Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I need to make a lot of trees to cover the 11ft length of Sweethome Alabama in trees. In addition to the 'sea foam' trees, I also make trees from moulded plastic tree formers (Woodland Scenics, Heki, etc). This time around I'm using florists soft wire and paper tape to make my own tree trunks, as shown in this topic. I started with a 6inch bundle of wire and started binding it in brown paper tape, both of which are available from florists shops. Branches are bent outwards from the trunk and are bound with the paper tape, as I move up the tree Each wire in the branches is bent outwards and cut to length, before moving on to the next branch. Here are some completed Scots pines and a sycamore, that are fully bound in the paper tape, ready for the next stage The next stage follows... Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Once the tree former has been covered in the paper tape and I am happy with the overall shape, I add the tree 'bark'. For this I use an acrylic sealant intended for sealing round doors and windows in the home and the one I use was bought cheaaply from the British equivalent of a 'dollar store'. I squirt some out onto a piece of old card which is used as a pallette. Being acrylic, I water it down a but so I can paint it on to the paper tape with an old modelling brush. The sealant dries quickly and can be built up in layers until get the effect I want. Here are some sycamores that have been treated with the sealant. The bark and branches are now ready for painting Even the wire off-cuts from the larger trees can be bundled together and used to to make smaller trees and bushes. Next up is to paint the tree trunks and add some poly-fibre branches Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 The bark has now been added to all the current batch of trees and allowed to dry. It was then painted with brown and grey acrylic paints, and drybrushed light grey. The sycamores......... Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium cnw6847 Posted April 10, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 10, 2011 Excellent stuff Jon, the sycamores would look very good on a winter based layout when the leaves will have fallen off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 The Scot's pines and the bushes/small trees were also caulked and painted, ready for the next stage of adding small branches from poly-fibre. Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 I've glued on some black poly-fibre to the Scot's pines. This has been teased out to give a 'light and airy' feel to the tree and represents the smaller branches on the tree Now for the sycamores and the bushes Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 The poly-fibre, available from ScaleTrees.com, has been attached to the bushes, although they now look more like small trees Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 I got the branches on the larger deciduous trees last night - I've stopped calling them sycamores, because they dont really look like sycamores any more. After teasing out the branches, I added a layer of leaves to the first couple of trees. I will need to add some more leaves to the first tree, as the photo still shows too much of the branch material Now to foliate the other trees Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 I added the leaves to the remaining trees this evening and removed some of the excess polyfiber - not always evident until the leaf material has been applied. The trees have been planted temporarily into the scenery to give an idea of how they will appear on the layout. Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stock_2007 Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Hi Jon I think I'm going to have to start watching you down the club how you do your trees as I think I'm going to need some ps/ picked up that SD24 nice runner but funny colour will bring it down on Mon' plus picked up a SD45 and GP38 in CNW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 ps/ picked up that SD24 nice runner but funny colour will bring it down on Mon' plus picked up a SD45 and GP38 in CNW Are you still after one or more of the Proto2000 BN GP9s? Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stock_2007 Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Are you still after one or more of the Proto2000 BN GP9s? Jon yeah as we talked about anything 80's 90's and I know they were still running around then Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 A quick question about the tree trunks... What colours did you use for them? I've got some to paint, but the "standard" dark brown doesn't look right, especially for the Pines... I'm thinking more of a grey/brown or even grey/green... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Grant 4472 Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 Both would work fine, along with light greyand tan, depending on the tree. I used sludge brown (own mix) for these trees - earth brown, black, grey. The different colours of trunk blend in to each other when packed together The layout will be at Tyneside show (Gateshead) in November Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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