"A Year of Frugal Gaming - Making Model Trees" Topic

People walk up to me in the street and say 'Hey Dave, I love your Blog, but you should post modeling advice for making trees'. It happens all the time, it really does. So here you go…
link

Enjoy!

All the best
Dave
yearoffrugalgaming.blogspot.com

Cool, thanks!!

they do look nice.

Nicely presented, thank you. I've seen much longer tutorials on wire trees that still only cover the same basic information.

Yes, thanks heaps. I have been using Woodland Scenics trees for generic woods, but wanted to make my own for Southeast Asia. This will be very helpful.

Tom

Thanks guys! Glad you liked it!

Very nice how-to. I have heard of people using cheap extension cords from the dollar stores,stripping the out casing and using the wiring inside. Also,as an alternative,there is a plumbers putty that is like a 2 part epoxy,far less cheaper than many modeling putties,dries rock hard,takes paint well and is sandable. The only downsides are it stinks,and has a short working time. I've made some terraining projects with it,but its not good for fine detail.

Far less cheaper = much more expensive

Well I cannot see where this is a better option than woodland scenics (time or money) except that you can certainly do some custom stuff with this technique.

Just the same, thanks for posting this.

mjc

Nice tutorial! I've done similar trees in the past with reasonable results. In the end, though, the labor did not make them worthwhile except, as quidveritas said above, for some custom jobs.

If you're making many trees, take a look at woodland scenics tree armatures. They're easy, pretty inexpensive in bulk, and look the part. They come in many sizes and can be modded into several smaller trees from one larger one. I use them for winter leafless trees with no more than a flocked base and drybrushed a light gray over the manufactured brown.

Again, nice tutorial. I think I once saw a similar one that used flexible caulking (called mastic in Britain)to bulk out the trunks.

Jim

Ooh mastic, good idea! The problem withusing plaster or milliput is it can fall off if damaged. A bit of flexible sealant would be a lot tougher!

Think I'll just go and edit the post…