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Tree Building using plastic armatures in 4mm scale


MAP66
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16 minutes ago, sb67 said:

 

Enjoy the book, do have the modelling grasslands one? 

I'll look forward to some more masterpieces :)

Yes, I do have the grasslands one. I think I purchased it from your recommendations from your Rustons Sidings thread, or it might have been from one of your comments on Tyteford Halte - anyway, no regrets with that purchase, hence why I am looking forward to the tree book :imsohappy:

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Back to the garden diorama and I have started on the chicken coop. Its a Woodland Scenics white metal kit and I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys filing stuff as there's a lot of flash.

Some time later in the evening, I started on the assembly using super glue gel and it went together reasonably well, considering the filing involved. 

Just finished painting the coop apart from the roof which needs a tad more filing.

 

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Suitably multifarious. I had no idea Woodland Scenics did whitemetal kits.

 

10 hours ago, MAP66 said:

I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys filing stuff

 

That's an elegant way of putting it! :D

 

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6 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Suitably multifarious. I had no idea Woodland Scenics did whitemetal kits.

 

 

That's an elegant way of putting it! :D

 

Yes, I was expecting this kit to be in plastic and was quite surprised when I felt the weight of it when it arrived. Not a real problem though, just that the chickens resemble blobs rather than err chickens. Filing can be quite therapeutic :lol: 

I thought that this little model was different enough (but still fitting) for my diorama which is meant to portray a larger garden belonging to a detached suburban house of the late 1930's period - That's the idea anyway.

 

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Here's a bit more on the diorama before I return to the Oak tree. I needed to order a couple more items for the tree, hence I dropped back onto the diorama. I managed to position the chicken coop onto the base and add a bit of ground work, meant to represent some dusty earth where the chickens have scratched about. I have some left over mesh material from a security fencing kit which will be used for a chicken wire fence, the posts for which are in. There is also a gate into the pen which I have just loose fitted in place to see how it looks and I have glued a piece of the mesh material to represent chicken wire. I will wait until all the static grass and greenery has been completed before I attach the gate and rest of the chicken wire, as I discovered that the loose fibres stick to the mesh which is very annoying. 

 

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Guest Jack Benson

Just adding my thanks for sharing your methods, I really enjoy reading about scenery modelling especially if it based on easily accessible materials.

 

Great results, which will definitely be copied.

 

Thanks and StaySafe

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On 30/03/2021 at 09:34, Jack Benson said:

Just adding my thanks for sharing your methods, I really enjoy reading about scenery modelling especially if it based on easily accessible materials.

 

Great results, which will definitely be copied.

 

Thanks and StaySafe

Thank you Jack, glad it has been of use  -  still lots more to come, hopefully!

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I was looking into some suitable figures for the garden diorama, the idea being to have 4 or 5 but not all featured at the same time but all will be engaged in various gardening type tasks.

I have a lawn mower but was struggling to find a half decent moulded figure to push it. I settled with a Loco Crew figure and changed the peak cap into a beret by simply slicing off the peak. My Grandad apparently wouldn't be seen without wearing a beret, but was no more French than English mustard and bore no resemblance to Frank Spencer.

The clothing of my lawnmower man isn't quite period of the time but it will have to do. The other figures I have, look a bit more fitting for the period and are waiting to be painted up.

So, I introduce the Lawnmower Man - apologies for the poor lighting on the close up.

 

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On 06/04/2021 at 22:32, Mikkel said:

He works very well, I think I recognize the figure, but the cap mod and especially your painting has transformed him.

Lawn Mower man is '1428-076R Loco Crew  leaning' which I'm guessing is the figure you recognised. I'm undecided still, but I may undertake surgery on his arms to raise them slightly and bring them to rest further apart so they align better with the lawn mowers handles. I may even chop off his hands and replace with sculpted ones made from modelling clay so that his hands are actually gripping the handles. This has the potential to go wrong and he could end up with hands looking like bunches of bananas :lol:

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9 hours ago, MAP66 said:

Lawn Mower man is '1428-076R Loco Crew  leaning' which I'm guessing is the figure you recognised. I'm undecided still, but I may undertake surgery on his arms to raise them slightly and bring them to rest further apart so they align better with the lawn mowers handles. I may even chop off his hands and replace with sculpted ones made from modelling clay so that his hands are actually gripping the handles. This has the potential to go wrong and he could end up with hands looking like bunches of bananas :lol:

But where did your source the mower? The maker’s crest sets it off.

 

Thanks

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9 hours ago, Jack Benson said:

But where did your source the mower? The maker’s crest sets it off.

 

The lawn mower is part of a Wills Kit SS92 'Garden Buildings & Accessories' and amongst other items includes a lawn roller and wheelbarrow which are laser cut wood parts and the greenhouse cold frames etc are moulded plastic. The makers crest on the lawnmower is printed onto the card packaging of the kit which you just cut out and carefully glue in place.

