Trees

[Neil]

I've never been very happy spending hours twisting bits if wire into shapes that bear only a passing resemblance to trees. The year before last I harvested some dead stems out of the garden that had little more promise but at least cost no time or effort. I've used them without foliage to depict winter on the Isle of Avalon Tramway ....

[attachment=1:3ugclqt0]isle of avalon latest1.jpg[/attachment:3ugclqt0]

.... and with on the summer set Chwarel Bach.

[attachment=0:3ugclqt0]chwarel bach.jpg[/attachment:3ugclqt0]

I have high hopes for a tray of sea foam seedlings that Mrs R has on the go in the polytunnel. They are a second attempt, the first being ravaged by slugs. Mind you on a walk last weekend I spotted some very nice looking, tree shaped, small twiggy plants, the downside being that they were in an SSSI. I'll try and identify what they were, and the what the prospects of cultivating them at home would be, so I'm not tempted to noble them from such an ecologically sensitive spot.

 

[westernfan]

hi Neil if you are using real twigs for your diorama .nuke them in the microwave before placing them on you model railway otherwise you will have scale mice running about the layout . nice pics is that 009 or 0 16.5 ? i built a 009 layout back in 2000 called Dan Y bont i used rosemary for my logs :wave: westernfan

 

[westernfan]

My good lady makes the trees for my model railway , they are made from twisting wire then wrapping the armature with florist tape then applying a mix of polyfiller and pva to form the trunk and bark reindeer moss is then glued to the branches to represent foliage

 

[28ten]

Lovely shot, really captures that bleak winter feel. Winter scenes are rarely modelled, and its something I have been considering for Ashburton

 

[Neil]

Update:- Tragically the sea foam harvest was not as bounteous as I'd hoped, I'll be having words with the head gardener.

 

[Geoff]

Like Neil I am not a fan of twisting wire together either, sea moss is ok to an extent but I have found a mix of C & L plastic armatures, sea moss and Anita Decor foliage to show promise. This isn't my own idea and to the best of my knowledge Paul Marshall-Porter is the man behind it, I have just tweaked his method a little to suit my own needs. A full article appeared in RM a couple of years ago, can't tell you which issue off the top of my head but if anyone wants the info. then I will dig it out given time. Paul modelled his trees less foliage so as to create a winter scene and that is where my method is different as I wanted a late summer scene.

The C & L plastic armature can be bent to shape by gently softening the plastic in hot water or with a hairdryer. Might as well get some use out of the thing as these days I have no need for it ! Next bend and twist the branches into the shape you need, as the mouldings come in four different sections you can adjust the height to suit your needs. This will leave you with a rather bare simple tree so select some pieces of sea moss and superglue them onto the plastic branches so as to form more branches. I find it best to use an aerosol of superglue accelerator when attaching the sea moss otherwise it takes all day to get a strong joint. Once you have your basic tree then add a bark mix, I use a tub of Anita Decor mix but you can easily make your own from  PVA and Polyfilla. This has several purposes, not only will it add texture and allow you to thicken up the tree trunk but it will also hide the joints between sea moss and plastic, it can also be gently carved to add stumps etc.

For painting I find artist acrylics to be ideal, a mix of light and dark grey and a little greenish brown tends to do the trick. The bark mix being porous means that the paint soaks into it giving some interesting colour tones.
The last job is to add the foliage, once again I use the products of Anita Decor held in place with their special glue but have also used Carrs leaves to add different shades and textures.
Holding the tree upside down attach the darker foliage underneath then turn it the right way up and add lighter material on top. I am constantly tweaking the idea and as better trees are produced my older ones get moved to the background.
I think the best trees I have ever seen were those by Iffle Stokes, who can forget that winter scene he created ?

Geoff

 

[Geoff]

Some nice touches there CME, as for C & L armatures being available in 7mm scale then I am afraid you are out of luck. However I think you could bulk out the 4mm mouldings to represent small saplings and bushes ?

Geoff

 

[Neil]

Ooooo, lovely trees Geoff. Now you mention it I do remember the Paul Marshall Potter piece in the RM, I also remember thinking how splendid his were too. My reason for heading off down the twig harvesting/grow your own route is part laziness and part expediency as I'm going to need an awful lot of trees for the Abertafol tideway section of Morfa.

 

[lancer1027]

Geoff, i love the last of your pics. The country lane / farm track is amazing , so life like I can just imagine myself wandering down it to view the trains at the station

Rob :wave:

 

[iploffy]

+1 I wonder how long it took to get the natural look

Ian

 

[Geoff]

Hi Neil,
Great to see you and Morfa here, though I follow your blog. I do miss my Cambrian fix.

Have you considered using "Clumping " for your dense background  http://www.internationalmodels.net/acat ... mping.html . You can then add some sea moss trees in front of it and in the foreground some handmade examples. This should give the feeling of depth you need for the scene, I would imagine it would be possible to make your own "Clumping" from foam or horsehair as I do

Thanks Rob,
I still haven't completed the lane scene as I am not happy with the railings, I have an etch for the metal curved top type which I think is more suited.
Road signs and a man and his dog should also add a little more but I must be careful not to over do it.
I did manage to take a different shot which showed up a small village on the backscene, it's lost somwhere in my files and I'm damned if I can find it !

Ian
It didn't take long to create the natural look thanks to the superb quality scenic products by Silflor, take a look at the link above. Rather expensive but lovely materials to work with.
The photos below show the tree from a different angle looking down towards the goods yard. You can also see some of the materials used on my latest tree on which I have been trying another method. Horsehair has been teased out to make foliage clumps ready to be dressed with Anita Decor material to the left and Carrs shown to the right, finally the new tree can be seen.

Geoff

 

[iploffy]

Any chance of a step by step WB  ;D ;D

Ian

 

[Geoff]

Any chance of a step by step WB

Ian

Well if there is enough demand and interest for such a thing and having a small batch of trees under construction I could put something together.
Mind you it won't happen overnight as I have one or two projects on the bench at the moment

Geoff

 

[iploffy]

I am sure that there is the demand to see how you make them

Ian

 

[Simon Dunkley]

I am sure that there is the demand to see how you make them

Ian

I agree.

Such a thread would be tree-mendous, and a useful branching out of this forum. I will leaf now before you all twig onto these puns, and oaks grow from acorns...

 

[Phill Dyson]

Well if there is enough demand and interest for such a thing and having a small batch of trees under construction I could put something together.
Mind you it won't happen overnight as I have one or two projects on the bench at the moment

Geoff

I would love to see that one too Geoff  8)

 

[Rob Pulham]

Count me in for that one as well Geoff 

 

[lancer1027]

Yep geoff, count me in for the step by step build

Rob :wave:

 

[Neil]

Thanks for the tip off re. clumpy stuff Geoff, and count me in for a step by step demo.

 

[Re6/6]

The best tree-making site that I've seen here  http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topi ... C_ID=23011
...many pages!