"Trees without bases!!!" Topic

I just got a bunch of trees tat I bought on ebay, and discovered that they are unbased and have wire protruding about an inch or so from the tree. How do I base them???

Is the wire thick enough to be supporting if you hot glue them to a metal washer or old CD?

Also, can you link us the ebay posting? Don't want to accidentally order the same ones without knowing. :)

TMP link

Drill thru wood bases after cutting shorter wire and you should be good.Hot glue and flocking the base.

This is what I bought -

auction

I've tried bending the wire, and then using white glue, super glue AND modelling clay to attach them to poker chips. At $1.00 USD each, I'm ready to toss them!

You could cut the wire down and insert it into some foam which is glued to the base? I'm doing that with a farm field in which I want to have some bushes.

Problem is, I want to use them individually.

Bend the wire so it sticks out sideways, then curve the wire into a loose loop or spiral level with the bottom of the tree. Hot glue to a base, preferably a metal washer so it will have a lower center of gravity. Then use white glue/sand /flock to taste to finish the base.

Relax, Nick. I'll share my secrets with you.

Use common masking tape to wrap around the wires. Smooth out any edges. Paint the tape black.
Skip the optional steps and go to the planting stage.

OPTIONAL STEP:
Not mandatory, but if you want the best look…..

Make up a compound of Liquatex Modelling Paste, dark brown acrylic paint and some sand or ballast for texture. Mix enough to cover TWICE as many trees as you have.

Apply this mix over the masking tape and let it dry overnight. Keep the excess air tight in a sealed container.
I use a small hobby pallet knife to apply the mix but you can use a butter knife of your fingers. Not too thick, but enough to cover everything that you can see.

Once the mix has dried on the trunks, you can drybrush various grays, very lightly, over the bark until it looks right to you.

Attach the trunks to whatever you wish, with hot glue or push them into foam. Your choice how to attach them.

Now, take the excess paste and surround the area where the trunk meets the grounds. Use a toothpick to form roots if you desire. Drybrush earth colors over this to blend in with your scenery.

Once that dries, spread some white glue around the base and sprinkle some crushed up Oregano or Parsley to represent deadfall/leaves. Soak the leaves with some very thin white glue/water mixture. Let it dry and your finished.

These are the same cheapo trees that I reworked. Hopefully you can see how they turned out here.

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It seems like a lot of work, but it isn't. It took me longer to type this than to do the trees in the photos.

Any questions, just ask.

By the way, you can make those trees look much better by rubbing some of the foam off with your fingers.
Keep the excess for repairs.

Then spray the outside of the tree from the top down with cheap, unscented hair spray. 99 cent store brands.
Sprinkle on a couple of lighter green flocks (for new growth) and repeat the hair spray. Look at the pix to see the difference.

All, thanks much for the suggestions.

I've just posted about these types of model trees on my blog:

link

Here's the result:

Does the wire trunk unwind? To mount them individually, you might be able to unwind a bit of the wire trunk at the bottom, then spread the individual wires out sideways like roots. Hot glue or epoxy the "roots" to a penny or metal washer. (Let the occasional sideways wire stick out of the flocking on purpose and paint it like a root. :-)

If glue isn't strong enough, you could maybe sandwich the wire "roots" between a penny and a very thin 3/4" fender washer with gorilla glue (and clamp them until cured – gorilla glue expands).

- Ix

We sell individual resin bases that allow you to drill an appropriate sized hole and glue them to the base. Works great and with the correct size base, they are not easily knocked over and can be moved out of the way and replaced.

I just bend the wire into little loop and use that the stick then onto coins.

You could just shove it into a lump of modelling clay, I know people who do that.

If you use a layer of foam as your base on your table (1" thick stuff from Lowe's works well), you can just stick them in "as is". Helps secure your cloth down.

Here:

link

Never base your trees again. They won't fall over, you can put them anywhere, they store more easily, and they allow you to place them on inclines.

I'll never go back to bases on trees again…

This is also useful:

link

+1 to what Ivan DBA stated. I have done this many times, for many trees. Works very well, allows for individually based trees, which means more versatility. Cheers!

Keith, that is a really interesting idea. I ended up persevering with white glue, super glue and clay on poker chips.

Another +1 for Ivan DBA

I did mine this way.

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