Making trees and other types of greenery.

[3 LINK]

Good afternoon Guys,

I thought rather than clog up my Church Norton thread, I would start a new thread regarding the above title. I will start of with the method I am toying around with at the moment. There are many tried and tested methods of making the main tree trunks and branches, and most are very time consuming to create, especially so if you intend to make a wooded area. So I have cheated and gone for the ready made type, see below. They come flat packed and can be twisted into whatever shape you want to achieve, even the windswept one sided look. The only alteration I make is to cut off the locating sprue, drill out the base and replace with a panel pin. Most of my landscape is built using Celotex foam, so this makes it easy to plant the trees wherever fits the bill.





More to come later,

Martyn.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As a suggestion I would wash the sprues? (for want of a better word) in something like Cif (was Jif) or a similar abrasive cleaner to key them before manipulating them into shape and painting.

From my own observations I've found deciduous tree trunks to be nearer a grey/brownish colour. However it does depend on the species.

 

[3 LINK]

As a suggestion I would wash the sprues? (for want of a better word) in something like Cif (was Jif) or a similar abrasive cleaner to key them before manipulating them into shape and painting.

From my own observations I've found deciduous tree trunks to be nearer a grey/brownish colour. However it does depend on the species.

Hi Dave,

I agree, I will be covering this in the next episode

Martyn.

 

[3 LINK]

The next task is painting the trees, I have used a mixture of acrylic paints from Vallejo to help tone down the shine of the plastic and to hopefully look a bit more like tree bark in colour. Next up is a box of “ Forest in a box “ which is a
ground cover plant from Scandinavia. Now on to the rather tedious part of tree making using this method. You take a sprig and basically trim off the off shoots and glue them onto the branches, no rocket science going on here .









I recommend that your in a calm mood and with your favourite music playing in the background before you take on this task. I now give the areas I have glued the sprigs onto the branches a second coat of paint which helps blend in the additional branches.

You should then end up with a tree that looks similar, to the two below.



More to come later,

Martyn.

 

[Pencarrow]

What glue are you using Martyn?

 

[3 LINK]

What glue are you using Martyn?

Hi Chris,
Super glue, but the one with the thicker viscosity.

The main ingredients used are below.



The wife likes the larger tree with the autumnal look, but I’m looking for more of the lazy, hazy days of summer look. So I will be using the same method as I did to the smaller tree by using Woodland scenics blended turf to give the tree the leafy look. I use the atomiser to mist coat the tree with Green Scenes Matte medium, and then sprinkle on the blended turf mix, you do not need a lot and once your happy with the amount of foliage, then I will give the whole tree a final mist coat .





ATB,

Martyn.

 

[jonte]

What glue are you using Martyn?

This was a vid I watched recently using essentially the same technique as Martyn:

He uses a spray glue for the purpose and shows the can he uses about 4:36 in. Not watched it since but I recall he places a link on where to purchase it.

Apparently it’s quite cost effective which is why he chose it over the more expensive brands available.

Not sure if it’s this vid or some other I watched where he goes on to attach the flock with carpet glue from a jar, replete with brush affixed to the inside of the lid. Again, a cheaper option.

jonte

 

[3 LINK]

Cheers Jonte,

I will give the carpet adhesive a try, as with the super glue, you tend to lose the will to live

Cheers,

Martyn.

 

[3 LINK]

I have finally got around to sprinkling some greenery on the bare branches, I could of applied a lot more greenery but I think less is more in this case. Constructive criticism most welcome



Martyn.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Looks good - very autumnal as if it's shed some of it's leaves.

Unfortunately photos are very unforgiving as the only thing I've noticed and would attempt to disguise is where the foliage has been attached to the main branches from the trunk. One way I can think of off the top of my head is to taper the ends of the main branches before attaching the 'Forest in a Box' branches to make them blend in. The denser foliage successfully hides the ends of the moulded branches.

However, your approach here has give me inspiration to have a go as it looks more realistic than most of the model trees available in the marketplace.

 

[3 LINK]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for your thoughts on the subject, I agree regarding the main branches being too thick, I will try and “ whittle “ them down a bit.

