ime to put to use our new found grass blade building skills beyond turning a base into a waving field of tall grass. But how?

To say that the planet holds a tremendous variety of plantlife would be an understatement. This tutorial would be never ending were I to try and show how to make every single plant that ever existed, so I'm not even going to bother. Shirking my duties as a tutorial writer? I think not! Instead, we'll focus on individual techniques with key plants and let the modeler decide how to expand those to cover whatever foliage desired.

Towards that goal, let's add some new techniques to our arsenal, starting with everyone's favorite swamp plant, cattails.

Primarily, cattails can be created with a cluster of elephant grass and one or two brass rods with rounded tubes on the end. That's it! Hardly any research required for such a simple project (though if you're interested, feel free to read up on cattails).

All we really need to focus on are the cattail heads, and we have a myriad variety of options to create them. The best option is using a wad of Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff over a pin. Take an appropriate amount and roll it over the end with the head of the pin. As a result of the head, a small nub will appear. This is actually quite accurate to how many sorts of cattail appear. Set it aside, let it cure, then prime and paint to suit.

For those who don't like messing with Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff, you can use masking tape to create the cattail head. Simply cut a small strip, wrap it around one end, then dab a small bit of Zap-A-Gap is an excellent super glue used for miniatures and modeling. For particularly small parts, put some Zap-A-Gap on a space piece of plastic and, using tweezers, dip the small part into the glue -- it's a lot more accurate than using the tip of the bottle.Zap-A-Gap to keep it from unrolling.

Another option is to build the cattail up in layers of sand. Glue one end of the pin or rod and dip it into fine sand. Let this dry, then repeat it until it reaches a suitable thickness. Clearly, this will result in a roughly textured cattail head, but one that resembles such a plant about to release seeds. A small but thick wad of cotton glued to the end of brass rod can be used to represent cattails that have fully released their seeds.

Placement of your new cattails should be beside or in shallow water. You can get crazy and make your own water base with varying elevations, or you can leave one section of the base uncovered by sand and just paint it an appropriate blue, green, or muddy brown without all the hassle. Meanwhile, keep that Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff out. There's more we can do with it.

One plant that is very distinctive yet not often used on miniature bases is bamboo. Bamboo is a woody grass found in such diverse areas as cold mountains or hot tropical regions, yet the imagery of bamboo often brings to mind an Asian theme. Take a look at the Wiki article for some other interesting bits about bamboo.

Thanks to the wide range of environments that bamboo can be found, it looks quite nice when added to swamp base or even to a snowy mountain base. It may be worthwhile to take a look at distribution worldwide, mostly to make sure we don't end up with any oddities. Not so much bamboo in a desert, for example!

To build our bamboo, we need to understand a little bit about the structure. According to the wiki, the main bamboo stem can range in height from a few centimetres to forty metres with a diameter ranging from one millimetre to thirty centimetres -- perfect, as this gives us a lot of wiggle room when matching sizes to our scales. The stems are also jointed, and each division is called a node. These nodes are what makes bamboo so distinctive, so our first step is to recreate those. Luckily, these are easy to do.

I find that 0.032 brass rod works well for bamboo. It's narrow, but not so small that we can't use the bare rod as the bamboo stem. Stick the rod in a piece of cork or foam, then pinch off a tiny amount of Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff and apply it to the top. Smooth it down, shaping it into an inverted cone. This will be the top of our bamboo and the end of our upper most node.

Use a similar size blob of green stuff and wrap it around the rod about 4mm-7mm below our first. For this one, we'll smooth both the top and bottom. Keep the middle thicker. Once that's done, use a sculpting tool or toothpick and press a notch right in that thick middle part. At this point you'll see that the work is really starting to look like a stem of bamboo! Repeat the process down the stem as far as is necessary and set it aside to cure.

Once the Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff has dried, it's primed and painted like any other miniature element. When it comes to what colours, again bamboo shows its flexibility as a basing element. I think the most common colour folks associate with bamboo is yellow or tan, but the colour choices are wide ranging. Bright or hardy greens, pale greens, or fades of tan into green are all possibilities. I've also read that black and dark browns are possible, but I feel these may look a bit out of place on a base.

Attaching our finished bamboo to a base is obvious. Drill an appropriate size hole, clip the bottom of the stem to the desired length, glue, and insert. Bamboo forest, here we come!

I've taken it one step further and added small football-shaped leaves to the bamboo stems. This is based on the techniques in the previous elephant grass. However, I would recommend only doing this for display pieces as the tiny leaves will fall off after a fair bit of gaming use if you are not careful.

Thematically it'd make sense to move from cattails and bamboo to that other popular marsh plant, lilypads. Since we're already working with Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff to make the cattail fronds and bamboo stems, we'll steal away a bit of the excess to make lilypads as well.

We could keep with the paper theme to make our lilypads, in which case all we really need is appropriately coloured paper, a hole punch, and a hobby knife to nick a small triangle out of each. Extremely simple! But let's assume, like me, you have a preference for thick lilypads -- ones that look like they'll actually hold up a frog.

Start with a small wad of Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff and roll it into a ball no larger than 3mm wide. Using the side of a hobby knife, the flat of a sculpting tool, or your finger, flatten the ball into a disk. To give the lilypad its distinctive look, cut a small triangle from one side of the disk. Optionally, you can add a radial pattern extending from the center of the lilypad with a knife or a pin. Note that the picture here is admittedly somewhat misleading. I didn't flatten the Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff on a piece of foam (that was just for the photo), but instead did so on a sheet of wax paper.

It take a small amount to make a single lilypad, so it's a great use of leftover Green Stuff, or Kneadatite, is the most common two-part epoxy that sculpters use to craft miniatures. This is not due to any wonderful sculpting properties (in fact, it sculpts somewhat like chewing gum), but because it's heat resistant enough to survive the vulcanizing mold process. Most miniature stores carry this now.Green Stuff. Make an entire pond full of the things and set them aside. After letting the putty dry for a suitable amount of time (either overnight or a couple of hours under a hot lamp), prime and paint them an appropriate shade of green. I find it easier to lay them out in a row on a piece of masking tape, paint and clear coat them while they're on the tape, and then pull them off as I need them.

Earlier in this tutorial I'd mentioned that one of the reasons plant life is so perfect for adding to bases is the potential to look great whether applied sparsely or in large thematic quantities. Lilypads in particular exemplify this quality: a single one or a pair on one side of a small pond will work just as well as a dozen filling that pond. There are only a few placement considerations: Lilypads in real life require several feet of still water and ample sunlight. This means that lilypads are going to look out of place in the middle of a river (especially if you've modeled it with rapids or foam!), or in the pool of an underground cavern.

As for attaching them to your base, the process is simple: just a dab of super glue and your job is done, regardless if the faux water is painted on, gloss coated, or Envirotex Lite.

"But wait," I hear you cry. "Don't some lilypads bloom? Yours are naked!" And indeed, sir or madam, you would be correct! This coincidently brings us to the next page of the tutorial and how to create flowering plants...