Trees - Part III

I have managed to find time (with grateful thanks to Amity!) to get the tree finished.  At the end of the last episode, the tree had had the first coat of brown No More Gaps.  Since then, a second was applied and this gave a better finish as it covered the wire a bit more and was able to take some brush strokes to help simulate the bark effect.  So what do you do next?  Paint the tree of course!

The photo above shows some of Amity's acrylics which I borrowed to work with.  White, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Black and Raw Umber.  These were mixed around to give various shades and then applied to the tree frame.  Finally I dry brushed some moss green on what will be the northern side of the tree, just to see how it looked.



Above we have the painted tree.  In the bright winter sunshine of Outback Queensland, the wires are still noticeable but I was more interested in covering them up on the main trunk.  Not sure if it is as good as I could have done it, but too late now as the tree is finished! The green tinge is just noticeable with bits of grey and different shades of brown showing. 

I used Woodland Scenics FC183 Medium Green Clump Foliage for this tree.  I prefer to use the Heki mats but I don't have any here in Longreach and getting some would take a bit too long and I am keen to get this project finished.  The bag is one I have had for some time, so I will use it up on Swallow's End - although there may be a couple of Heki trees on the layout by the time it is finished.



The finished tree in all its glory.  Must be High Summer judging by the amount of foliage!  I used a spray adhesive and piled it on, waited half an hour, shook the tree (so any loose bits fell off) and repeated until I was happy with the coverage.

Making a tree is a time consuming process and it could be argued that, unless you are modelling a feature tree to match a photograph of your chosen prototype, not worth the hassle.  However, since I had the materials at hand, except the No More Gaps (which was a fiver I think - and will make quite a lot of trees assuming it doesn't go off in the tube while it is waiting!) all it really cost is time - and it is one way of filling in an evening or 3 and still doing some modelling.