These posts appear elsewhere but Bob has asked me to move them here as a separate "how to" item. Les

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I have need on my layout for a dark leaved tree (Purple Cherry, Copper Beech etc) and I have looked at one or two of the foliage colours without seeing excatly what I wanted so I am having a go at an old fashioned method I saw demonstrated at the St Alban's Show last year.

I took a leaf to B & Q whilst I was in the UK and asked them to colour match it with a £2 sampler can (125ml). Sadly they couldn't but after two tries they finished up with a can too red and a can too chocolatey. See photo below:

 

I decided to bring them both home to Spain where I mixed them until I got a closer match.



 I then dipped two pieces of upholstery foam, cadged from a local shop, which I had previously bleached the colour out of, into the paint which I had diluted by about 25% with water.



 

When they were thoroughly soaked I set them out to dry.

 

This is meant to take three weeks but in the searing heat we have at the moment it will probably take about 10 minutes.   

The plan is to put the hardened blocks across a cheese grater and finish up with purple foliage.

It may just work so I'll come back to this post when the blocks have dried and I have a spare bit of time to make the attempt. Good or bad I'll put some photo's up.

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  So here we are guys just about three weeks later.

The blocks of foam are dry and then comes the most dangerous part of the operation i.e. sneaking the cheese grater out of the kitchen without being noticed. Fortunately Pat has a rest from the heat in the afternoon so I seized my chance and grated the hardened blocks.

 

The rest was just a matter of collecting the gratings and then using them as you would ordinary material from Noch, Woodland Scenics etc. It looks and feels just like their stuff and handles in exactly the same way. For twigs I used lumps of rubberised horsehair and stuck them to the branches with PVA before spraying with hairspray and sprinkling with the purple material (underneath as well). The result is that I now have a copper beech tree.  

 

The tree needs further work (matt varnish, trimming at the base etc) and placing in perspective on the layout but all in all the method worked for me. Any problems with the tree will be because of my inadequacies rather than the experimented method.  

Les
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Devon Junction

Les

A very interesting experiment and I like the results.  I would never have thought you could grate upholstery foam.  I guess the paint makes it go stiffer, allowing the grater to do its work?  I can see lots of potential using this method.  Thanks for posting this.

Bob(K)

Ingenious Les (I'm okay as it's my cheese grater back home) and I take it that it's okay to bring my damp sponges out to you for three weeks and watch them dry then, I'll just check availability with sleazyjet   :wink:    

Les,some one has been hiding his light behind the bushel,that is a great piece
of work,i have just done some woodland scenic trees,not a patch on that one!!
 :roll:  :wink:      8)

Works a  treat, Les!    Great potential in this, I reckon. Thanks for showing the way.

 Mike