This thread was started in January, 2017
brownbr
January 2017 in Scenery
This is a brief summary of how I go about making the pine trees for my layout. It is fairly quick and easy. I tend to do a dozen or more at a time and would estimate that it takes 30-60 min/tree. But I’ve never really timed it. Usually what I do is identify an area on the layout that needs to be forested. I’ll estimate the number of big trees needed to fill the area as well as the smaller understory trees…that’s the batch I’ll work on.
I start with a balsa stick. I forget where I got them, but it was online. They come in a wide variety of thicknesses. This stick is 3/4" so the trunk I will be carving in O scale with be a 3’ width by 75’ tall.
When I start carving, I start at the top of the tree. What I’m looking to achieve is a taper from ground to tip of tree. I whittle off the corners and start moving down. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just get the taper and get rid of what looks like flat edges. These pics show the progression from stick to final carving.
The tools for the trunk making are very basic. Knife to whittle, rasp to finish rounding of edges and put in score lines, and a stiff wire brush to put the bark texture in.
These pics (not the best focus) give an idea of the trunk after being hit by the rasp, then the brush. To cut down (but not eliminate) the fuzzies, I put on a leather glove and rub the trunk.
This is what I am looking for in the final trunk. Rounded edges, good taper, and nice bark texture.
For the rest of the demo (and for the sake of time) I’m going to use some smaller trees that could be used in O or HO scale. The larger tree here is 2’ x 50’ in O scale, and the smaller is 2’ x 50’ in HO scale. I have painted them using dark brown camo paint.
Note the reverse taper at the base of the trunk of the smaller tree. I’ll fix that by cutting it off later. Also note the nail coming out of the trunk of the larger tree. I cut the heads off of finishing nails and use these to hold the trees onto foam while they are being painted, etc.
I use caspia to start with the branches. I picked it up at a local hobby store. I pre-painted this batch but that is not necessary. A lot of the caspia has flowers on the tips. Knock these off.
I start with the trunk by using a pick to put holes for the branches. I start at the bottom and go around the trunk and place 4 or 5 holes. These can be at the same height, but I tend to let mine rise like a barber pole. Decide how wide you want the spread of your foliage to be and break off a branch, dip it in glue and stick it in the hole.
The lowest branches should be the thickest. Continue upwards towards the top. Be careful poking holes at the top of the tree. It’s easy to break off the tip or to jab your finger…believe me on this one.
Notice how the branches get smaller as they rise, just like a pine tree. Trim these as necessary. Don’t worry if they don’t look perfect. This is not the final branch structure.
Moving right along, I’m going to finish this out with some photos from previous builds.
I did forget 1 thing though. After painting trunk and before putting in branches, I use a black wash on the trunk. about 10:1 with black craft paint.
I use a thick air filter called Naturalaire and cut it into triangles for the large tree and square/circles for the small trees. This should be teased out like you see in the photos.
For the big trees place these pieces on top of your branches. Once in place, use a spray adhesive to hold in place. This WILL make a mess. For the small trees skewer the pieces onto the trunk. Once dry, paint with brown camo paint again.
Comments
admin
January 2017
Excellent tutorial Bryan, thank you for posting. I just have never been able to make good looking tree…
brownbr
January 2017
Once this is dry I “wet brush” the trunk first with a light brown then with a light gray. My colors of choice are “mushroom” and “barnwood”. Make sure you paint any dead branches with the light gray.
Now we add the foliage. I use a heavy hold hair spray as the adhesive. Spray the branches from above. Wet them good, then sprinkle your foliage of choice from above letting it cling to the tops of the foliage pads, but not so much on the bottom. My choice of foliage is Scenic Express “farm pasture” with a little bit of dark green short pine needle thrown in. Keep adding until it looks good to you. Hit it hard with the hairspray again, then add just a little bit of “light green fine” ground cover on the top. This gives the highlights on top of the foliage. Hit it with the hairspray again.
I always give a shot of hairspray at the bottom and sprinkle some of the foliage to simulate moss.
The smaller trees are great old growth for HO scale, and understory growth for O scale. What I like most about this method is looking up inside the tree and seeing the branch structure created by using the caspia. Keep all of the bits of broken caspia that didn’t make it onto a tree. It makes great forest floor debris. After I plant the trees and put the forest floor in, I always sprinkle some brown pine needles under the tree as well.
