"Improving Woodlands Scenics Trees" Topic

This is a plastic Woodlands Scenics tree armature, that I made into this.
First, I clipped off most of the branches.
Next, I slathered on a mixture of Liquatex Lightweight Matt Modelling paste with some sand and Sand colored, acrylic paint mixed in. 
Finally, when that completely dried, I brushed on a thin black wash and let it dry.
This is the result.

The figures are 60 mm figures, for scale.

I was never a fan of WS plastic trees, as they just look fake to me. So, I was looking for a way to improve them. I had used the paste mixture previously on my wire armature trees and was very satisfied. I decided to try it out on the WS trees, to see if I could improve the look.

I have another in the process of dozen or so trees drying.
I used some smaller WS armatures and some pine tree armatures to mix it up.

I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. The color is very close to what actual trees really do look like. 

Easy to do. What do you think?

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I think that gives a good alternative look.
Going to have to try that myself on the ones I haven't made yet.

I posted this here (AWI Board), because several regulars here enjoy my terrain work. I thought that it might be helpful to them and that they might overlook it. I originally posted this on the Terrain and Scenics board.

Great idea. I think the sand would need to be really fine.

Looks very realistic. If you hadn't said I would have taken that to be part of a real branch.

Looks very cool and life-like.

That's pretty amazing!

From first view this looked like one of those cast armatures, so you achieved super results, but with the much more affordable tree models. 5-stars!

I've never been able to get trees to come out looking good.
In fact, one of my first questions ever on TMP was on that very subject, many years ago.
Looks good.

I actually have some of those Woodlands armatures left over from having bought too many once upon a time.

These look GREAT! Your talents continue to amaze. Another for my "to do" list!! And another of your posts into my "favorites."

Great idea, and looks good too!

Your skills are just amazing!

That does look real

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

So what, if anything, do you do from here? In other words, are these dead trees, do they get flocking, etc.? Nice looking trees.

I'm working on some late winter trees for a game at Cold Wars.

I may flock some. I may use some for fall/winter bare trees. Some for dead/downed trees. Some tree stands with a mixture. Plenty of possibilities.

I've got packs and packs of WS trees that came from a model train store that went out of business.

It's sad, really. When I moved here, there were 9 hobby/model train stores, within a 10 mile radius. Now, there are 2.

I'm working on some late winter trees for a game at Cold Wars.

So, then this is perfect for you. You can throw on a little green here and there, but keep everything sparse.

I f you're going to try this method, I would suggest varying the washes. Use black, brown and gray washes on different trees, to create unique colors. That way your forest will look real.

I am in the process of "flocking" some of the branches with some materials that hopefully will make the tree look like it has the smaller branches – but not leaves. I'll let you know how that works out.

HG I would not use flock on these. Try buying some "Super Trees" from Scenic Express.
attach the Super Tree branches to the improved WS armatures for the best results.

Like this:

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Flock never looks right for trees.

You can also use "Sea Foam" which you can get at craft or florist shops. It's almost the same as the Super Tree material.

Sorry, that was misleading. My flocking was me using some fiber material to try to add small branches. A quick test of spray painting them yesterday afternoon revealed I had to much of the material. I started over with less of the fiber. We'll see how it turns out. I'll take a look at the tree stuff you recommended. Scenic Effects used to attend the train shows in Timonium (and a wargame con or two as well), but hasn't been to either lately. I think they might go the York Train show, which I hope to get to in April.

HG I used to use fiber material but it never looked right to me. So I switched to the seafoam.

Try it, you'll never go back.

HG If you need some tips on how to use the seafoam, just give a shout.