small "How to" about one of the many ways making firtrees HO as in N scale

[grove den]

Biiiig firtrees

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The frame is made/built up  with wires: green ones from out a floristic shop.
The wires I use for HO trees are 0,6 mm for making the branches and 1,2 mm for the 'core' of the tree: I use a wire that is almost twice thicker as the wires I use to make the branches . It will gave the trunk more strength when twisting the thin wires around it...
For N scale trees: 0,4 mm diameter  wires( branches),  for the core: 0,7 mm diam.
The trunk is made by twisting tight some wires around the bottom of the thick(core) wire. On the tree I made I used almost 3 wires ( 12 inches long each)before making the loops for the first bottombranches.
The branches are made by twisting large loops (a litlle bit larger than one inch) .When making a large loop twist the wire at least 5 times very tight around the corewire and than again make a large loop.( if the wire is still long enough to do so!
Continue till the top of the core wire
Of course, because we try to make a fir tree, the loops can be made smaller to the top...
If done so it could look like this:

 

I added some drops of cheap superglue on the twisted wires all over the trunk..It makes it a lot easier when bending the branches= cutted wires from the loops in the right shape...
When the armature was "shaped" I primered it with sprayprimer. Painting can be done as well.


detail:


If the primer was dry, I added the very fine MDF sawdust, with a theesieve,  on the trunk with the" mix"( white glue and some drops of dishdetergent and a litlle bit of water) Let it dry and paint the frame with , in my case, latexwallpaint in a color I found/bought cheap during a sale and just had the right color!


next step is cutting the filterfibers and collecting them in a biiig shoebox.
Spray the armature (= branches ONLY) carefuly with sprayglue and add the fibers on the branches. ONLY the outside of the branches!
Adding the fibers can be done by picking up out of the shoebox and let them carefuly fall over the top of the tree. By tipping against the bottom of the trunk the fibers that are not glued will roll and fall down over the other branche into the shoebox again...
Mostly you have to remove some fibers on places they dont belong...It can be done with a tweezer or just by fingers or a short haired brush dipped in terpintin.
when ready it could look like this:


I painted the top of the tree( the blue fibers) with spraycanpaint and added the leaves/needles by spraying the outside of the fibers with again, sprayglue and than with a rough sieve the Woodland coarse turf ove the branches with the fibers.
But for a more realistc effect I add first a thin "layer" of fine grassfibers first

 

 and than I add Woodland Scenic fine tuf( dark green or conifer green)
the result is this:


spray the tree twice with matte varnish...

Jos

[Jumijo]

 Incredibly realistic! And the process seems fairly easy. Thank you for an excellent tutorial! Your tree looks superb!

Jim

[blownout cylinder]

I used a technique somewhat similar to yours using braided wire and florists wires. The beauty in these is that you can really pile up the number of trees in a hurry.... I'd like see more of your trees though.

[grove den]

Thanks Jim and blowout cylinder!

Just fresh from "mon petite atelier'(a small spot in my basement) this "updated" firtree..

well ...it is starting to look like .....

 Jos

[Lillen]

Simply amazing. Thanks for the excellent tutorial. Think I will give that a try, all I need is the fish tank stuff and that isn't expensive or hard to get.

 

 

 

Magnus

 

[Capt. Grimek]

Grove Den. Great teaching! I have a question about the filter material. What is it exactly? Is it the type that's bunched up and placed in a fish tank filter? Is it blue originally or did you paint it blue to get a Spruce like effect? Thanks. I'm going to give your trees a try!

[grove den]

Thanks capt.!

I don't know exactly if they "are put in/placed in " fish tankfilters..but they can be bought in aquariumshops etc( they HAVE to know what kind of stuff this is! ) 

The fibers I used on that tree are blue . but I found some colored fibers for floristdecoration"things" ...

The blue filterfibers are more tough than the colored ones. I prefer the colored ones...they are less tough( thin?) and easy to cut and also "heavy" enough to fall over the sprayglued frame!

there is also a kind of filterfiber that is even more thin/smaller than the colored ones but not that thin as cookerhoodfilters: I use these  light green  thin filterparts to N scale or very detailed HO trees and to imm. dead small branches...

Of course I have to color/spray the blue and light green fibers first before adding the leaves!

Here are some pictures of the stuff I can get overhere...

the blue ones:

the lightgreen/blue ones:

the brown"decorationfibers":

here the "light green/blue ones on a big N tree before coloring the fibers...:

Last one: the sawDUST I use to cover the wires and to imm. the texture of the trunks. It is very small/.fine almost like dust.

my last efforts about tree building: picture taken just between the many  hail and snow(!!) showers right now overhere...

Jos

[Capt. Grimek]

Thanks very much, Jos! Your trees look fantastic! Now I (we all) have a better idea of what specific materials to look for. I used to have aquariums as a kid so that helps to recognize products. By the way, I'm of Dutch descent myself. My Grandfather and Great Uncle were cigar makers in Amsterdam before immigrating to the U.S. Cheers, Capt. G.

[loathar]

I believe you have earned the title of "Tree Master" Thanks a bunch for the excellent "how to"!

[Kenfolk]

 Outstanding...I'll have to give these trees a try. Thanks.

[gear-jammer]

Jos,

Thanks for the tutorial.  Very realistic.

Sue