My project lately has been working on well detailed Ponderosa pine trees. This one is roughly 100 feet tall in N scale, so not even a particularly large specimen. It's a wooden dowel for the trunk, twisted wire branches, static grass for the finer branch structure, and a combination of 2mm static grass and ground foam for the "needles."
This was largely inspired by Boomer Diorama on YouTube, who has several videos of similar construction in HO scale. This is not a quick and easy way to make a forest, but I do think it makes a nice looking tree.
I started with a length of wooden dowel, whittled to a tapered point on one end. Each branch is several strands of twisted wire, with a hole drilled into the trunk and glued in place with CA.
Once all the branches were in I brushed matte medium over the trunk and inner portion of the branches and covered that in sawdust. Then I added 4mm static grass to the outer portion of the branches with more matte medium. I also experimented with CA'ing on a few more wire branches here and there, as well as with some polyfiber between branches for a fuller look in some areas.
Then I spray painted everything brown, and it's starting to look like a tree.
Next I added 2mm "light green" static grass from Woodland Scenics. I brushed matte medium onto the branches where I wanted that to go, and found that using a small static grass applicator, even without the static, does a nice job of sifting out the little fibers and avoiding big clumps. Once that was dry I misted on dilute matte medium and sprinkled on some "burnt grass" fine ground foam. In this pic you can see the lower branches with the fine ground foam, and the upper branches without.
The last steps were gently brushing off whatever green stuck to the trunk, and then dry brushing on a burnt orange craft paint to simulate the orangish bark ponderosas typically have.
This was my third one. Pretty soon I'm going to have to figure out a way to use these
This was largely inspired by Boomer Diorama on YouTube, who has several videos of similar construction in HO scale. This is not a quick and easy way to make a forest, but I do think it makes a nice looking tree.
I started with a length of wooden dowel, whittled to a tapered point on one end. Each branch is several strands of twisted wire, with a hole drilled into the trunk and glued in place with CA.
Once all the branches were in I brushed matte medium over the trunk and inner portion of the branches and covered that in sawdust. Then I added 4mm static grass to the outer portion of the branches with more matte medium. I also experimented with CA'ing on a few more wire branches here and there, as well as with some polyfiber between branches for a fuller look in some areas.
Then I spray painted everything brown, and it's starting to look like a tree.
Next I added 2mm "light green" static grass from Woodland Scenics. I brushed matte medium onto the branches where I wanted that to go, and found that using a small static grass applicator, even without the static, does a nice job of sifting out the little fibers and avoiding big clumps. Once that was dry I misted on dilute matte medium and sprinkled on some "burnt grass" fine ground foam. In this pic you can see the lower branches with the fine ground foam, and the upper branches without.
The last steps were gently brushing off whatever green stuck to the trunk, and then dry brushing on a burnt orange craft paint to simulate the orangish bark ponderosas typically have.
This was my third one. Pretty soon I'm going to have to figure out a way to use these
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