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Hello

I have been working on my layout the past few days and decided I wanted some bigger trees than what I had left over from my model railroad days.

A quick look around the yard and I found a native Australian plant with some suitable looking small branches. I decided to have a go at making some trees using these branches.

Step 1

Select suitable branches and trim with scissors to the shape you want I also drill a hole in the base and insert a nail in this helps to support it and stand it up when making.


Step 2
Coat the branches with spray on glue. (No pic here just spray it on liberally)

Step 3 Sprinkle flock on the branches - I make my own flock using dish washing sponge that has been ground in a blender. I chop the sponge up and add green paint (I start with yellow or green sponges) and blend. This gives a very light stringy flock that I think looks good on the tree. I takes several passes to coat a tree. I will spray from the top and drop the flock and then from underneath. Shake of the excess flock and look for sports that need more and touch up. When finished I have given the truck a coat of satin gloss and sprayed hair spray on the flock. I will also experiment with some green spray paint to vary the colour a little more.


Step 4 Enjoy the results







cheers
David

David - looks great! Really nice trees and overall look to the track. Great work! I seem to remember Brad Korrondo doing his own foam in a blender.

Made some tonight with ground foam - used a foam glue I bought at craft shop (which looks like PVA glue to me). This time I pushed clumps onto larger branches and used tweezers to pull fibres apart for the finer branches.

Thanks Jeremy I have been looking for a way to make some trees just like that I have plenty more room on the layout for some puff balls

All these trees are great, thanks for the tip's

when is Arbor day

If you have to make a "forested hillside" there was a model RR trick I remember from years ago (wish I could find the article it explained it much better than I can). Basically at the foot of your hill and anyplace anyone is going to see them you do a row of the detailed trees like those shown in previous posts. Then you place screen or netting at the height where the "foliage" on your trees starts and run it up the hillside. After that cover the screen with model RR lichen and it will give the impression of a thick forest. The things we keep in our memory banks..... :shifty: