3D model description
I've recently dug out an old rules book for one of the most popular fantasy tabletop battle games out there (that is getting a reboot soon!) and started playing with my nephew and quickly found my old tree and woods scatter terrain to be almost unusable (I would use the little model trees that you buy at Hobby Lobby back in the day and the scale is terrible and they constantly fall over). Since I've started 3D printing miniatures for our games and have found some really good free models out there, I was hopeful I would find some good trees for tabletop war games. I did not.
So I decided to sculpt my own. I am just learning how to sculpt so these aren't the best looking trees out there, but functionally they work the way I want for my games. This grove of trees basically works like a building with interior space to place units inside the forest area. I designed the tree canopy to be one large piece that simply lifts off of the trunks which are also all connected together for maximum stability and usability in-game. I was really happy with how this terrain piece actually played in game and I think you'll love it too.
Please be sure to let me know how it works for you if you do print it out so that I can make more designs like this and make them even better.
The photos show the printed and painted trees next to miniatures that are on 20mm bases as well as 25mm for comparison.
Overall, this is not an easy print given the size if you are looking to capture the scale from my photos, and I won't be breaking this model up into pieces or anything like that. However, I would like to make some smaller tree clusters that work much the same way (just not so wide) which can then be placed next to one another to create larger forest areas. If you're interested in that, please drop a comment and let me know!
I'm still learning 3D sculpting so if you have any feedback on how I can improve these models, or if you have ideas for something that I should make that pertains to tabletop games, leave a comment or send me a message.
3D printing settings
These models are designed to take up every bit of space on my Phrozen Sonic Mighty 4k. Be prepared to scale down as needed and be sure to scale both pieces equally if you do.
I placed the tree trunks directly on the build plate and added some supports manually underneath the most horizontal branches and the few other places that obviously needed them, but you may be better off lifting the whole tree trunk structure off of the build plate and using automatic supports or whatever your normal prep process is.
For the canopy, I could only fit it on my printer by rotating the model so that the length of the canopy extends down the vertical axis of the printer, and when the print was done the model was still touching the resin in the vat after the build plate lifted all the way up, that's how little room I had left. So I hope you have a big printer or are prepared to scale it down. Just be sure to scale down both the canopy and the tree trunks by the same amount, or else the canopy will not fit nicely on the branches.
I did 1mm walls with 10% infill for hollowing in Lychee. I used the Phrozen Water Washable Rapid Black Resin for the trunks and Siraya Fast for the Canopy. It took a very long time to print, so use your most reliable settings and configs to avoid a painful failure, and maybe set a reminder on your phone to add more resin midway through printing the canopy.
Good luck!