Pork and Apples: a Normandy Orchard

Amongst my collection of old trees I had a few smaller ones that I thought I could use to represent an orchard, such as those that feature so prominently in reports of the Normandy campaign. Of course orchards have been with us for a long time so it could just as well be used for earlier periods too, anywhere in central and Northern Europe.

Rather than just a few trees, I wanted to add a bit of character. I thought of maybe a ladder and wheelbarrow or few baskets left lying around but eventually settled on the idea of having a few pigs foraging between the trees. There is actually a traditional french breed of pig called the Bayeux pig which seemed appropriate so I based mine on pictures of those, though looking at the refernce photos again again now, I should have gone for a more white and less pink base colour. The pink pig at the back will be used add a bit of interest to a set of back yards that I'm making to go with some of my Normandy houses. I'm sure in reality, the noise of battle would have sent them running far away if they avoided being eaten or killed by an artillery barrage but I like having a few little extra details amongst the terrain to bring things to life.

15mm pigs from - appropriately - Peter Pig

The trees had previously been based singly and were very easily knocked over so I mounted them in threes on larger bases. The base shapes were chosen so they could fit together to make a 3x3, a 3x2 or various irregular shapes to fit different layouts. the idea is to either place them on an area marker, like those I made to go with my Italian Wars collection or bounded by hedges or walls, then the tree bases can be moved around as necessary to make room for figures or vehicles. The foliage was starting to fall off some of them so, as with the forrest trees, I have them a good soaking with spray on scenic cement to hold everything together.

Some of the trees are a bit squashed about, they are certainly not very uniform - nobody could think that they are all of the same variety. Whilst the best modern model trees are far better, as with my woods, I already had these and, on grounds of both cost and avoiding waste, I didn't want to throw them out if they could be tidied up to look reasonable.