I can see this technique also being really useful for making big stalagmites and columns in a cavern setting. The unpainted tree trunk with the hot-glue on it could also make for a really good ice column. That may be the best part about your crafts-- they're not only simple and look great, they can be adapted into so many other things!
I've been working to upscale this tutorial to a giant redwood-size tree using some junk cardboard instead of a paper towel roll. It's been working out so far. I'll let you know how it goes when I complete it.
As you can see DMsCraft is working with carboard in 14:33 So some sheet material [namely masonite] will draw moisture from the air and warp, so when making large bases or strips of road make sure to seal the underside with a mix of pva & water.
I used this same technique to make a giant spider nest, I didn't paint it after the initial hot glue texturing and used lots of glue wisps to give it a webby look. I glued on tiny spider toys and used some beads as eggs, my spiders had a purple color pallet so a dabbed purple across the nest as well. The nest made for an interesting boss fight where it represented the center of a hive mind spider colony. It would spawn spiders and could even move around and could make slam attacks against my players potentially sticking them to the nest. But it was basically just a toilet paper roll covered in wet toilet paper and glue, but it came out awesome.
Hi, I don't often leave comments unless its something I really LIKE. I wish parents or schools would get kids to do this kind of thing -we used to but I was a kid back in the 1960s! This gives kids skill with their hands and their minds actively think creatively. LOVE the trees. Only problem I can see is the hot glue. Very interested in seeing more ideas for cheap buildings. Keep on crafting and doing what you do!
Agreed, too. I spent the (New Zealand) summer crafting, crafting, crafting, following DM Scotty's tutorials. I am a teacher and I run lunchtime RPG groups for 7-10 year olds at my school. I am gradually introducing students to the tiles, elements and terrain I have crafted. We played on grids last year. It has generated a lot of interest! Some want to make their own stuff as well as run their own games, which was my ultimate goal. Using the terrain really does engage their tactical minds more and it just looks awesome. BTW, hot glue is no problem for kids. They soon learn to avoid the glue after losing their skin to it! Thank you, DM Scotty!
DM Scotty, I just want to say thanks for all of your hard and dedicated work! It has inspired me to waver from my 2d white erase board, and traverse into the exciting world of 3d terrain. Not only does your stuff turn out epic every time, but it also is cheap and simple. Two thumbs up for you, and if I had a third thumb, I'd give you that one, too!
These look amazing! I'm going to try making them myself. One minor addition I'm going to make is to glue a large washer between the tree and the base to give it a little more weight to keep them from tipping. Thanks for the awesome video.
One thing I would suggest is to put fender washers (from hardware stores) into the bottom of the paper towel roll to keep them more stable. Although, these look fairly stable as well. Nice work.
At first I was like... crinkled paper towel roll filled with wet toilet paper? And then I was like.. just a huge blob of hot glue? And then I was like... Epic Tree!
Add glue to the water and there is no need to make it messy. Might not be as fun but...you can also put the mixture in a spray bottle for covering terrain pieces.
Scotty: Can you give us the manufacturer/item numbers for the plastic foliage? Also, there are tons of how-to's on how to make artificial Bonsai, with rice paper, and such. Probably more work than is necessary for anything but a diorama, but the rice paper trick, for various textures could be a good idea. Also, when I do the final dry-brush my trees now, I only drybrush on one direction, from the top down. It makes for some very interesting 3d effects, and if your texture is right, it really does give a hint of reality. I drybrush the penultimate coat in all directions to bring out the shape of the tree, but on the final and lightest coat, the tops down. Anyway, just a thought. Love your stuff, Scotty. Very creative, and far more important, very inexpensive to be able to create enough to entertain visually as well as imaginatively in the games. Awesome stuff.
Brilliant use of simple and AFFORDABLE materials! Good art job making these new trees look great for game play, and or any other use you need a tree. Thanks for the ideas.
Man this is so awesome. I'm sort of out of the hobby ever since whfb went away so it's not like I'm going to be making these, but it's still really easy to appreciate and enjoy this video. You can tell that some thought as gone into this by how applicable and durable the end products are. As I am working with 3d modeling the instructions for building these is surprisingly useful when sculpting too.
amazing job!!! I am looking for your tutorials and today I will craft my own Gelatinous cube! after this, I will make this tree!! Amazing work DM!!! God Bless u.
These are fantastic... 3rd time watching this video but i finally have materials to work on my 'outdoors' scatter box....... i think making half a dozen of these should be on the agenda... currently making a gimmick tree
Those of course look great, and I just spent the last couple of days making those trees with the breakable branches . UUUGGHH! why couldn't you have made this video a few days sooner ? Seriously though , this was a fantastic video .
