"Improving Cheap Christmas Trees?" Topic

Found some small, cheap, flocked Christmas trees I purchased, eons ago, in a box, and they need to be repainted a bit, to make them look a bit more realistic.

These are the bright, bluish-green, twisted wire and thin plastic bristled, 2" tall evergreens, and the color is just too unrealistic, IMHO, to use on the tabletop.

Reminds me a bit of those punk-rock hairdos from back in the day, but in blue-green, instead of shocking pink or purple.

Thinking of respraying them in a dark, black-green-ish color to match those evergreens found in Western Europe, e.g. like in Belgium and Germany.

So, can anyone recommend a good spray-paint color to do that?

A cheap, Walmart carried brand would be great, but more interested in getting the right color than who offers it.

Do I need to remove the light, white flocking first, before spraying (and if so how), or just paint over them as is?

Looks like the white flocking on them is light enough to not have to worry about, if I decide not to add "snow" back on them again. Might want to remove it, if the process isn't too labor intensive, and doesn't result in the tree trunk wires rusting.

Not sure if I'll re-flock with touches of white on the tips, or just leave them as is, with the dark green spray on them, afterwards.

I painted mine with a brush and Vallejo reflective green.

I soaked mine in water to remove the snow flock. They are the Lemax Christmas ones from Michaels.

You may be able to see a very little bit of the bluegreen showing.

Yep, looks like them, with the same base and everything.

Nice color!

I hit mine with a spray adhesive, then the Woodland Scenics pine (or "fir?") flocking, then a coat of terrain cement. A little more time-consuming, but it thickens them up quite a bit.

I worked on some cheap conifers over the summer.

I used olive acrylic paint – took a large brush and applied the undiluted paint from the top down, then immediately sprinkled a generous amount of flock on. Shook off the excess, let dry, then fixed the flock in place with terrain glue. It was quick, easy and improved the look of the trees dramatically.

Has anyone tried dark green textured paint?

To remove the snow I crunched the snow clumps with pliers.

I then sprayed the trees with Krylon's Camouflage black and then kind of a 'dry brush' spray of olive.

This paint is meant for hunting apparel and equipment and acts as primer on metal, cloth and some plastics. I also use the camo black to prime my figures. However, it only comes in black, khaki, Brown and olive.

It is a great product.

Here is what I did that works really well..

I oversprayed the trees with a green florist paint.

Then get a large ziploc bag of flock, a can of Super 77 spray adhesive, and some rubber gloves.

Don the rubber gloves then take a couple of trees at a time. Spray them overall with the Super 77 and drop them in the flock. Seal the bag and shake thoroughly. Remove trees, shake off extra, and repeat with more trees. For some variety use a couple of different colors of flock so you get trees of various shades. I hit mine with sealer after the fact just to help with the adhesion.

I did this about 12 years ago and the flock has held up really well. Great thing is if they ever start to look bad you can always redo the process.

leidang- the "shake and bake" -type process you described is also the method I use for making my trees and hedgerows, and works great! Highly recommended…

Thanks for all the tips.

Hadn't thought about flocking such small trees, and was just planning to repaint them.

May have to give the flocking a try as well, since I suspect that'll make them look even better.

@IronDuke596: Actually, I think that there are two additional Krylon camo. colours but, for whatever reason, they are not sold in Canada. They are sand and, IIRC, a leaf green.

Wow you guys are an inventive bunch! Great ideas. Every Christmas I see these cheap trees and wonder what the heck can I do with them, they have this white stuff and look ugly.
Thanks for the suggestions!