David Mooney Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 (edited) Well for those of us that wish to do a forrest or some trees on thier diorama i have put together an idea i came across and its cheap (which is always good). Ive sat and considered buying the prebuilt trees but it wold need a bank loan to get close to having a deep forrest look. So low and behold nature came to my resuce here, i was in the garden doing so digging and i notice a bunch of roots growing and they got me thinking...............cheap trees! These were growing from a conifer that I was evicting as it was getting to big, but as you can see they have a good base shape of a tree. So after I let them dry out and cleaned the dirty of I begun leafing in it with so dark earth course grade tufts to give it some depth. To do this I sprayed it with hairspray and rolled it around GENTLY in a tub of the dark earth tufts As you can see its a good start, so I repeated this a few times to make it look a bit fuller of leaf even though it will be a autum-ish tree for a later dio I am planning. So now I added some fine yellow tufts and a pinch of red for the autum-ish look, so nearly 1/4 of the hairspray has gone (don't tell you girlfriends or wifes when you do this and its her's) but its building up slowly. The idea is to build up layers of colours, dark on the inside and lighter ones on top. So this is how it will look (placed next to a dio) after a few coats of hairspray and placed in your tufts. Many people have tried making trees and come out with better results than me but this is one of the first times I have used real roots and hope to find better ways to make them Not too shabby and would be good with 20 more in a forest, big plus it cost next to nothing to make! all comments welcome. Edited August 20, 2015 by David Mooney 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charley420 Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 Thats very good, consider the idea borrowed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mooney Posted August 20, 2015 Author Share Posted August 20, 2015 Thats very good, consider the idea borrowed You can borrow my idea, but you cant blame me when the wife wonders why you have dug half the garden up :-D 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 Excellent idea and tutorial, I will use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carts Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 Top tip,consider it nicked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve86 Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Nice idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fingers Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Looking good, one thought though, did you allow them to dry any or were they fresh from the garden? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mooney Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 May I should have added that, sorry about that! I got them from the garden and bent them to shape while they damp, then kept them pinned till they dried. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fingers Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 May I should have added that, sorry about that! I got them from the garden and bent them to shape while they damp, then kept them pinned till they dried. Hope that helps Yep that helps I was just worried what would happen when they 'dried out'. I will try this as I think it has many permutations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mooney Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 Once they dry out they become quite brittle so that why it's best to 'shape' them while they are still flexible (damp) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 (edited) That looks super! However, I would worry that all the 'foliage' would drop off over time. Hairspray alone won't hold it in place forever, surely? Have you sealed the whole lot with some kind of varnish? I made a tree from twigs and 'leafed' it with seeds from nettles. I smothered the nettles seeds with PVA glue and it seems pretty permanent to me. Edited September 13, 2015 by Badder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mooney Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 Thankfully all the foliage is standing the test of time, some I did a few years ago look exactly the same as they did when they was first made. Only one that's taken a hit was one that a furry monster (cat) decided to investigate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adt70hk Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 David Love the idea! I have come back to the hobby after a long break and do small scale 1/72 battles with my young son. At the moment I have no scenery whatsoever and have been thinking about how I can get some cheap trees made. This might just be it!! Thanks for sharing. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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