More Trees for St. Ruth (Part 3)
Entry posted by Ian Smith
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Having completed the Oak (which took more hours than I care to think about), my son suggested that he probably could get a couple of off-cuts of cable from work (he works for an electro-mechanical company). What he provided was about 13" of some pretty hefty stuff :
Each cable within the main cable consisted of 7 twists of 72 individual (0.38mm diameter) strands which were a little thicker than the wire I'd used for the Oak.
I decided that by folding a single length double that it would make a good basis for a tree a little over 6 inches high, once folded double, the folded end was inserted into a length of 5mm diameter brass tube to allow a secure method of planting the eventual tree into the St Ruth landscape. For the second tree I tried to model a Scots Pine, but once soldered up I decided that the structure didn't capture the look that I was after, so I decided to make it into a "generic" tree for the wooded area.
This time I began the tree at the base and worked upwards into the finer branches, again using solder to fix everything.
Again individual strands were again looped back on themselves in places to provide far more than the original 144 strands that I started with.
Once happy with the tree structure, P38 was again used to cover up the twists of the wire and provide a bit more beef to the base of the trunk. Again Woodland Scenics "Bushes" were secured to the painted structure to provide the foliage.
The third tree I once again tried to produce something that could be identified as a Scots Pine, and with the benefit of experience, this time decided to use just a single length of cable (72 strands). Once again I began at the base and worked my way upwards.
This time, instead of using Woodland Scenics "Bushes", I decided to use their dark green foliage net to better replicate the flatter, stratified foliage of a Scots Pine.
I'll let others judge how successful my attempt to model a Scots Pine really is, although I am quite pleased with it.
The fourth tree is for the wooded area, so no attempt this time to model any lower branches, as the branches would grow towards the light giving more canopy than lower branches.
Again the trunk is formed from a doubled length of cable, for variety splitting the trunk.
Again for this tree I utilised Woodlands Scenics foliage net, tearing pieces no more than 1 inch diameter after teasing out which were attached to the ends of the "twiggy" bits (this time I used Light Green to give a little variety to the wood).
Annoyingly, the matt varnish that I coated the trunk with has dried somewhat glossy, so I need to re-cover this where it is visible. The blobs of white are PVA as I took the photo before this had dried.
Ian
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