Very nice Tom.What did you use for the realistic bark texture ?

Thanks Rob.

The texture is baking soda. Once the wire twisting is finished, superglue is applied to the main trunk/s and then baking soda is applied on top of that whilst still wet. It sets instantly and creates a rock soild trunk.

Tom.

Looking nice Tom - Impressed that you are happy to twist wire and spend this much time perfecting it...I have resorted to buying mine as I need between 50 - 100 and life's too short...

Nice photo again...lose that rapido and the blurring of scale is evident again.

Keep it up - inspiring stuff.

Hi Steven.

I got the wire from ebay, but only because I couldn't find a suitably thin florists wire locally. I used 24swg for the main trunks, and 28swg (.38mm) for the wire which forms the branches.

I would have a read through this thread for some more inspiration. This guy has the method nailed, and some of the trees he produces are incredible!

http://www.modelrail...read.php?t=5015

This particular tree probably only took a few hours, but it was spread out over a few weeks.

Cheers,

Tom.

Looking nice Tom - Impressed that you are happy to twist wire and spend this much time perfecting it...I have resorted to buying mine as I need between 50 - 100 and life's too short.

Thanks Pete! Luckily I only need around 20 or so trees for the section I'm modelling. About 3 less than planned since they cut down some to make way for the new footbridge! If it were much more than that I probably would have looked for a commercial soloution also!

Tom.

Thanks Bryn!

Good look with the Treemendus Powder. How were you planning to fix it in place? I've only ever used Johnson's Kleer dripped on to it with the end of a paint brush, which it seems to take really well with no disturbance, but i'f you are spraying it you might need to be careful it doesn't blow it all out of position, its quite fine stuff!

Tom.

I've found that if you apply the Kleer close to the point, capillary action will draw it through the ballast without you actually having to apply any around point blades or other sensitive areas. If it doesn't quite make it, just add another drop and it will eventually! If you do get any where you don't want it, then a piece of kitchen roll comes in handy for soaking any excess up!

Tom.

Thanks John!

For the polyfibre I use superglue. A dab on a few branches at a time then a small clump of fibres is pushed on. Once dry, the bulk of the fibres are pulled away leaving just those which took to the glue. The fibres can be on the curly side, but if you stretch them out a little, they become straighter. The flock is attached using spray mount applied to the outside edges only, so you don't end up flocking the entire trunk at the same time!

Tom.

They're multiplying!

Tom

Some fine work there Tom. Particularly as it's in 2mm.