Skale Tree Surgery - Revisited

I've been tinkering with trees again, not the 'tree two' I referred to in a previous post but certainly a second tree. This was last seen back in April 2021 in Skale Tree Surgery, being a new generation Hornby Skale Scenics tree reworked with new foliage. At the time I was pleased with the outcome but after the success of the half-relief tree I decided to revisit it again as with hindsight it wasn't the result I wanted, now finding that it looked a bit too "straggly".

April 2021 - the first attempt at new foliage

So, I again stripped back the foliage (luckily stuck with water soluble PVA), and started again. I was going to use Woodland Scenics medium green foliage again, but feared my supply was low (I had to restock to complete this tree first time around). Whilst drifting to sleep one evening I remembered that I had an unopened pack of Skale Scenics foliage from the original range, on checking the following day I discovered it was R8833 light green, medium foliage fibre clusters. Having had reservations about using similar material on the half relief tree as it had looked bit too flat, on opening the pack these drifted away and I set to work. 

There are no progress photos, I just dug straight in and got on with it over a series of sessions, this is the result.

Having deployed many of the tricks used on the half-relief tree, such as layering material and stretching it further, I am much happier with the result over last years effort, the foliage is much fuller and has much better shape, even if the other side is definitely the back!

From the top I used a trick in Gordon Gravett's book, spreading a single, teased piece of foliage across all of the top level branches, and trimming it back prior to adding further layers.

I think it is likely that this tree will be retained for a future 4mm scale project rather than 7mm scale, but we shall see...  

Colin