Well as I need an awful lot of trees for Waton it would be rude not to join in on this months efforts.  I've produced a few wire-based trees already but they've all come out a bit generic.  Time to try and actually capture the essence of a particular tree type I think.  There may be tears before bedtime I fear!

I would like a large oak tree to sit in the middle of a grassy area towards the front of the layout.  One of those old gnarly jobs with long branches that nearly hang down to the ground and then improbably go skywards.  Here goes then…

I've created an armature from 3 bits of green florist wire and a bunch of copper wire stripped from 2-core lighting flex.  Twisted together in a fairly haphazard fashion then coated in glue from the hot glue gun.  This has taken nearly 2 sticks of glue!




This has then had a splodge of greyish brownish acrylic.  Actually Paines Grey, Burnt Umber and white mushed together in arbitrary combinations till it looked sort of right.




It looks pretty rough but I don't think that will matter once it has some foliage added.  I may well dab the trunk with some weathering powders or a touch of matt varnish to take off the shine once the thing is ready for planting.

Cheers
Dave

That's a brilliant effort, Dave.
Great control over the glue gun.

Looks good

That would make a really good dead tree just painted with no foliage

[user=324]Ianbo[/user] wrote:

… That would make a really good dead tree just painted with no foliage

Now there's a thought.  Bit of ivy….


Cheers
Dave

Looks good Dave.  As DD said, great control of the glue gun (I can't see any root suckers !!). :thumbs

On to the next stage.  I've seen some rather tasty results obtained in 4/3.5mm over on RMWeb using microfibre from Woodlands Scenics (I think!) to represent the fine branches and twigs.  Of course I haven't got any of that so I pulled out a clump of hanging basket liner.  I bought this ages ago to use for grass effects on Cramdin but it has too much nylon fibre so wasn't suitable.  Might just do the job for fine branches in N though…




Bit on the wild looking init!  You can get some idea of the size of this tree from the Swann Morton craft knife jauntily jabbed into my polystyrene work block.  The 2 little people are to 1/160 scale so are a bit small but even so this is going to be a fair sized tree.

After a bit of a haircut it looks a bit more reasonable…




Time to whack on some foliage.  Out with the diluted PVA (no project is complete without it) and some turf scatter material.  Blob on the PVA and scatter.  Now I have one very sad looking tree!  It may yet recover but it'll certainly need another more careful haircut and probably some more PVA and scatter.  Doesn't look much like an Oak but it's sort of the shape I was looking for.  If it can't be improved it will find a home somewhere near the back of the layout!




Have to wait till tomorrow for it to dry out now.

Cheers
Dave

Waiting is a necessary ingredient, unfortunately.

As you say another hair cut and I think it will look A1

Dave,
       I'm amazed how delicate your touch with that glue gun must've been!If I'd have tried that with a glue gun,I'd still be stuck to the bloomin' tree!!!
       While I like doing wire trees in N gauge for odd "specimen" trees,I always opt for the"Forest-In-A-Box" option,stiffened up with a PVA/Acrylic paint mix,then,when dried dipped into PVA and then dipped into scatter materials or clump foliage.I do them on a production line and find making them very therapeutic.I think doing wire trees in bulk in n gauge would tip me over the edge!!:roll:

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

[user=201]georgejacksongenius[/user] wrote:

I always opt for the"Forest-In-A-Box" option,stiffened up with a PVA/Acrylic paint mix……

Can you elaborate a little on this method John?

Ken

That looks good Dave.

Although I have a different method of making the frame, for the trees on Kernow Junction the rest was the same except that I used the Greenscene brown microfibre where you have used hanging basket liner and I tease it out until there is very little of it before sticking it to the frame. It seemed to give a good effect so for the rest of your trees you might invest in a packet and give it a whirl.:thumbs

Les

 

Ken,
      I have a product called "Forest-In-A-Box"….its basically sea-moss.It already looks like frail little trees(ideal sizes for N gauge).All I do is stiffen them up a bit by applying a PVA/acrylic paint mix.A slightly diluted mix in an old bowl.Dunk in your tree,allow a day to dry out.Day 2 paint the trunk/main branches with a thicker version of your mix,Day 3 into a bowl of 50/50 water and pva,but don't submerge totally…just dip the ends of each branch,tops and all sides.
     While still sticky,dip and roll your tree in a pile of green scatter/clump foliage of your choice….
Voila…tree!!!

I'll try and post a picture of a finished tree.

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Thanks John, it sounds very interesting for a largish forest area where detail would not be noticed so much and it will be good to see an example.

Ken

[user=18]Les[/user] wrote:

 and I tease it out until there is very little of it before sticking it to the frame.

I to have found that less is more when it comes to adding foliage.

The saga continues.  I gave the thing a good haircut again this morning when all the PVA gloop was dry.  The tree is not fairly rigid and strong but the shape didn't cut it.  The foliage clumps looked too flat so I gave it a perm.  Here is the affro look version.




It's all nice and fluffy now having been covered with some small clump foliage foam stuff.  No way that would all stay on there as the stuff is really flaky so it was out with the dilute PVA and sprinkles again.  We are now back to the sad damp look again.





Hmm, have to wait till tomorrow to see if things have improved or it's a scrapper.

Cheers
Dave

Dave, I may be teaching my grand mother to suck eggs here, but, Have you tried using cheap unscented hair spray (lacquer) as adhesive?
It dries fairly quickly and holds that sort of foliage like **** to a blanket!
I won't go all droopy either!

Cheers!

Dave,
       I love the"Afro" version.It reminds me very much of trees in Spring blossom….Cherry trees in particular.Good job,hope the extra pva works!

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Hi Dave

This was looking good - until the liberal dose of PVA - did look a bit bedraggled after that!!!

I know someone has suggested hairspray - do try this.  If you can afford it you need I think something like 3M spray mount.  Its a bit tacky for a while but works a treat.  If you are careful a quick light spray is all that's needed - this will not disturb the flock / foliage.  

You can get it from a good office supplies shop or art shop - or may be lucky and get a can cheaply on ebay.

Hope this helps

Paul

You can, similarly, get Spray Fix but both products are about £10 a tin.

I'd go for a 99p can of hairspray myself.
(Gordon may have some spare).

It just looks as though there is too much weight.
Perhaps have another go with the pruners.

Ken,
     re forest-in-a-box trees,here's one i made earlier;



Also,if you read Geoffs thread on trees,in his 1st post there are some far better,far clearer  examples of same.

Dave,
    Apologies for hijacking your thread!:oops: