Terrain Workshop: Papercraft Trees

Thanks to a video posted by Shades Corvid on the Discord, I started experimenting with using paper pieces as part of terrain.  I printed off a copy of Playfool's Stud Stencil as a precursor but I ended up free-handing all of the hole punches.  I started with a simple rectangle piece then moved on to some that were a little more complex.

Here's the first tree with the rectangular "branch" sections.  A simple start and it looks

 decent enough.  It will take two Hits before being destroyed. Brickshelf gallery.

My second paper shape was an octagon.  Unfortunately it ended up being

too much paper to fold them all up so I went with just two pieces.  This

left it looking like a tube and not all that great.  I might try adding in two

of the rectangular sections to see if it can work.  Brickshelf gallery.

The third attempt was a hexagonal diamond shape.  This one looked

a lot better and had greater coverage then the rectangular paper strips.

It will take two Hits before being destroyed.  Brickshelf gallery.

The fourth one was made a little later.  I went back to the rectangular

shape but this time I cut two-thirds of the length into smaller strips. 

These are meant to resemble the branches of a Willow tree or something

similar.  It will take one Hit before being destroyed.  Brickshelf gallery.

Here's a size comparison.

And a breakdown shot so you can build your own.  All of

the work to make these four examples -- sketching, cutting,

and assembling -- took maybe half an hour.  So making

enough to act as terrain for a game shouldn't take too long.

These are the templates I used  to make the leaf sections.

The main reason behind doing this -- besides the fact that it's neat -- goes back to the post I did on creating good looking Lego trees.  The techniques I used in this post will add volume to tree designs without adding density.  I hope that makes sense to people.  You can also change things up a little.  The 1x1x6 Pillar that I use for the tree trunk comes in many colors.  If you combine a paper color other than green and a trunk color other than brown you could have the start of a sci-fi plant life selection.  Using paper might also be a method to reduce cost.  Overall it's about trying to help people to make cooler looking tables so they can have a great  time playing.