My philosophy when it comes to making trees and bushes is to get them to look as realistic as possible.  I was stunned by the trees on County Gate when I first saw the layout.  Incidentally there is an excellent website (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to add a link but it's easy to find through a Google search) - with very informative How to articles - including trees.  

This photo shows one of the main trees as well as some shrubs and other vegetation on my layout - Beeches TMD (http://www.freewebs.com/beechestmd/).  The copper beech is hand painted on the backscene. 

  




Nature often provides us with ideal materials for making models.  The main structure of this tree is the roots from some shrubs that I found in a cleared area in the Pennines - the roots I collected were I believe from cleared rhododendrons (free of charge!!).  The finer branches were made with sea moss - small pieces glued to the roots (trunk and main branches) with PVA.  This method allows a lot of control over the shape of the tree.  The main structure was then painted with acrylics.  Sea moss was also used as the basis for several of the shrubs and smaller trees - like the larger one under the bridge.  The young silver birch (under the bridge - sorry you can't see it so well) was made with twisted wire.

Back to the main tree - the foliage is flock from Woodland Scenics (Foliage - Medium Green)- stuck on again with PVA.   This needs to be added carefully too - small pieces carefully applied and shaped - not big clumps loosely draped over the branches.  The finished tree was airbrushed with some acrylics to slightly change the shade of green.  Photos or real vegetation quickly reveals the variety of greens in nature.  Some fixer was used to keep the foliage in place.     

I use photos of real trees as an aid to getting a realstic finished product.  Photos for example will show that it is often possible to see right through a tree - the extent varies depending on the species. 

These trees were not expensive to make and I'm satisfied that they do look like the real thing. 

 

Hi Bryan

Thanks for the compliment!  I will not be making any more trees for a while - in the meantime here's the link to the County Gate website. 

http://www.009.cd2.com/index.htm

This next link is to the article on the County Gate site about making trees.  This is VERY detailed - I think it would be very presumptuous of me to think I could do any better!  Very clear and superb model trees.


http://www.009.cd2.com/members/how_to/modelling_plants.htm


Hope this helps - happy New Year too

Paul

The copper beech is hand painted on the backscene.  

………and very nicely, too!


Doug

Very realistic mate, very nice tree on the backscene must of taken hours to paint that

Phill

Paul,
That second link in your 3rd post is just fabulous! I will be following the advice there without fail.

Wayne

Hi All

sometimes something comes along that makes all before it a bit redundant.  the following link takes you to by far the best model tree's I have ever seen!  Scroll down the page for piccies.

HTH

Jim

link - http://stummi.foren-ci…te-v-01-und-05-07-09.html

As well as the trees if you go on to the following pages you will see this guy at work on other models and he really knows his stuff.

Please tell me those are photographs of the real thing Jim - otherwise, I'm going outside into the snow…………………..I may be some time :roll::roll:

That is truly stunning stuff. :shock::shock:

[user=2]Robert[/user] wrote:

As well as the trees if you go on to the following pages you will see this guy at work on other models and he really knows his stuff.

His pen-name gives the game away Bob - "Baumbauer"  He certainly builds more than trees !!!!

I'm going to look for some snow……………………………..

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Please tell me those are photographs of the real thing Jim - otherwise, I'm going outside into the snow…………………..I may be some time :roll::roll:

That is truly stunning stuff. :shock::shock:

Enjoy the snow Peter  ;-)

Jim

Come on Jim, they have to be photoshopped….;-)

The close up of the silver birch with the surrounding branches is far and away the best I have ever seen. 

….and as for the sluice gate and water….I give up now.


Gob smacked…:shock:

[user=396]gordons19[/user] wrote:

Come on Jim, they have to be photoshopped….;-)

The close up of the silver birch with the surrounding branches is far and away the best I have ever seen. 

….and as for the sluice gate and water….I give up now.


Gob smacked…:shock:

Dito 

The best I have ever seen.

 

Phew… those trees have just significantly raised the bar… again…

Thanks Jim… something to aim for… sigh.

Peter…. I don't have any snow… will a baking dry paddock do to wander off into?

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

…………………………………

Peter…. I don't have any snow… will a baking dry paddock do to wander off into?

Only if I can leave ours behind and join you !!

I want to hibernate between November and March !!!! 

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

…………………………………

Peter…. I don't have any snow… will a baking dry paddock do to wander off into?

Only if I can leave ours behind and join you !!

I want to hibernate between November and March !!!! 

Yup, I'm the same in winter, always a struggle to get up on cold dark mornings, summertime, now I'm up with the sparrow.

I can't get ANY pictures at all on this site!   It just takes a lot of time downloading but nothing happens!!!:twisted:

Ken

Ken, they had been working a short time ago but I only get the dreaded red cross now.

Hi, looks absolutely real. I used real twigs and grape tree ends to make my trees, i painted them with clear varnish to keep them so they will never decompose. Unfortunately i have none to show, as i used to have them on my first layout :sad: I will have to start again but, these were really realistic and saved money:doublethumb

Can I join in?

Obviously from this thread there are many different methods of making trees, and I suppose the measure is what one is comfortable with.

I think my methods using unravelled cable and teased out Woodlands Scenic materials are as good as any, and a look at my Providence River Branch and the Hintock Branch threads will bear that out.

Two examples follow:-



That from my Providence River Branch, and this from Hintock.

John I have put both your layouts into your signature for you. This takes up all the space you are allowed in there so no further wording can be added. Let me know if you don't like it.