A “weeping willow tree” can be compared to a grup of six to eight gangly teen age kids, who are not quite mature, but insist on asserting their independence. After growing independently for a while, they begin to desperately branch out, (too fast to support the weight of their heavy appendages). Therefore, they bend over and begin to “weep”!
Likewise, the weeping willow tree, instead of formong a solid single trunk, forms six to eight individual small trunks, that branch out profusely and bear slender leaves, that branch out perpendicular to the slender stem, causing the stems to bend downward,(nearly to the ground).
To replicate this delicacy with an HO scale model “weeping willow tree”, I use six to eight, 8" lengths of #16 gauge multi-stranded layout wire,(that are sprayed a grayish-brown), for the multi-trunks. Strip off about two-thirds of the insulation from each 8" long wire. Separate and twist groups of four strands, over half their length. Then proceed to twist two strands, leaving about an inch of single strand. Curve each branch upward, and then gracefully downward. Glue six or eight of these individual “trunks” together. For the slender leaves, I suggest that you use the shortest “static grass” available, (or grind some up in a "coffee grinder). Spray the grouped branches with spray glue (or hair spray). Sprinkle the fine “leaves” onto the adhesive covered wire (branches). What is nice about the wire “branches”, is that they can be re-bent into any desired shape, and are strong enough to hold their shape. Tree photos and “how-to” pictures will follow, later today. Here are the promised pics! 7:45PM EST
Weeping willows are not all mult-trunked. I discovered several solid tr
Interesting debate. It seems that the ones on the golf course behind my house are single trees. They were small when we moved here, I would guess they had just planted them. Maybe specimin trees in the suburbs are different than trees in the wild. The Oak and Maple in my front yard are multiple trees, grown together, but the neighbors WW appears to be a single tree. All in all they are hard to model. Looking forward to pics.
There are lots of drawings of willow trees from weeping willow to tortured willow to pussy willow. Some have multiple trunks, some don’t. Apparently they aresomewhat of a problem in Australia.
Actually, I seen (and cut down) quite a few of the nasty things.[:)] There is another tree called an Auss-tree(SP?) that looks a lot like a weeping willow with multiple trunks, but it is really a variety of fast growing bush that gets really large.
All the ready made model ones I’ve seen were single trunk.
Well Bob, my neighbor has two of them. The larger has a trunk nearly five feet in diameter and is dying. For the last ten years it has tried to clog up my drainfield, dropped large amounts of small branches with leaves into my gutters each fall, and (worst) dropped several one foot diameter branches onto my fence, shed and garage roof. Untold dollars of damage. The worst thing is she refuses to have them cut down. Even after a massive sub trunk came down and pulverized one of her sheds. Also the wood is about useless for heat.
When given a good water supply these things grow huge but spongy. A real danger to fell the large ones too.
They look OK out all by themselves somewhere but have no place in a civilized area.
Can you tell that I have no love for the species?
Karl
PS: The giants around here are single trunked, but I have seen smaller multiple trunk varieties too.
Mega Ditto on that! The one we had made a mess! Dripped sap on everything and attracted all kinds of bugs! It’s illegal to plant them in some cities because the roots get into the utility lines.
