Making deciduous trees

[hustle_muscle]

I would like to make my own deciduous trees for my layout such as aspens. Are there any methods that can be used to make deciduous trees? So far, I haven't had much luck trying to bend wires to create branches on an armature I tried making earlier.

[mikelhh]

 I make my deciduous trees from all sorts of things including wire - computer cable wrapped around and glued onto tie wire here:

I'll cover the lower parts with clay.

I also use roots for trunks and branches. Painted sisal rope fibres make good branches and although they are soft they're quite tough.

These are roots, with quite a few extra roots glued on

you might be able to find something more aspen-shaped. In fact, I need to do the same.

Trees here are twigs with sisal rope fibres glued on:

 

Mike

[wp8thsub]

I like Supertrees material (available from Scenic Express).  It can be sprayed with thick hairspray or spray adhesive, or dipped in diluted white glue or matte medium, and coated with ground foam for leaves.  I use a couple different types of Scenic Express coarse foams (e.g. Spring Green in coarse and "Super Turf") for most trees.

Some of these smaller trees have additional armatures from sagebrush twigs (you could use other natural or artificial branches as well).  I attach pieces of the Superteees material with gel CA and accelerator, spray with dark gray paint, and then apply leaves.

Larger trees are made the same way.  If you're careful during assembly, the fact the tree is a composite of materials isn't obvious and it all looks like one tree with its own branches.  Background vegetation doesn't require much extra effort, and you can get away without the separate trunks.

[JoeinPA]

Here's a video showing how to work with Supertrees but would be applicable to other armatures.  http://www.basrr.blogspot.com/2013/10/supertrees-start-to-finish.html

 

Joe 

[hornblower]

Joe,

Your tutorial has convinced me to purchase the Super Trees products.  I especially liked seeing your steaming trick as it is a lot simpler than dunking the armatures in matte medium, then hanging to dry with weights attached.  Being that I am modeling Southern California, I need to represent quite a few Eucalyptus trees originally imported here from Australia for use as railroad ties.  Though they didn't grow well enough here for use as railroad ties (the California-grown wood splits too easily), Eucalyptus trees became a landscaping favorite as they quickly grow into very large trees.  I will need to thin out the foliage area branches of the Super Tree armatures a bit and use your steaming method to bend the thinned out branches into Eucalyptus style shapes.  However, I think it will work. Thanks for the inspiration.

[JoeinPA]

Hornblower:

I'm glad that you found the video useful. I wish that I could take credit for it but it's someone else's work. Let us know how your tree building goes.

Joe

[cowman]

A number of folks use dried sedum for trees.  Though not as fancy as Super Trees, they are free once they  have dried out in your garden.  Since the stalks and old blossoms have  to be removed each year, anyone that  has them should be glad to let you have them.

Good luck,

Richard

[PennCentral99]

Credit goes to the original youtuber......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgNKNMA_23I&list=FLdGVpwwfUQgma1XgjxIAs1A&index=6