of the same. Notice how the paint causes the fibers to stiffen and gather together, making them appear twig-like. We will use this to represent the difficult-to-model fine twigs which typically support foliage. This will also strengthen the polyfiber so it can accept the foliage.

  
  

  Step 2: Dressing the Tree

   Once your fiber is dry, use a pair of scissors to cut out a 1-2 inch square section. Tease this tiny portion of fiber out as much as you can without causing it to fall apart. I am talking SUPER wispy. The wispier the fiber, the more convincing it will be as small branches.
  
  
  
  
  Take your junk paint brush and apply some PVA glue to the first branch you want to dress. Make sure to apply it all around the branch, but in a thin coat that won't drip on your base.
  
  Carefully place your teased-out polyfiber onto/around the branch. It won't take much to get it to hold, but just in case I like to give the fiber a quick pinch into the glue. You can also wait about 5 minutes for the glue to get tacky before applying the fiber. Both work.
  
  Repeat these steps until your entire tree is satisfactorily covered in fiber. I cannot emphasize enough  that less is more here. It looks more realistic to have small bunches of twigs around the branches than huge masses, and it makes the flocking process much smoother.
  
  

   Step 3: Adding the flock

  Make sure to let the PVA glue dry THOROUGHLY. If you do not, you risk having your polyfiber fall right off the tree under the weight of the flock.
  
  Once the glue is dry, gather your flock and your hairspray.
  
  

  

  Autumnal red, my favorite.

  
  
  
  Now, turn your tree upside down by the base. Spray the under-side of your polyfiber branches liberally with hairspray. I'm talking enough to cause the sprat to bead slightly. Then, making sure to hold the tree over some kind of container, sprinkle your flock generously over the fiber. Gently shake off excess.
  
  
  
  
  Turn the tree over and repeat the process with the tops of the branches. Between each layer, make sure to brush off any leaves that are sticking to the trunk with a soft paint brush. Be careful not to touch the trunk with your fingers as the hairspray will stick to them and they will pull the paint right off. 
  
  
  
  
  Work gradually. Rather than risk a surplus of flock at one time, allow a layer to dry before adding more. This will let you build up a good volume of foliage without deforming the polyfiber too much. Here too, less is more. Actual trees are not solid masses of leaves, but have lots of empty space. Make sure to leave some fiber exposed as it will add to this impression.
  
  You may notice that some of your foliage flock has stuck to the base due to overspray from the hairspray. Allright! Automatic natural leaf-scatter!
  
  
  
  
  Now for the most crucial step in making your tree as sturdy as possible. Fill your spray-bottle with magic wash, set it on the finest mist setting it can manage, and give your tree a good spray down, all over. This will help fix down your foliage as well as seal and protect your paint and your basing material. When that dries, spray it again. And when that dries, spray it one more time. Continue doing this until no noticeable foliage falls from the tree when you shake it gently. And then spray it again.
  
  This will make the tree slightly shiny. I don't mind this since I coat all of my figures and terrain in magic wash, since it's one of the most durable clear-coats available. However, some people don't like the shine. If your one of those, just go over the top with testor's dull-cote. I hear that does the trick.
  
  Once it's sealed and dry, it might be a good idea to go back with a pair of scissors and trip any wayward wisps. I haven't yet, since I'm still basking in the glow of my tree, but these things can detract from the realism (see last picture. Case in point.)
  
  And that's it. Not so bad, right? And crazy good looking, too. I have yet to see the commercial product to rival it. Here are some pics of the finished product with my color test Bloodbowl orcs for scale reference:
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  

  

  ----"Blimey... wot's dis prufoud feelin' uv peece warshin' over me?"                     ----"...'Arvy? Oi fink its dis tree.... dis byoooootiful tree..."

  
  

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  I swear one of these days I'll make a backdrop.

  
  Sites that were helpful/inspiring in designing this tutorial:
  
  http://pmrr.org/Articles/Scenery/GenericForegroundTrees.htm
  
  http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?96067-Making-Poly-Fiber-Trees-Quickly-Part-1
  
  http://jehubbard.com/hobbies/tree_tips.htm