Broken Stumps

What is left of a tree

A broken trunk tells a story that a cleanly sawn stump never can. A splinter sticking upward means a gale, snow or the age of the timber, which gave way before anybody came to it with a saw. Shattered remains of trunks are exactly what this set holds, and that is why it suits everywhere the landscape is meant to look wild rather than managed.

Fourteen pieces, fourteen places in the story

The pack holds fourteen pieces, so it is enough for a whole clearing as well as for scattered individual stumps along a path. Placed irregularly and at different angles they look natural; lined up in a row they give away at once that somebody positioned them.

Setting them into the terrain

A stump on its own looks like a glued-on object. It only becomes convincing once root flares of modeling putty are built up around it, grass foliage is sprinkled at the base and the surface of the wood is darkened with a wash. Fallen leaves at the foot of the trunk finish the difference off. Where they suit:

• clearings and the edges of woodland
• windthrow and areas after a gale
• stream banks with uprooted trees
• dioramas with vehicles moving through a forest

Painting the wood

A dead trunk is not brown. Dried timber turns gray, on the north side it darkens with damp and in the cracks an almost black shadow remains. The tried and tested method is therefore a base brown tone, a dark wash into it that runs into the texture, and finally a dry brush with light gray along the edges of the break. A few small green patches at the base then say how long the stump has been standing in the forest.