I just started two of them. I don't yet have paint or the greenery, but I've got towel tubes, water, white glue, paper towels, TP, and I've borrowed a hot glue gun. I figure I can make up five or nine of them to the 15:30 point and then worry about greenery and flocking and even paint later. At some point, though, I'll want to make a full tree, branches, canopy, the works, both to see what these trees are representing and because I'm going to put a treehouse in one. I'll let you know how this turns out {nervous laugh}.
Great idea and tutorial! also the trees are useful for different games not just RPGs. Greetings from Argentina! As soon as I buid mine I'll show you :D
Mind=blown. Seriously, I spent a couple of weeks on military modeling forums to see what people were doing for trees (I've got a LRRP patrol painted and languishing in an empty egg carton, just waiting for a diorama) and was not impressed with what they came up with. This technique is simple and outstanding. I subscribed and will be telling some of my buddies in the military modeling community about your channel. Seriously, as one of my Sergeants Major used to say, out-f**king-standing.
Planning on making these next :D Thanks for making these awesome vids, been hooked on them! Been finding all the materials I need to get started on a bunch of these projects :)
Haha, struggled quite a bit with the toilet paper and paper towelling. I hopefully have some workable tree, gotta coat them in another layer of glue when I get home from work ^^ Hopefully the rest of the process won't be so tricky XD my last two turned out alright, though! Practice makes perfect it seems!
Scotty. you are amazingly talented and resourceful!! I'm so glad I've found your videos and look forward to viewing the others and get my hands dirty on the crafting table!! :-)
For extra strength could you fill the roll with paper first and then crush it up whilst the glue is still wet? Another great tutorial though chap, as always!
That's good enough then, no point doing more work than needed. Would they be strong enough to support figures if you did an elvish themed woodland city?
Brilliant, these trees seem the perfect size for a lord of the rings style woodland city, once again your skills and ingenuity have left me envious and in awe, thanks chap
Any tips on how to find something similar to the plastic plant cluster thingy you used for the foliage? Do you know what kind of plant it was simulating? Something for aquariums maybe? Or was it more of a plastic house plant? I ask this specifically because I would really like to make giant oak trees and those plastic leaves look quite similar to oak leaves. I also like how bendy they are. Any help would be appreciated.
I've been watching your videos. Hopefully I'll be able to start making something soon. New player. I can't help but won't though if you are into Halloween and making Halloween decor, props...etc.
They look fantastic. Great vid, thanks. I am gonna try this, but i have a question: When you are doing the tissue-paper mache have you tried using watered-down pva glue instead of just water? I get the feeling this would speed it up a little and also make it firmer but it might be a lot messier
put a little glue in the water you are squeezing TP into and leaving it as a mass. Then the mass will be more solid. Don't do this for the TP or paper towel you want to stretch back out.
Get into DM crafting, learn what you need at my website: www.thedmscraft.com/
3
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Outstanding mate, I love how basic all your raw materials are, I'm so building a cave system with the kids. Thanks for sharing mate!
the overall "big woods" effect in the end with all the trees was really good, and so damn cheap to
mongonala
Hey!
My Dungeon groups logo is your pp
Shoot I'm quite late.
The easy storage really makes this craft appealing.
I agree.
I really like the Woodglut plans.
I can see this technique also being really useful for making big stalagmites and columns in a cavern setting. The unpainted tree trunk with the hot-glue on it could also make for a really good ice column.
That may be the best part about your crafts-- they're not only simple and look great, they can be adapted into so many other things!
I've been working to upscale this tutorial to a giant redwood-size tree using some junk cardboard instead of a paper towel roll. It's been working out so far. I'll let you know how it goes when I complete it.
Awesome...love when people make the crafts their own.
i really like the flimsy branches. mine have broken in the past and its great that you got those. Also i like that you showed how to store them.
Glad you found it helpful. i really like this method.
I swear, making the scenery can be just as much fun as playing the campaign you're making it for. Hahaha!
+Daniel Barfield Agreed!
As you can see DMsCraft is working with carboard in 14:33
So some sheet material [namely masonite] will draw moisture from the air and warp, so when making large bases or strips of road make sure to seal the underside with a mix of pva & water.
I used this same technique to make a giant spider nest, I didn't paint it after the initial hot glue texturing and used lots of glue wisps to give it a webby look. I glued on tiny spider toys and used some beads as eggs, my spiders had a purple color pallet so a dabbed purple across the nest as well. The nest made for an interesting boss fight where it represented the center of a hive mind spider colony. It would spawn spiders and could even move around and could make slam attacks against my players potentially sticking them to the nest. But it was basically just a toilet paper roll covered in wet toilet paper and glue, but it came out awesome.
