Post a Comment On: Nate Miller's Tabletop Games

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I made this tree for an up coming Dungeons and Dragons game.  It's based on a tale from Arthurian legends.  The skeletons are shown for scale.  I was really happy with the way it turned out since it was fairly simple to make.

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Years ago I made three wire frame trees from bailing wire.  They sat unfinished in a box for over a decade.  One of them was covered in green floral tape which is something I had used in the past on wire frame trees.  I mounted the tree on a cork board base then used Gorilla Glue hot glue to create texture on the structure.

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I didn't want to use plastic shields for the tree because now that Games Workshop has stopped making Warhammer it's harder to find good shields cheap so I picked up a package of fake finger nails from the Dollar tree and cut them into shield shapes with a pair of scissors.  I had to mark the shield shapes by scoring into the nail with an Xacto knife because I could not draw on them. 

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I dipped them in very hot water to help flatten them out.  This distorted some of them a bit but that was okay since they were suppose to look battered and distressed anyway.  I then mounted them on square dowels and painted them with black spray paint. 

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I painted the shields with some quick and dirty heraldry.  I didn't get too precise with the painting since I planned to weather these.  It's handy to look up the rules of heraldry if you wish to depict it realistically.  I've studied it since I was very young.  My interest in medieval armor and knighthood led me into Dungeons and Dragons and the Society for Creative Anachronisms. 

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If you have less knowledge of heraldry you should Google "Heraldic rolls" or "Rolls of Arms" which are medieval records of Coats of Arms.  These are a great reference not only for ideas but also the medieval style heraldry is easier to depict than modern versions that you might find if you just Google Heraldry. 

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Here are the shields weathered up.  I wanted them to look pretty battered and a bit moldered from hanging on a tree for long periods of time.  
I can't wait to use this project in my next D&D game.  It should prove to be an interesting encounter.