19 replies to this topic

[Orchid_Noir]

This is the spawn of
twjolson's Home Made Trees thread. The first responses were strong enough I figured I'd give it it's own thread for ease of finding.
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Mine are Pretty easy:

Go find some branches that will look about right.

dig out some glue and a nail

Get some colored wool fiber, pillow stuffing, cotton...whatever

Fine foliage (the little cut up pieces of foam in foliage colors)

and Aquanet Hairspray (it actually works bestest, the cheaper the better)


cut bottom of tree flat
glue nail to bottom of tree by head

let dry

pull wool (or whatever you are using) out real thin (like cheap halloween spider web decoration stuff, which you can also use) and lay it on the branches where you want your foliage after spraying liberally with the cheap hairspray (the thinner you get the fiber the more "dappled" your tree will look

let dry

Spray liberally with the hairspray again then sprinkle foliage into the fibers then turn tree upside down to let any loose foliage fall off

let dry

repeat last step if desired for a thicker foliage effect

let dry

now your tree is ready to stab by the nail into some foam, or whatever and play with











oh.... Wait......I forgot something before you play with it.......






let dry

[Froggy the Great]

This is cool and useful enough to pin.

[dargrin]

Great looking tree. How big is this one?

[Orchid_Noir]

Great looking tree. How big is this one?

The big green one is abour 7 1/2 inches and the little pink one is right at 6 inches.

I like the "large" trees, they look right next to a fig to me, you know, how a real tree dwarfs us a bit.

[WintersRainne]

Do you know what kind of tree/shrub you got the branch from - I've had a look around home - but most branches/twigs have nowhere near that many offshoots - I especially like the twist in the trunk of the pink one....?

[Orchid_Noir]

Do you know what kind of tree/shrub you got the branch from - I've had a look around home - but most branches/twigs have nowhere near that many offshoots - I especially like the twist in the trunk of the pink one....?

They are sagebrush, easier to buy than find in many locales, but some cedars work great, as well as a few other bushes and shrubs that I don't know the names of (sorry, more into irises and herbs on knowing some names).

And the pink one is my favorite so far.


Orchid - still planning better pictures, but kind of stalling for the new camera

[Enchantra]

*L* Orchid this is exactly how I do my trees. The only difference is I don't use hairspray. I use light spritzes of matte laquer instead. The stuff dries hard and the foliage is practically indestructable.

Lilac branches work well too with the fine twigs they get. I have a seriously large number of Lilac bushes around my house.

One of these days I shall have to do a writeup with pictures of how to make wire trees. They are much more time consumming though and don't have that nice natural look Orchid's have.

[WintersRainne]

Sagebrush - well I'm out of luck there - looks like I am gonna have to go digging around in some underbrush soon.....

[Enchantra]

Hey Orchid, if we wanted some of that lovely Sage Brush, what would you ask for it if you could ship it to us?

[Stubbdog]

I guess my reply is that it depends on what kind of tree you are looking for.

There are plenty of companies that sell tree kits, and some that sell trees prebuilt.

Some I reccomend trying yourself like the one shown above, cause that looks as good as any of the kits you could get for obviously much cheaper.

But for other kinds of trees I would reccomend the kits.

For example, HEKI PINE TREES are excellent and you can get them in packs of 15 to 60 trees for $15 from www.walthers.com depending on which size tree you prefer.

[Enchantra]

Drift wood from the shores of oceans and lakes and other bodies of water might make awesome looking trees.

Berry bushes might lend some good "tree trunks" it you take the pieces left from trimming them in the Spring or fall.

[Nick Garai]

How long to the trees last before they need to be replaced or repaired? What stores can you find sagebrush in? I live up in Canada so where would I go to get it?

[Orchid_Noir]

How long to the trees last before they need to be replaced or repaired? What stores can you find sagebrush in? I live up in Canada so where would I go to get it?

I like to get my stuff from Sweetwater Scenery, personally, second only to going out and finding it myself, and they are nice people, too, from my dealings with them. You could also try model RR places, that's whers we get most of our terrain supplies.

As far as how long they last, I haven't had to mess with any I've made, but I treat them rather nicely when I handle and store them so your mileage may vary on that. (still need to make me some more of these )

[Nick Garai]

Thanks. Where would you find natural sagebrush? I live in Alberta.

[demi_morgana]

that looks brilliant - I wonder if if could be scaled to CAV size... such trees would be perfect for thick forest!