Hi, I don't often leave comments unless its something I really LIKE. I wish parents or schools would get kids to do this kind of thing -we used to but I was a kid back in the 1960s! This gives kids skill with their hands and their minds actively think creatively. LOVE the trees. Only problem I can see is the hot glue. Very interested in seeing more ideas for cheap buildings. Keep on crafting and doing what you do!
I agree, I have several vids on 3D buildings with 2.5D tiles.
Agreed, too. I spent the (New Zealand) summer crafting, crafting, crafting, following DM Scotty's tutorials. I am a teacher and I run lunchtime RPG groups for 7-10 year olds at my school. I am gradually introducing students to the tiles, elements and terrain I have crafted. We played on grids last year.
It has generated a lot of interest! Some want to make their own stuff as well as run their own games, which was my ultimate goal. Using the terrain really does engage their tactical minds more and it just looks awesome. BTW, hot glue is no problem for kids. They soon learn to avoid the glue after losing their skin to it! Thank you, DM Scotty!
Very welcome =)
wow! easy and cheap! one of the best terrain ideas i saw on internet keep great work!
DM Scotty, I just want to say thanks for all of your hard and dedicated work! It has inspired me to waver from my 2d white erase board, and traverse into the exciting world of 3d terrain. Not only does your stuff turn out epic every time, but it also is cheap and simple. Two thumbs up for you, and if I had a third thumb, I'd give you that one, too!
You made my day...have fun crafting and gaming.
These look amazing! I'm going to try making them myself. One minor addition I'm going to make is to glue a large washer between the tree and the base to give it a little more weight to keep them from tipping. Thanks for the awesome video.
Good idea, also you could glue a packet of sand in the bottom (inside the tree for weight.
One thing I would suggest is to put fender washers (from hardware stores) into the bottom of the paper towel roll to keep them more stable. Although, these look fairly stable as well. Nice work.
At first I was like... crinkled paper towel roll filled with wet toilet paper? And then I was like.. just a huge blob of hot glue?
And then I was like... Epic Tree!
+jonnylee5000 I get that a lot...LOL
That's pretty cool that it's all wood besides the glue!
So true....lol
Such a great timing on that Scotty! I just happen to need giant trees soon. Also they look magnificent as all you do, good job.
Add glue to the water and there is no need to make it messy. Might not be as fun but...you can also put the mixture in a spray bottle for covering terrain pieces.
True.
Nice tutorial, a tip from me is to use a white glue water mixture. I think you can save some glue this way.
Scotty: Can you give us the manufacturer/item numbers for the plastic foliage? Also, there are tons of how-to's on how to make artificial Bonsai, with rice paper, and such. Probably more work than is necessary for anything but a diorama, but the rice paper trick, for various textures could be a good idea. Also, when I do the final dry-brush my trees now, I only drybrush on one direction, from the top down. It makes for some very interesting 3d effects, and if your texture is right, it really does give a hint of reality. I drybrush the penultimate coat in all directions to bring out the shape of the tree, but on the final and lightest coat, the tops down.
Anyway, just a thought.
Love your stuff, Scotty. Very creative, and far more important, very inexpensive to be able to create enough to entertain visually as well as imaginatively in the games.
Awesome stuff.
I love how you added roots with wet towels
Brilliant use of simple and AFFORDABLE materials! Good art job making these new trees look great for game play, and or any other use you need a tree. Thanks for the ideas.
so much hot glue though haha
wow man , this is a really cool project, you can use variations of this same technique and get all kinds of trees! thanks a lot for posting this.
This is awesome. Right now just waiting for my Tree of Tales to dry, then I'll paint it up! Keep making excellent videos!
Great looking trees Scotty ... I love how you use hot glue to such great effect! Craft on brother!
Thanks Viv for sharing and Scotty for the awesome tutorial and idea! Top notch
Great build, very effective indeed!
Man That has a GREAT effect!!! Love how you pull all the different aspects of the build together!:)
Thanks man =)
The only thing i would change is adding some weight (just pour some sand/stone into the roll) for stability and those trees would be perfect.
Nice litttle upgrade.
You sir are a magician!!!! SUBSCRIBED!!!!! Perfect tutorials for my D&D and Warhammer terrain building
Man this is so awesome. I'm sort of out of the hobby ever since whfb went away so it's not like I'm going to be making these, but it's still really easy to appreciate and enjoy this video. You can tell that some thought as gone into this by how applicable and durable the end products are.
As I am working with 3d modeling the instructions for building these is surprisingly useful when sculpting too.
Glad you liked the vid =)
amazing job!!! I am looking for your tutorials and today I will craft my own Gelatinous cube! after this, I will make this tree!! Amazing work DM!!! God Bless u.
Glad you find the vids helpful....have fun!
Really great project, my only recommendation would be to lighten the plastic green. Thanks for the upload.
Great thing about crafting is that you can make any mods you want.
Sprinkle dirt the base for texture. I feel it looks more realistic and dynamic than gluegun.
That works too.
I love your work man. I'm looking to bring more realism to my pathfinder games and this has really helped spark my imagination.
+Kaedrus Glad to hear it...happy' gamin' and craftin'
You could do some really cool stuff using those as a base. First thing that jumps to mind is an Elven city à la Lothlórien.
So true =)
Great Trees I use lots of home made trees and I love these HUGE ones
me to =)
This is an excellent vid. Nothing to complain about.
Great ideas, will probably use something similar myself sometime.
These are fantastic... 3rd time watching this video but i finally have materials to work on my 'outdoors' scatter box....... i think making half a dozen of these should be on the agenda... currently making a gimmick tree
+Edin Nuir Glad you found the vid helpful...have fun!
You're amazing DM Scotty! -DM Luke
+Luke Nice Very kind to say...thank you Luke.
This is awesome, this is going to work great for my custom star wars ewok village forest.
Perfect!
Thanks, Scotty! These are great. I plan on building some now. I appreciate the inspiration.
So very welcome. Have fun!
ive tried alot of the crafts you show. it all works pretty well
Awesome vid, thats for taking the time to make it and cover the steps in detail.
very good stuff.
I found your channel yesterday, since then I've been binge watching your videos, awesome work/creativity! Thank you for sharing 😁
Welcome and enjoy the content.
I was going to try flocking with some larger tree armatures, but I feel like this would work a lot better. Better visibility :)
Those of course look great, and I just spent the last couple of days making those trees with the breakable branches . UUUGGHH! why couldn't you have made this video a few days sooner ? Seriously though , this was a fantastic video .
figures...lol
Cheers. I need some forest terrain for my campaign and this technique will come in useful.
Has worked great for my table...glad you like the idea and check out my other tree vids.
Great idea. Once again goooood job. Thanks for sharing
Very welcome
great idea mate. will be building my own forest using this :)
Schweet!
Definitely giving these a go today! Thank you so so much!
+Sasha Pagan Awesome, have fun!
Awesome tutorial man, great job! Thanks for taking the time to do these.
+Brandon Williams Very welcome, glad you enjoyed it.
I think that placing the trees on a flat play mat that showed leaf litter and perhaps a trail would finish the effect.
+imredave Sure would.
it was looking good through out but the finish.. WOW! awesome work man!
+Jean Gagné Thanks much, glad you enjoyed the vid.
So creative! Great stuff.
Thanks, I love crafting for my games.
all the tree making videos always interesting
Awesome video, they look amazing, can't wait to make my own!
+Doug Connell Have fun =)
U giving me plenty of ideas,
Trouble is not enough time in the day.
Absolutely AMAZING!!!! Thank you for sharing that. Great video!
Great way to make Endor.
+Tony Hind So true.
Awesome mate, I'm just starting out in this so this is a great insight. Very realistic!
Thanks, also cheap and easy.
I just started two of them. I don't yet have paint or the greenery, but I've got towel tubes, water, white glue, paper towels, TP, and I've borrowed a hot glue gun. I figure I can make up five or nine of them to the 15:30 point and then worry about greenery and flocking and even paint later.
At some point, though, I'll want to make a full tree, branches, canopy, the works, both to see what these trees are representing and because I'm going to put a treehouse in one. I'll let you know how this turns out {nervous laugh}.
you can put something heavy in the bottom of the tree to make it more stable, probably a stone or piece of metal would do the trick.
Hello sir I may not be s table top crafter but your videos have helped me tremendously I'm my. Figure customs just wanted 2 thank you for your videos
So very welcome, glad you enjoy them.
wow, i never thought about doing any of that, and it is so cheap to make. thanx for the vid
Very welcome.
Great idea and tutorial! also the trees are useful for different games not just RPGs. Greetings from Argentina! As soon as I buid mine I'll show you :D
+Ferchox Pacheco So true...looking to see yours.
very good tutorial with lot of details
+Murali Padavala Glad you enjoyed it =)
Mind=blown. Seriously, I spent a couple of weeks on military modeling forums to see what people were doing for trees (I've got a LRRP patrol painted and languishing in an empty egg carton, just waiting for a diorama) and was not impressed with what they came up with. This technique is simple and outstanding. I subscribed and will be telling some of my buddies in the military modeling community about your channel. Seriously, as one of my Sergeants Major used to say, out-f**king-standing.
