Go and tell it to the Trees

I realised recently that one of the potential stumbling blocks on my planned layout was that to look effective it would need trees bigger than anything that could be made using sea moss. I had pinned my hopes on a couple of Hornby 'Skale Scenes' examples but to my disappointment the current generation are not as good as the old ones I used on 'Old Quarry Line'. More on them another time...  

For some time I've been meaning to attempt to create a tree from scratch influenced by, if not following exactly, Gordon Gravett's methods. This has been undertaken as a test build, and without a firm commitment to actually use it. 

Not wanting to do things by halves it is 20 cm tall and 20 cm wide, definitely a 7mm scale tree. It isn't species specific but if anything a few more branches might have made it fill out a bit better.

Construction was from florists wire of two thicknesses, lots of twisting, bending and cutting to get the shape. Fuse wire was used to bind the lengths forming the trunk and florists tape wrapped around to add some shape. It didn't look quite right so DAS modelling clay was used to add some extra thickness and some detail to the trunk (such as cut off branches), and fill the area around the roots.

This is the only picture I managed to snap during construction, I've started to add my bark mix to one of the branches, this is grey tile grout and PVA glue mixed with a spot of brown paint. Applied all over this gives a reasonable base colour but I then painted a slightly darker colour all over using acrylic paints and dry-brushed to highlight the texture.

Foliage is based on a Hornby Skale Scenics (old range) foliage matt, teased out and held in place using PVA, with additional colouring from Woodland Scenics and other ranges added over hairspray. A blast of matt varnish over the trunk and foliage hides any sheen from the adhesives.

Colin