Figure 2
Improving BottleBrush Trees More realistic trees using paint and ground foam by Charlie Comstock
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box. Here’s a quick way to fix them up that can turn out dozens of nice lookiing trees in an evening. I used the stuff in figure 2: Heki 2 1/2“ and 3 1/2” pine tree assortment #309, flat black spray paint, and Woodland Scenics coarse Conifer Green ground foam.
I didn’t want to hold the trees with my fingers while painting and sprinkling ground foam on them, so I soldered an alligator clip to the end of a piece of 12 gauge wire I salvaged from a left-over piece of house wiring romex. The clip holds the tree nicely (figure 4).
I start off by randomly snipping away some of the ‘branches’ using tin-snips, so the trees won’t look identical (figure 3). This step is optional.
I slowly spin the tree and spray paint it flat black. The black under coat makes the trees realistically dark. Unless you really like obnoxious paint fumes this
Figure 3
I
model the Pacific Northwest and that means lots and lots of conifer trees. There are two alternatives for trees – buy ‘em or make ‘em. Buying good quality trees can be an expensive proposition. Scratch building a forest is time consuming. What’s a modeler to do?
Figure 4
Upgrading Trees
Figure 5a
I noticed that bottle-brush trees are relatively inexpensive. They’re available from Heki and a number of other sources. However, between the plastic shine, plastic ‘branches’, and their near perfect uniformity, they look rather unrealistic straight from the Page 48 • Issue 11 • January 2011 • The Scenery Scene - Improving Bottle Brush Trees, page 1
Figure 1
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Figure 5b
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