The biggest downside to this method is the lack of root structure.
KCSTrains
January 2017
Bryan, great tutorial. I model in HO and use a similar method. However, I start with wooden dowels. I also found a quick way to achieve the taper. Place the dowel in a drill. While the dowel rotates in the drill, pull it across a belt sander or one of those stationary belt sanders (of course, they need to be running as well). You can achieve a great taper in matter of seconds. If fact, if you don’t pay attention, you can taper too much. BTW I also use caspia for my branches and I flock the trees in a similar manner. Phil
brownbr
January 2017
Thanks Brett.
Phil, its a tried and true method and gets good results. I really like the way the caspia gives branch detail. Put some pics of your trees here.
I’ve tried dowels for smaller trees as well. It eliminates the need for the carving, but is harder to add the bark texture for me.
Geezerbill
January 2017
Bryan, very good tutorial and wonderful tree! thanks for taking the time and effort to post it. I’ll post a picture or two of mine later.
Geezerbill
KKarns
January 2017
Bryan, nicely done tutorial. That last picture tells the story, very realistic. Love the loose appearing shaggy bark and the dead lower limbs with moss, just like the real thing. I have avoided doing pines, spruce, fir, as I don’t have the confidence to give it a shot. This will help tremendously, thanks for doing it…
brownbr
January 2017
I’m sure the will turn out great Ken. Post some pics when you give it a try.
Same for you Bill, look forward to seeing what you have done.
Bryan
Bill
January 2017
Thanks for the tutorial, Bryan.
I love the tree with the “twin trunks” in the middle picture above. How do you make the one on the left appear curved?
CarlRowe
January 2017
Great! I need about 300. LOL
brownbr
January 2017
Bill, the twin trunk is one of my favorites. I used balsa sticks as described above, and cut the based to angles so they mated at the base. Glue together, and once dry texture the bottom glued part to match the top part.
The curve is an illusion. When I put the foliage on, I filled it in heavier in the space between the 2 trunks.
I’m on it Carl.
Geezerbill
January 2017
I’ll try to post a few pictures here but I don’t want to burden Bryan’s great tutorial with my pics. more can be seen at a new thread I am starting on “My ON30Layout”. There is still work to be done on the three largest trees, such as adding the lower dead branches and some moss. On the newest design I only have one shot that shows it fairly well. All the other trees I spent lots of time on are the old furnace filter design. None of their tops look good and I plan on reworking the tops soon. Like Bryan, I use a long finishing nail in the truck with the head removed and sharpened. The best pic of the new design:
The three largest trees, hard dowel, 1 1/16" dia. I drilled a 1X2 and pounded in small nails, about 3 dozen, so the sharp ends protruded through about 1/8th to 3/16". clamped it down and pulled the dowel trunk along the nails to create the bark texture.
More can be seen on my new thread as soon as I can get it started.
Thanks Bryan for encouraging me to post here. I need to do lots of work to make them more presentable.
Geezerbill
CarlLaskey
January 2017
Hi There tree men I want to post a few pictures on how the moss looks on the pine trees in my front yard hope that you do not mind and it is raining now so they could be better.
Geezerbill
January 2017
Good shots Carl. Excellent information. Thanks for sharing with us.
brownbr
January 2021
I had a wire aperture left over from making the last pine trees along with a scrap piece that was cut off. I’m going to document here a step by step for making a pine tree and a deciduous tree.
The first pair of photos show the wire tree and scrap piece front and back. I used 24g floral wire and twisted to the shape I like. I like the stylistic look of bonsai so that’s what I will go with. The orange coating is DAP air-dry clay. The tall pine had the twisted branch ends coated with latex. The small white tree was coated entirely with Liquitex modeling paste just to try something different.
I didn’t take progress photos of the wiring on these trees so I’ll do a 3rd. I want to make a maple tree, possibly with fall colors. I started by putting 2 nails on the edge of a workbench 24" apart (the pine tree was 29" apart and it turned out to be just under 10" tall). I wound an entire spool of 26g floral wire around the nails…250’. Went with smaller gauge wire for ease of twisting. When done, take off the nails and fold in half. Twist the bottom inch or 2 the hold everything together. I used some tin snips to cut through the wire and then wrapped a piece of 24g wire around the base to help hold it together.
