Tetbury

[Chris Chewter]

This afternoons progress, half of “the splash”

I need to bed in the rear of the cottages and sort out the join in the retaining wall. It also needs a vacuum once the glue for the  green stuff has dried!

[Chris Chewter]

In case anyone wants to replicate the trees on Tetbury, this is my technique. Please be aware that it probably won't stand up to the modelling masters, and would make the people at Pendon's toes curl, however I feel they make good trees, of a realistic size, and are generally cheap to make too!

 

Firstly, lets get started on the armature.  for this you need a way of winding florist wire into a loop. I use 30 gauge 0.32mm wire because I read somewhere it made good tree armature wire.  I use a bit of plywood, although I read somewhere of a chap who used a paperback!  The hole holds one end of the wire,and I loop it around 25 times for a sapling, 50 times for a pine, and 100 times plus for a big deciduous.

 

 

Once you've hit your target number of loops, cut it off the reel and slide your loops off the winder. I hold it in a vice so that you can cut the loops in half without them springing all over the floor.

 

 

 

[Chris Chewter]

Now you can start to twist it together. 

 

 

Once you get to the height you want your first branch to appear, select anywhere between 5-10 strands, and start to twist these off from the main trunk.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Towards the end of the branch, you'll probably want to split the branch.

 

 

Spread the ends out, and trim with a pair of pliers.

 

 

Go back to working up your main trunk, and repeat the branch technique wherever you want another branch, until you get to the top.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Now onto covering the tree.  I use Woodland Scenics plaster because I have yet to find another solution.  It slops on really well, however is fragile to damage, so I coat the main trunk only.  The branches I leave as uncovered wire to allow for flexing if it gets snagged by an arm when cleaning trackwork.

 

 

The plaster dries really quick, so you can soon move onto spraying the trunk.  I use Halfords grey primer, and a light spray of Humbrol earth brown.

 

 

Don't worry if they look naff, the next stage hides the sins!

 

If anyone knows of a better material to plaster, let me know!  i tried rubber and that just looked awful!

Edited May 4, 2020 by Captainalbino
Spelling edit

[Chris Chewter]

Now you can cover your tree in the support for the foliage.  Here I use rubberised horsehair.  Tear off a lump between your forefinger and thumb, and tease the horsehair lump out until you've got a ball. 

 

Use a pair of scissors to trim off any tendrils

 

[Chris Chewter]

Finally, you just skewer these onto the wire armature.  Glue is optional.

 

 

Because we didn't put plaster on the branches, you can still squeeze in the lower part of the tree if it looks a bit too triangular.

 

Spray in 3m spraymount, and sprinkled over some Woodland scenics mid green coarse turf.  I use this instead of Gaugemaster leaves, because I'm on a budget!  You can sprinkle some over the top if you like, but I've never had the pockets deep enough to try this!

 

 

As I said before, its no prize winner, but if you need a bulk tree for your layout, and you want something more to scale than can be achieved with plastic armatures, give it a go.

Edited May 3, 2020 by Captainalbino

[Chris Chewter]

One of the reasons for the flurry in additional trees is that the views in Randolph show some small Scots pines in various locations, like this:

 

 

My pines are unfortunately a bit spindly in comparison. Perhaps when I get a bit better, I might get around to replacing one or two.

[Chris Chewter]

Been having a nightmare with trees. Halfway down the layout is a space between the splash and the access road. A flick through Randolph shows that the area was filled with small sapling pines. However the ones I’ve made just look plain wrong.

 

 

So what to do. Whilst shopping around for an off the peg tree, my eye fell upon the box of seafoam. It made me wonder if that would work.

Some spray mount later and;

 

 

That looks more acceptable to my eye.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Captainalbino

[Chris Chewter]

And for comparison, the photo against the model:

 

 

I know the big pine shouldn’t be there but it does look good to me.

[Chris Chewter]

And the view at track level.

 

With sapling:

 

 

With seafoam:

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Captainalbino

[Chris Chewter]

Ran out of leaves last night, so I’m stuck until my next modelling supplies arrive.

 

 

Still not 100% sure I’ve got this area correct but that may be the out of scale brickwork spoiling the illusion.  I’ll have to sort out a backscene when social distancing eases. Not too sure I can justify queueing in a B&Q car park for some hardboard just yet!

[checkrail]

2 hours ago, Captainalbino said:

Ran out of leaves last night

At least you won't have the wrong sort of leavers on the line.

 

I'll get my coat ...

[Chris Chewter]

Tonight’s progress has been in small areas, but hopefully effective.

 

Firstly, I opened a new box of seafoam, so I made up some smaller trees to create the old orchard over the station.

 

 

You’ll also notice the big pine has been moved. I’ll forever know it shouldn’t be there, so decided it had to find a new position on the layout.

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Captainalbino
Grammar

[Chris Chewter]

Some smaller pieces of seafoam has been shaped to improve the pine saplings. So good, the wire twisted pine saplings has been binned.

 

 

Some of the remaining pine saplings may be attacked with a pair of tweezers to give them a little more shape.

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Captainalbino
Grammar

[Chris Chewter]

Small additions tonight, but it seems to have improved the overall appearance of the layout.

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Captainalbino

[Chris Chewter]

Spent the last two days planting out the area above the coal dock and below the cliff face.

 

 

Looks good to me.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Captainalbino

[Andy Kirkham]

On 07/05/2020 at 21:59, Captainalbino said:

Small additions tonight, but it seems to have improved the overall appearance of the layout.

 

 

Wow! Shows how much space even a minor branch terminal occupied.

[Chris Chewter]

It does indeed. I do sometimes wonder if I should have compressed it. I reckon I could shorten the platforms without too much affect on the models appearance, but I do like the fact that it’s as accurate as I could make it.

[Chris Chewter]

Most of the photos of the goods yard shows a lot of grass at the edge of the tracks. 9759 has been used to check that nothing fouls the wheels and everything is running smoothly.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Whilst waiting for some modelling supplies to arrive, I’ve been messing around with the camera tonight.

 

 

[Mulgabill]

With the loco moving into the yard, the whole scene looks very convincing, you

should be well pleased.

 

All the best

 

TONY

[Chris Chewter]

Thanks for the comment. The photos and videos show that I really need to get to grips with a backscene.

 

I like the idea of a photographic backscene, however when I did my photographic survey, the trees have grown up so far that you can no longer get a clear enough view, so I’m currently considering the best way of achieving a convincing backscene.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Captainalbino
Grammar

[Chris Chewter]

I found some Busch bicycles that I thought would look great on the layout, especially as they have spokes! Painted them up and fitted them around. They are HO in size however it doesn’t seem to be an issue.

 

I also clad the workshop building in the black corrugated iron that seems to fill the goods yard. I need to fit some more debris around to give the yard a bit more detail.

 

[Chris Chewter]

Bitten the bullet with some loco weathering today. Fairly happy with how these two have turned out.