Trees 1-2-3

[MasonJar]

This is a relatively inexpensive way to make decent looking conifers.

I bought these trees at the dollar store in a pack of three. Larger trees come two to a pack, and the biggest ones are one for $1. They are usually only available at Christmas with the other scenery and accessories for creating a "Dickensian" village.

Step 1 - Cut off the snow, and rough the tree up a bit. How much depends on how wild versus cultivated you want your tree to be.

Step 2 - Paint the tree some dark, suitable conifer-like colour. You can paint it with a brush, or just dunk it in some thinned paint.

Step 3 - While the paint is still wet, sprinkle on ground foam.

(Not illustrated) Step 4 - Remove wooden base and plant on layout.


Andrew

 

[SD90]

Wow, that does make a nice tree, I was wondering if I could make something like that work, and it loks like it will! They have those trees at Michael's around Christmas time, and you can usually find a 50% off coupon. Thanks for the great idea, I need to build about 10000 trees for my layout, I need all the help I can get!

 

[Rusty Spike]

Very nice trees - I find myself wondering the craft isles frequently looking for things that might work for less money - great idea on cutting the snow off!

 

[Matthyro]

Thanks Andrew. A good tip for us that need lots of trees

 

[Will_annand]

Thanks Andrew, you got that right Robin, 11.5'x6.6' layout set in Caledon definately needs trees. :thumb:

 

[MasonJar]

Thanks for the kind words folks! Yes, the sales and coupons can make these an even better deal!

Mike Hamer, who was featured in GMR 2004, gave a clinic on (deciduous) trees at our modular club last month. I will try to put up a summary of that sometime soon, but his basic method is as follows:

Get suitable weeds (sedum, astible, etc.) that are dry. You can collect them in the fall, or earlier if you let them dry in your basement.

Dunk in a 50-50 mix of white glue and water, with a bit of "wetting" agent - alcohol or dish soap.

Twirl in another bucket to remove excess glue.

Dump liberal amounts of ground foam of various colours over the glue-soaked weed. Catch the excess on a sheet of newpaper for re-use.

Let dry.

Mike has made about 3000+ trees for his layout, mostly using this method. It is really cheap, so he even uses it for the foreground. That way if they get broken (which they usually do) replacing them is not a financial strain.

Pictures soon.

Andrew

 

[dcfxq]

"Very nice trees - I find myself wondering the craft isles frequently looking for things that might work for less money - great idea on cutting the snow off!"

If my experience at A.C. Moore this weekend is typical I have to say a resounding YES!

I picked up 20 bottles of various color acrylic paint to use on my foam as background color ($5.00 for the lot) and reindeer moss for use as shrubbery/low ground cover for $1.79 a bag (both light and darker green shades) as well as some basic inexpensive brushes to do scenery painting at $1.50 for five varying widths.

Granted the had a weekend sale on but a sharp eye on newspaper and "junk" mail ads for places like Michaels and ACM can be a real bonus to some already lower priices for some basic stuff.

 

[kettlestack]

Yep Andrew, and the "Chrismas" decor trees look even better if you hack into them with side cutters to make the contour really uneven.

Errol

 

[Big_Al73]

I know this is a late post, but my wife found those trees at a local dollar store, they only have them for christmas time. They work great, I cut or pull off the big wooden stand, and drill a small hole, some glue and presto. Cheaper than other companies. :thumb:

 

[KCS]

I found them at (Super) Wal-Mart too! Of course only around x-mas but here they are located in the inside of the Garden Center a few isles down from the lawn mower and weed eater parts. K-mart normally has a HUGE selection of items for cheap that can be used for modeling that are not just trees.