Making trees

[AyJay]

Good evening all.

you can gauge how busy I have been on my layout, by the diversity of what I post. For I am exploring different subjects.

After six years, I have now completed stage two, ‘land and buildings’. Stage one was ‘functional operation’. So now phase three is ‘bringing it all to life’; meaning: People, vehicles, interior lighting, miscellaneous detailing and, trees.

The first thing I did was to raid my local charity shop, where I came away with a book on identifying British trees. My premise being to model what I see. Then I did an inventory of what I have: sea moss, wire, a pot of flexi-bark,foliage mat, pastiche, green scatter material. Today I bought Gordon Gravett’s book ‘Modelling trees -broadleaf’.

So I think that’s everything that I need and I have started reading the book. I want to try the armature construction method first and plan to build about a dozen or so trees in various stages of maturity, to put at the back. See photo.
Does anyone have any special words of wisdom, to help me make worthy trees?

Thank you

[AyJay]

Three trees are mine.  Sorry, couldn’t resist it 😂

[Enfys_Rainbow]

Having recently made a tree using many of the same items as you (page 10):

 

I have to say that I found the Flexibark very course. It's useful stuff, but difficult to get anything other than a really rough finish on the trunks.

 

Matt

[AyJay]

I ended up applying it with an old brush that I kept wet by dipping in water between applications, made it flow a bit smoother.

[Jeff Smith]

You've certainly got the armatures about right.  Based on an article years ago about rapid tree making for Pendon, the quickest and easiest way to cover the wire is with a hot glue gun!  You squirt on the glue and spread it using the glue gun nozzle.  When cool you can use course sandpaper to create bark texture if desired.  I use acrylics and paint the tree with suitable shades of grey/brown (look at real trees, they're seldom brown, usually more grey).

 

Use Woodland Scenics foliage matting, pulled out enough to see through it.  Attach with pva and fix with hairspray.  Try to copy real trees, often the foliage is layered rather than clumped.

 

If you use a springy wire like balloon cable, teased out, the tree is flexible so when you knock it with your elbow it just bends......

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Jeff Smith

[t8hants]

Can't be bothered with making armatures, so I use dried grape stems and propriatory clump materials.

[AyJay]

I see a problem.

We are all told to model the real thing, not copy what someone else has done and even Mr Gravett's book says that one should look at real trees, although it would be helpful if his examples were to say "this is an Ash tree" or "this is a chestnut tree" or whatever.

The two UK tree books that I have, give photo's taken if full leaf. You can see the overall shape and the colour of the leaves, but it is difficult to make out the shape of the tree underneath.  Modelling articles that I have seen, give nondescript tree armatures, but do not say what they are?  I have just gone out with my camera and found a few trees that do not have much leaf coverage on them, their structures are completely different and I have no idea what they are. 

[Jenny Emily]

These are ones I made using the WWS kits. Essentially they are small pieces of sea foam glued to a truncated plastic armature. I then spray paint in textured dark brown paint then add fine foam scatter sprinkled on after applying static grass layering spray. 
 

[Philou]

@AyJay Having taken the photos of your trees, if you go out again in a week or so, you should be able to identify your trees from their leaves as around here, they're in full bud and should be in leaf in a few days. You could also try and identify them from their bark, though I have difficulty distinguishing between beech and hornbeam from their bark alone (even their leaves are similar).

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Mike_Walker]

How to recognise trees at a long distance: No.1 The Larch...  The Larch...  😀

[AyJay]

Well I have given my tree armatures a second coat of the flex bark stuff and it really does not leave a smooth surface, is it made from Artex? I might try a thin coat of pollyfilla instead. It also did not hide the twisting of the wire strands, so on Tuesday I’ll visit The hardware shop for some fuse wire and try binding the strands with that instead, as suggested by Mr Gravett in his book. Not sure I’m ready to try the hot glue gun yet. I have enough wire for two more but not today, I’m just getting chilled out in this armchair enjoying Classic FM’s Hall of Fame. 🤫 Might open a beer.

[Jeff Smith]

The hot glue gun is easy, quick and durable, if you have one try it!

[malc60015]

9 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

How to recognise trees at a long distance: No.1 The Larch...  The Larch...  😀

That was a brilliant sketch, your comment made me smile.

[Captain Kernow]

3 hours ago, AyJay said:

I might try a thin coat of pollyfilla instead

I would recommend mixing the Polyfilla with some PVA, which would give it a bit of flexibility.