My first attempts won’t be wasted as I will plant them in amongst others and hopefully camouflage them a bit.

Martyn.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

That was my thought - if the trees are part of a clump/copse then the foliage density hides the main branches.

 

[3 LINK]

A quick update on the tree making, I thought I would give the carpet glue a try but I could only get it in aerosol form. Disaster ! After only three pumps of the aerosol the nozzle completely blocked up, that reminded me of those terrible cans from Railmatch…So it’s back to the super glue for now… Another two trees have now been added and this time I haven’t gone as heavy with the foliage, see below.



And below is my attempt at a gorse hedge using just a sprig of the sea moss.




Martyn.

 

[simond]

Martyn,

have you got a link for the plastic armatures that you’re using, please?

re gorse, I used Debris of War’s primed stainless steel wire wool, spray carpet glue to stick green stuff to it, and then hairspray to add some yellow for the flowers. I just looked back in my thread and realised I’d not posted any pix with the yellow so I’ll try to do one today.

cheers
Simon

 

[John Duffy]

For those fortunate enough to have space for a garden, then Weglia is your friend. By year two it is producing wooden branches that scale well as trunks. Even the smaller off-cuts can be used for smaller trees and shrubs.

John



These have been much used on Rosehearty, especially in creating Major Roger's wood that hides the exit to the fiddle yard at one end.

 

[MoatLane]

PS to this info: hairspray is only intended to keep hair in place for a few hours. It's well worth investing a a good-quality art fixative to ensure your trees don't shed their leaves in winter!

 

[3 LINK]

Martyn,

have you got a link for the plastic armatures that you’re using, please?

re gorse, I used Debris of War’s primed stainless steel wire wool, spray carpet glue to stick green stuff to it, and then hairspray to add some yellow for the flowers. I just looked back in my thread and realised I’d not posted any pix with the yellow so I’ll try to do one today.

cheers
Simon

Good morning Simon,

The details of the plastic armatures are on post 6 of this thread, and are manufactured by Woodland Scenics.

ATB,

Martyn

 

[simond]

Cheers Martyn, hadn’t put 2 & 2 together…

 

[3 LINK]

For those fortunate enough to have space for a garden, then Weglia is your friend. By year two it is producing wooden branches that scale well as trunks. Even the smaller off-cuts can be used for smaller trees and shrubs.

John

View attachment 182839View attachment 182840View attachment 182841

These have been much used on Rosehearty, especially in creating Major Roger's wood that hides the exit to the fiddle yard at one end.


View attachment 182837View attachment 182838

The trunk’s look great and you cannot get a better bark design than wood itself, but the finer branches I find are still awkward to try and create.

Cheers,

Martyn.

 

[paratom]

Good afternoon Guys,

I thought rather than clog up my Church Norton thread, I would start a new thread regarding the above title. I will start of with the method I am toying around with at the moment. There are many tried and tested methods of making the main tree trunks and branches, and most are very time consuming to create, especially so if you intend to make a wooded area. So I have cheated and gone for the ready made type, see below. They come flat packed and can be twisted into whatever shape you want to achieve, even the windswept one sided look. The only alteration I make is to cut off the locating sprue, drill out the base and replace with a panel pin. Most of my landscape is built using Celotex foam, so this makes it easy to plant the trees wherever fits the bill.

View attachment 181957

View attachment 181958

More to come later,
Good afternoon Guys,

I thought rather than clog up my Church Norton thread, I would start a new thread regarding the above title. I will start of with the method I am toying around with at the moment. There are many tried and tested methods of making the main tree trunks and branches, and most are very time consuming to create, especially so if you intend to make a wooded area. So I have cheated and gone for the ready made type, see below. They come flat packed and can be twisted into whatever shape you want to achieve, even the windswept one sided look. The only alteration I make is to cut off the locating sprue, drill out the base and replace with a panel pin. Most of my landscape is built using Celotex foam, so this makes it easy to plant the trees wherever fits the bill.

View attachment 181957

View attachment 181958

More to come later,

Martyn.

Hi Martyn take a look at my tree making video on you tube. I used Tree In A Box to great effect.