Another Look At Trees

07/30/02

Since my introduction to the hobby, I quickly realized that my layout needed more detail; I thought of trees. So as I started to research about what would be the easiest way to get trees. I found that if you bye them it can add up, so I decided to take this into my own hands. I found an easy and cheap way to make some pretty good looking trees. They add a nice spice and summer affect to my layout and could to yours.
	The items used into making these nifty trees were of the following. For the trunk and stem parts I used a dried Hydrangea stem or you can glue twigs and sticks together to make it look like a tree armature and it will have the same affect. For glue, I used Elmer's clear glue and a spray adhesive. Using green Styrofoam board that is used for fake floral arrangements created the leaf affect. Also what was used is poly fiber material found (at a craft store) and Floral paint (also sold at craft stores) to
color the tree, I just used a water base paint and applied with an airbrush, you can use a spray can too. A good place for these floral colors is Floralife.com. The colors you will need is, Leaf Green, or some type of green color close to leaf colors and the other color you need is a dark brown for the armature/stem of the tree.

The First thing to do when making your tree (assuming you have all your materials) is to trim the bud of the Hydrangea (not needed for twigs). Cut all the flowers and little stems off with a pair of scissors, so the final product will look like a green tree armature. After trimming, hang the stem/armature outside or in your house to let it dry out and get relatively hard, the process will take up to two nights. After your stem is totally dry, take the dried armature and use a paintbrush to paint on the dark brown. Cover the whole armature with brown and let dry.

Next, take medium size clumps (as much as you want, to make a good-looking tree) of the poly-fiber and place them down on some old newspaper. Spray them, on all sides covering all the white poly-fiber, with the green color and let

dry. After the clumps look nice and green; apply the clear Elmers glue to the armature where you are going to apply the green clumps of poly-fiber. Once the poly-fiber is on and secured pretty well, the next step is to apply the "leaves".

Lastly, the leaves, these are very easy to apply and add the finishing touch to the shade trees. First, take the spray adhesive and spray the tree with a good amount so the foam flakes can stick to it. Then, let somebody hold the block

for you or you can use a vise, and scrape the Styrofoam block with a metal brush or any thing that can scratch and let the flakes come down on to the poly-fiber. Get a lot of flakes on the poly. If some don't stick spray some more adhesive on and keep adding flakes until the leaf affect is achieved. After the flakes are stuck on re-spray the different colored Styrofoam flakes with the same green color. After that, you are finished!

These trees turn out great if they are done right. They are cheap, easy to

make and look good for any type of summer layout. If anybody has any questions about the trees or anything else about slot cars please feel free to e-mail me at gt3b7@netscape.net.

Ben

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