Might take me a while to get all of these done but I wanted to post here. If anyone wants to model along, please do.
mikemettelka
January 2021
Thanks for the tutorial! Really want to try this method myself
brownbr
January 2021
I think you should Mike. Feel free to post along here. This is new for me so I’d like to see other’s ideas. Tree shapes are easy to find online. Fine the one that speaks to you and use if as a reference.
In pic 1 I have the basic shape of the tree, branches and roots. Add as many or as few as you like. I only use a few branches off the trunk and then fill in the space with secondary branches.
In pic 2 I have started to basic shape of the lowest branch. Just like the trunk, divide and twist until you get down to a single wire.
In pic 3 you can see the first tiny loop. Once you are down to a single wire, roll the wire back on itself and twist into a loop. This will leave you with 2 branch tips eventually. If your loops are big enough, you can fold the loop over itself and twist it into 2 loops giving you 4 branch tips.
Pic 4 is a top down view of the branch. After all tips were looped I started shaping the branch. I like lots of movement in my branches so they got fanned out to give shape. Basically, put a bend in the branch away from an offshoot…if the branch forks to the right, I bend to the left. This gives a very natural look. Then go look for crossing branches and separate them. Look for straight branches and bend them. Keep going until you are satisfied. You can work this part of the process all the way until you coat the wire.
Pic 5 is a side on view. It’s a bit difficult to make out, but I also added depth to the branches.
Leave the loops intact for now, this makes the tree much easier to work with.
Robert.G
January 2021
Most interesting ..
kebmo
January 2021
Robert.G said:
Most interesting ..
robert,
weren’t you going to do a tutorial of your fantastic looking trees?
no offence bryan, yours look great too.
Robert.G
January 2021
Kevin, I can’t. It will be in the On30 annual and I can’t post it on the internet before.
kebmo
January 2021
Robert.G said:
Kevin, I can’t. It will be in the On30 annual and I can’t post it on the internet before.
well aint that shame…
brownbr
January 2021
Look forward to seeing them Robert.
The branches and roots are formed. Take a 360 degree photo shoot to make sure branches are where they supposed to be. What I’m looking for is a triangular foliage shape from every viewing angle, to have the trunk mostly exposed with areas of foliage playing peek-a-boo with the trunk, and well defined foliage pads that blend together.
These 4 photos look very similar but they are the 4 faces of the tree. I met the requirements above from 2 directions and have work to do on the other 2.
EmeryJ
January 2021
You sure make it look easy Bryan. Man, those look great!
brownbr
January 2021
Thanks Emery. Hope you give it a try.
Here we are putting the wood on the tree. Materials used are DAS air dry clay and the blue tool seen here. Latex rubber and Liquitex paste are for the branch tips. I like the application of the Liquitex better but the latex gives you flexibility when dry and doesn’t leave a big white spot if the paint gets chipped.
Take a small piece of the DAS and flatten it. I use fingers but you can use roller. wrap it around the trunk and press it in. Repeat all the way up the tree and start down the main branches. Don’t go too far down the main branches as it is hard to keep them thin enough with the DAS. Aim for a good taper in the trunk from the ground to the tip. Add or take away as needed to get this taper.
You will get areas that need to be “worked”. Like where 2 of the bands of DAS come together. Give a light spritz of water and blend the area together using your tool. You can see a before and after blending photo here.
This tree is at a stopping point. This must dry overnight at a minimum to start working again. Likely there will be some minimal spot treatments with the DAS prior to starting the latex.
I didn’t put a cavity in this trunk like I did for the owl to live in. To do this, build up a small area of DAS. Poke a hole in it with a toothpick. Ream out the hole a bit with the toothpick and/or the end of a small paint brush. Touch up the edges with your tool. It will look great, I promise.
kebmo
January 2021
great tutorial bryan, thanks.
