Making Trees My First Forest

Posted by Unknown on 5:00 PM in First, Forest, Making, My, Trees | No comments

With the first section of my layout’s ground cover well under way, it was finally time to start putting some trees together. Since my layout is set in a mountainous terrain somewhere in the Canadian Rockies, it will feature forests comprised of pine trees, most of which will be in the back-half of my layout. The front half will feature more deciduous type trees around the residential, commercial, and industrial areas.

I decided to use Woodland Scenics plastic tree armatures for my pine trees, and for the majority of my deciduous trees. Using the tree armatures does of course require assembly, but are a lot less expensive and look far more realistic then most pre-made trees. Making trees completely from scratch however is probably the most economical option, but I like the look and ease-of-use of the tree armatures, so this was the method I chose.

The first step was to prep the armatures by bending the branches and limbs into a 3-dimentional shape. Once all the armatures were properly shaped, I mounted them by their bases to a sheet of foam board. I will not use the bases of the trees on my layout as they look very unrealistic, however the bases work well for holding the armatures upright while I work on them. I airbrushed the armatures with a mixture of chocolate brown and gray paint to get a more realistic colour. I then applied a coat of dull-coat to get rid of any gloss left on the trees.

The next step was to apply an adhesive onto the armatures. Woodland Scenics recommends their own tacky adhesive, Hob-e-Tac, so this is what I used. I applied it to the armatures using the supplied brush, doing about 6 trees at a time. I was careful to not apply too much glue to the trunk of the tree, as most trees don’t have a large amount of foliage growing out in that area. I let the Hob-e-Tac set for about 15 minutes until it became clear and very tacky.

I then dipped and rolled the armatures in Woodland Scenics foam products. For the pine trees, I used Conifer Green Coarse Turf, and for the deciduous trees I used a combination of Medium Green Clump Foliage and Underbrush. I had a couple deciduous armatures from Life-Like, which I covered with Light Green Coarse Turf. I found that the pine trees looked a little empty, so I used Conifer Green Foliage to fill them in a bit. By using different sized pieces of foliage which I stretched out and placed randomly between the branches, the pine trees lost their generic, pipe-cleaner look.

After applying the foliage to all the trees, I noticed the next day that large amounts of the clump foliage had fallen off of my deciduous trees. I realized that unlike the very light coarse turf I used on my pine trees, the heavier clump foliage did not get a good enough grip on the Hob-e-Tac adhesive from simply rolling the armature around in the material. Instead, I had to hand press all of the clump foliage onto the armature to ensure that it was properly secured. I then shook each tree to remove any loose pieces and to see where I needed to apply more.

The final step was to highlight the trees with blended turf, which gave the trees a more realistic look. I sprinkled a little bit of Earth Blend on the pine trees, and used Green Blend on the deciduous trees. I then gave all of the trees a spray of thinned white glue to seal everything in. Be careful to not get the clump foliage too wet, as the added weight is actually enough to cause the clumps to drop off of the armatures.

The trees are now ready to be added to my layout. I should have my fist post on the first stage of my scenery within the next couple weeks, as long as everything goes as planned.