As we all know, other garden accessory kits are available. Also to note, the greenhouse on my diorama is not from this kit, it is a brass kit which I have modified with microstrip to add more glazing panels. Hope that helps.

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Well, I'm no Alan Titchmarsh or Monty Don but that hasn't put me off planting out the first bed - back breaking work :lol:

Don't bother quizzing me on the varieties, as all I can tell you is they are pretty colours and the tall ones at the back are meant to be Lupins, maybe some succulents for the rockery? 

There's also a trellis on the garage with a climbing rose attached. That's it for now, as I need to get some more John Innes stuff for planting out the remaining beds.

 

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Tree time again, I'm back with the Oak and have decided to add some copper wire to extend some of the plastic armature branches. This should give a more realistic appearance as the thin copper wires twisted together allows for all manner of weird and wonderful branch angles to be formed, much like a real Oak. The plan will then be to add some finely teased out postiche over the ends of the copper wire branches and then sprinkle over leaf scatter. I am going for a spring look, so not a full leaf canopy. Using this method, I can also determine if the copper wire adds enough realism for a winter or dead tree without the need for foliage. Anyway, here's where I'm up to, quite a bit more copper to add still...

 

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I think that would pass nicely as a dead tree but not a winter one, I have a nice oak right behind my garden and in winter you can see all the little twigs which still makes it quit a filled out tree, but when one of these old trees dies the little twigs often fall off before the branches rot, which would give you a very similar appearance to that seen above. 

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I think the plan is that the postiche will emulate the finer details.

 

Looks great Mark, your bark texture is excellent. Nice idea to pose it in front of that background photo.

 

 

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On 08/04/2021 at 18:09, MAP66 said:

The lawn mower is part of a Wills Kit SS92 'Garden Buildings & Accessories' and amongst other items includes a lawn roller and wheelbarrow which are laser cut wood parts and the greenhouse cold frames etc are moulded plastic. The makers crest on the lawnmower is printed onto the card packaging of the kit which you just cut out and carefully glue in place.

As we all know, other garden accessory kits are available. Also to note, the greenhouse on my diorama is not from this kit, it is a brass kit which I have modified with microstrip to add more glazing panels. Hope that helps.

Duly noted and acted upon

 

Just to add that your flowers are excellent

 

thank you

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8 hours ago, DGO said:

I think that would pass nicely as a dead tree but not a winter one, I have a nice oak right behind my garden and in winter you can see all the little twigs which still makes it quit a filled out tree, but when one of these old trees dies the little twigs often fall off before the branches rot, which would give you a very similar appearance to that seen above. 

Hi DGO,

Many thanks for the feedback, Mikkel has already beaten me to posting my reply, as yes the postiche if added correctly should replicate the finer twiggy bits and fill the tree out more as well as a few more pieces of twisted copper wire for the finer branches. At least I have a dead version of an Oak now though :lol:

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54 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

I think the plan is that the postiche will emulate the finer details.

Yep, that's definitely the plan Mikkel - all from Gordons tree book.  I really hope it works out, fingers crossed.

Thank you for the comments on the bark, I'm still learning and experimenting with trees but having fun doing so :imsohappy:

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38 minutes ago, Daddyman said:

This is impressive stuff. It's clear that you observe and model reality (and do both very well), where most modellers just copy other models. 

Thanks, very kind of you to say so. Always good to receive comments which give me the confidence to keep on going with the modelling.

 

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The sun was out, so I decided to take a quick close up photo of the bark detail in natural light. I'm very happy so far with the results I have achieved with the Oak just by using simple techniques. This is the level of detail I was aiming for and its a great relief to know that I am actually capable of producing trees of a reasonable standard which will hopefully feature in a layout of the future, when space becomes available. For now though, I feel yet another diorama on the horizon, featuring the Oak - maybe a park scene?

 

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Still continuing with the Oak and attempting to adopt the techniques from Gordon Gravett's book on trees, I have now introduced some ivy growing up the trunk. The ivy vines are made using plumbers hemp and then stuck down onto the trunk using dilute pva. More pva was applied by a very fine brush and then green scatter sprinkled over to represent the ivy leaves. I have also added teased out postiche to the ends of all the tree branches. I think in its present state it could pass for an Oak in winter but I want to introduce some foliage, so that will be the next stage.

I'm looking forward to planting this Oak into a diorama after I complete the Silver Birch one first.

 

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10 hours ago, sb67 said:

That's coming on a treat, the Ivy looks good. What scatter did you use? I'll have to have a read of my copy of the book as I want to make some brambles. 

Thanks Steve, the scatter I used for the ivy is by Jarvis ref. JFT3 Dark Green Fine Turf. I liberally sprinkled that all over first and shook off the access, then a bit more glue and added some slightly courser material to bulk it out a bit. Unfortunately I don't recall where I got the courser stuff from but it has F11 in black marker on the sealed bag. Jarvis do a course turf JCG3 which looks similar, so should still work. good luck with the brambles.

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