Joel
January 2021
Thanks so much for this Bryan. I really have to try this it does make the most fantastic foreground trees.
brownbr
January 2021
Post your efforts here Joel. I’d love to see your take on this. I hope these turn out the way I have them envisioned. I’m sure they will get better with practice like anything else.
brownbr
January 2021
I added finer branch tips to 1 of the trees and added bark to both. The fine branch tips are natural furnace filter cut into very small pieces and glued onto the end of each branch tip. Basically to fill out the area where leaves will go. I am going to try a different technique with the other tree to see which works best…its a trial after all.
For the bark I used dried leaves that were ground up in a coffee grinder. I first marked off an area that I want to have the bark missing. Then brush white glue all over the trunk in sections so the areas don’t dry out. While the glue is wet, sprinkle the leaf mess on.
admin
January 2021
Love all the character Bryan. Looking forward to seeing this planted on your diorama.
brownbr
January 2021
Thanks Brett. Hope they both make it to a diorama. If I like them I’ll put them on the layout. If I love them they will go on a diorama.
brownbr
February 2021
The trunks are nearly complete. I may add a bit more moss coloring and texture but they are looking OK for now. Painted with dark brown camo from a spray can then drybrushed in progressive layers of (SW) roof brown, golden brown, (AK) neutral gray and sky gray. Then given a wash of Secret Weapon sewer water.
I’m going to attempt a fall transition color on the deciduous tree with individual leaves. Let’s hope for the best. Included here are a pair of color schemes that appeal to me.
The painted paper is my palette. I punched out 3 sizes of individual leaves with a Green Stuff World leaf punch. Next up, attaching the leaves. I will use the smallest tree to try using some kind of a foliage mesh to add the leaves just to see which works best.
KKarns
February 2021
Amazing!
Karl.A
February 2021
Those leaves are great, the fall colors are spot on.
brownbr
February 2021
Thanks Ken and Karl.
I’ve been adding leaves to branches and have a couple of observations and lessons learned to share.
Overall I am pleased with the bare tree. I encourage anyone to give this method a try.
The individual leaves make a noticeable difference to the look of foliage. This being said, this method will not work for a full canopy tree…the leaves will look too sparce. To model a spring/summer tree I would use some type of fluff material to develop the leaf canopy and use a combination of ground cover with the leaves on the top layer to add detail. If using this method, the branch tips that I have made here will be acceptable.
I want to model a fall tree in the process of dropping its leaves. To do this, I need to hide the twists in the wire better and make finer branch tips. I’ll build a new tree to see if I can do this.
I used white glue to attach the leaves. A wet pallet keeps the glue workable for days. If you have not tried a wet pallet you may want to. It really helps when working with acrylics and now glue. One problem I encountered with using white glue is that the leaves don’t have an immediate hold…I place them where I want them and then they settle in a little bit. Super glue might be the answer but I’m not sure what the finish will look like.
Oh, and if you do not like making a shake shingle roof one shingle at a time, you will not like adding leaves like this.
I’m going to put this tree to the side for a while so I can think through some ideas. I like the way the colors are transitioning with the leaves so I’ll keep filling this tree in over time.
I’ll move on to adding pine needles to the other tree. I think blending colors will be in order by starting with a straw color at the bottom and moving to green on top. We’ll see how this works.
Dave_S
February 2021
Bryan,
I have been enjoying your tutorial on trees. I need to get down into Tucson and get some more wire. A while back I did purchase a set of leaf punches. I haven’t tried them yet but now have better ideas of how to make fall leaves. Your tutorial is giving me motivation to try new things.
Later, Dave S. Tucson, AZ
Joel
February 2021
Bryan,
Thanks so much for the tutorial. I love the fall colours. My favourite time of year when the leaf just start to change. Might want to look at some photos. I find most trees in the north east change a bit at a time so 60% might still be green and the rest changed over. The occasional red maple just changes overnight to entirely red or bright orange but usually its a gradual thing. Once the leaves are mostly gone, and the tree is sparse it would just be browns and a few red or yellow leaves.
Great stuff. I’m collecting wire as I type.
brownbr
February 2021
Dave, you will enjoy the punches. I find that I sprinkle around a few dried leaves on each diorama now. It makes a great detail.
Thanks Joel. Imitating Mother Nature is a challenge for sure. The best I’ve been able to do is find references that I like as you mention, then try to make it as close as possible. Not an easy task.