RIP Sir Terry (oh, and some ebay Trees)

Today saw the very sad news that Sir Terry as left us and gone to have tea with Binky. It's not often that something gets me choked up (normally it's something stupid, not someone famous passing on). When we had the Great Clearout before moving, the Pratchett collection was the one book collection that remained intact as it is dear to both of us. Time to go back and start re-reading the Diskworld books from the very beginning.

On a brighter note... the next parcel arrived for the Great Terrain Project this morning, all the way from China. I wasn't expecting this little bundle of joy for at least another few weeks as the estimated delivery was early next month.

Thanks to the wonders of ebay and international commerce, I got a pile of neon trees. I wasn't aiming for neon trees, but that is what I got none the less

In this photo you can see the 5 different tree types all lined up with a Warlord commando for scale. Starting form the left we have a fine example of the flower covered ball trees. These are wire based and very densely packed, so they look like nicely maintained miniature trees, perfect for putting in half barrels around the village. You can see a red one at the other end of the ruins. You get 30 of these for the exorbitant price of £2.80.

Next up is a very special apple tree, with fruit. They are a little bit big for 28mm your normal sized eating apples, but are perfect for cooking apples or those really large apples you get in Germany. The ones the size of your head. For £1.44 it is the most expensive tree in the parcel, but easily the nicest. Again, it is a wire trunk so the branches are pose-able and the leaves are pretty dense, so it doesn't look half empty like the larger trees. At some point I may get some more of these ones to make an orchard.

The third tree is from a pack of 5 Mulberry trees. I wasn't expecting too much form these ones as they worked out to be about 50p a tree. The stems are shiny plastic with no wiring, so with the plastic bent, the trees are most likely to be staying that way, unless I can heat them up, or wire the trunk myself. The leaves look like moss or shredded sponge and are rather neon compared to the others, so I need to work out how to tone the greens down a bit. I may try some green washes on them when I try to paint the trunks so they look less... plastic.  Not perfect trees, but certainly good for quickly building a forest cheaply.

The final tree type is the largest, generic tall tree. At 32p each, these are even cheaper than the Mulberry ones, but look slightly less OHMYGODGREEEEEEEN. They are all bent like that though, so again, I need to try to straighten them and make the trunks look less plastic. I think these ones will probably have the trunks cut short so they aren't quite so bent. This should hopefully make them fit in more easily and removes the problem of the oh so plastic trunks.

The two cheap tree types are dropping bits of greenery all over the place, so definitely need some fixatives applying soon before autumn hits home. I think some of the mulberry trees might look a bit better if I fill in some gaps with bits of darker Scenics tree stuff. I've got plenty of them to try experimenting with, so we shall see.


It was an interesting experiment and none of them are beyond saving, so all in all a good little parcel that should provide lots of greenery for the board. Now I just need to get some basing for them so they actually stand up...