 

You could also mix some water-based paint with the Polyfilla & PVA mix, so that when some chips off, you don't get a white patch.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Captain Kernow

[Harlequin]

On 17/04/2022 at 07:12, AyJay said:

I see a problem.

We are all told to model the real thing, not copy what someone else has done and even Mr Gravett's book says that one should look at real trees, although it would be helpful if his examples were to say "this is an Ash tree" or "this is a chestnut tree" or whatever.

The two UK tree books that I have, give photo's taken if full leaf. You can see the overall shape and the colour of the leaves, but it is difficult to make out the shape of the tree underneath.  Modelling articles that I have seen, give nondescript tree armatures, but do not say what they are?  I have just gone out with my camera and found a few trees that do not have much leaf coverage on them, their structures are completely different and I have no idea what they are. 

Gardening books on trees often include drawings of exemplars, showing one half fully in leaf and the other half just the branch structure and tree identification books/charts do something similar, like this:

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Harlequin

[Re6/6]

On 15/04/2022 at 20:52, AyJay said:

Today I bought Gordon Gravett’s book ‘Modelling trees -broadleaf’.

 

Your armatures are very good indeed.

 

You won't go far wrong following his methods. Gordon taught me everything I know about tree making but I'm still learning!

 

Although not covered in the book, I find that Heki 'leaf foliage' https://www.amazon.co.uk/HEKI-1675-Light-Green-Foliage/dp/B003D7P8K4 very useful.

 

 

Another useful method that I find is using a base of  Woodlands 'Poly Fibre'  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333918685042?hash=item4dbf1ac772:g:HP0AAOSwajtgS6dJ with Noch leaves https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332823119461?epid=1736648814&hash=item4d7dcdc665:g:pOIAAOSwtBZbrnx1 available in light, medium and dark colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AyJay]

Well a slight change in technique and it looks promising. I had previously done the one on the right, strands twisted all the way down and brushed in acrylic paint. The one on the left is today’s work; the strands are only twisted at the top and has been bound with a couple of loops of wire at the mid pint and bottom. Then smeared with hot glue down the trunk and the thicker joints. Finally given a watered down brushing with flex bark that has some black acrylic stirred in it.

[Jeff Smith]

Coming along nicely!

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Although I do not have any trees to show. As all mine are boxed away in the loft waiting for me to build a new layout. I used as mentioned here by T8hants dried grape stems. I also found that clippings from the likes of privit hedges and box hedges made good tree trunks.

Edited April 18, 2022 by cypherman

[57xx]

It's been a very long time since I made any trees, but one thing I learned when doing them was that for the majority of trees, where the trunk or branches diverge it will always be from one to two pieces. You look to have that covered. There are some exceptions for certain species I seem to recall finding but cannot remember which ones they were.

[robock]

Tree making is something I have been experimenting with for a while, so I am always looking out for new and improved methods. Something I have used on my steel cable armatures, initially held together with superglue, is Gorilla Glue (the original foaming variety), smeared thinly over the trunk and major limbs, then misted with water to activate it. The glue will foam up, probably larger than you will need, with an unrealistic smooth surface. When it is set, it can be filed, carved or sanded to a rough shape, then a thin layer of PVA and filler brushed on for final texturing. 

I would advise eye protection when using glue around springy wire.

The large Oak seen here was modelled on a prototype, using this method, and is waiting for it's foliage.   

Edited April 26, 2022 by robock
Safety advice.

[robock]

A small oak by the same method.

[AyJay]

Well I have tried to interpret what was in the book as best as I could and here it is, foliage blanket covered in scatter material. I thought it looked quite good until The Mrs saw it and said “Looks nothing like a real tree. It looks like a cotton-wool ball on a stick”. She’s right, they do.

[Re6/6]

They're actually quite good. Perhaps make the tops a bit more 'pointy'. You could drape some fine and well teased out postiche across the gaps and use the same ground foam. Just a thought!

 

[robock]

Progress with foliage for the large Oak. I make my own foliage mats and stick thumbnail sized pieces to the supporting 'twigs'. Some of the foliage fell off the 'BranchBunches' that I used to make the mat - I think the PVA was quite old and had gone 'off' - so there are some thin patches, revealing the grey fluffy support, which need attention. There is still a way to go with cutting in, to open the clumps of foliage, trimming off bits that don't belong, and final detailing.