Very cool, glad my cheap crafting could help. Tell your buddies the more the merrier.
Just love the trees, thanks for the great tutorial.
So welcome and I hope to visit Oomba Boomba someday
Planning on making these next :D Thanks for making these awesome vids, been hooked on them! Been finding all the materials I need to get started on a bunch of these projects :)
Sounds great...have fun
Haha, struggled quite a bit with the toilet paper and paper towelling. I hopefully have some workable tree, gotta coat them in another layer of glue when I get home from work ^^ Hopefully the rest of the process won't be so tricky XD my last two turned out alright, though! Practice makes perfect it seems!
*In line at store with a cart full of tp*
Guy in front of me: "corona?"
Me: "crafting"
Guy: oh, you'll need mine too..
Heh heh
Scotty. you are amazingly talented and resourceful!! I'm so glad I've found your videos and look forward to viewing the others and get my hands dirty on the crafting table!! :-)
Welcome to the Craft.
For extra strength could you fill the roll with paper first and then crush it up whilst the glue is still wet? Another great tutorial though chap, as always!
If you wanted too but they are plenty strong
That's good enough then, no point doing more work than needed. Would they be strong enough to support figures if you did an elvish themed woodland city?
Sure would
Brilliant, these trees seem the perfect size for a lord of the rings style woodland city, once again your skills and ingenuity have left me envious and in awe, thanks chap
Great video! I will make some trees very soon!
Awesome
That glue does make a really cool texture, the effects at the start of the video were kinda weird, otherwise very good.
+Sean Edgar But I am weird...bwwhhhaaaaa
Love those trees
Fantastic stuff.
Love your channel, thanks for posting so many AWESOME videos!!
Glad you find them helpful.
You can lay it down on polythene. I usually use old carrier bags. PVA never sticks to polythene because it's chemically similar.
That's what Pam told me!
(waits to see who catches the reference)
Fantastic brother.
+Skeat Thibodeaux Glad you liked the technique.
Thank you so much for your videos.
So very welcome
Awesome job !
Any tips on how to find something similar to the plastic plant cluster thingy you used for the foliage? Do you know what kind of plant it was simulating? Something for aquariums maybe? Or was it more of a plastic house plant?
I ask this specifically because I would really like to make giant oak trees and those plastic leaves look quite similar to oak leaves. I also like how bendy they are.
Any help would be appreciated.
Schensue They were on a vine like plastic plant. That is a good place to start. I got the plant at Jo Ann Fabrics.
theDMsCraft
Thanks for the quick and extensive answer. Now I have to try to find that stuff here in Germany. ^_^
Good luck and have fun.
+Schensue They look like pond weed. Probably in the pet (fish) shop?
How could I do a winter affect for these? Playing frostgrave..would be cool to have some shambled trees
Flexible modelling paste would work great. Here is my Amazon affiliate link: amzn.to/2QwfqPF
Wow, very nice!!
Thanks, also fun N easy
Awesome vid. Thanks for posting.
Glad you liked it.
Thanks for another great video!
Thanks for the Tips, I build villages and your trees are awesome for Halloween......
Very welcome, have fun crafting.
GENIUS!
Thanks =)
I want to make a forest for my wood elves like in Mirkwoods. With giant trees, eyes can be looking at you, etc,
siete bravissimi
you could leave it white so it could be tree in a celestial plane
I've been watching your videos. Hopefully I'll be able to start making something soon. New player. I can't help but won't though if you are into Halloween and making Halloween decor, props...etc.
I love Halloween but make most of my stuff for mini tabletop.
TheDMsCraft Gotcha. You do amazing work. I'm going to attempt incorporating monster mud into the tabletop stuff I make. We'll see if it works out.
Awesome...have fun
They look fantastic. Great vid, thanks. I am gonna try this, but i have a question: When you are doing the tissue-paper mache have you tried using watered-down pva glue instead of just water? I get the feeling this would speed it up a little and also make it firmer but it might be a lot messier
You can do both.
Awesome! :D Love all your tutorials!
No jokes... no jokes... no jokes...
*wraps hand around base of tree*
Here you can see it's nice and firm and.. uh.. yeah..
NO JOKES.
Greg Gilbraith [insert joke here]
Amazing!
Thanks =)
put a little glue in the water you are squeezing TP into and leaving it as a mass. Then the mass will be more solid.
Don't do this for the TP or paper towel you want to stretch back out.
when I first saw one of ur videos I instanly subscribed ur videos are great
Glad you enjoy them...have fun watching and crafting.