So outside of purchasing trees from a commercial source or using a pocket knife, does anyone have any suggestions for shaping the tree from trunk to tip? I’ve often thought somebody out there must have a slick way to make these giants…maybe a modified pencil sharpener that is able to cut a longer taper???
Any ideas?
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/141782.aspx?PageIndex=1
These are pretty slick.
The OP is Douglas Fir!!![%-)][:-^]
There is a lot of vegetation in nature that makes really nice tree trunk armatures. In my neck of the woods I like to use the blooms from the crepte myrtle tree and when i travel I like to find sage brush limbs which also makes nice tree armatures. Even at hobby lobby you may find plants in the floral department that will do nicely.
Another cool way to make conifer trees requires only some wire, masking tape, green spraypaint ground foam, hair spray, and some siskle hemp rope.
Cut the hemp rope into 1" to 3" sections and unravel it all and put it into three piles of short strands, medium strands, and long strands. Next, cut a piece of bailing wire about a foot long, bend it in half and clamp the two ends into a vise or spring clamp. hold the wire straight and start shoving the rope fibers between the two wire halves with the shortest ends first to the top the medium strands in the middle and the long strands towards the bottom of the wire. now, chuck the other end of the wire into a portable drill and give it a whirl. The wires will wind together and tighten the fibers in between them. (Sort of like how a bottle brush is made.) Next, take a pair of scissors and cut out any frayed strands, spray paint it green, and wrap a piece of masking tape around the base of the tree to form a trunk. (I usually brush paint the masking tape trunk a brown / gray color.
Finally, put some ground foam in a gallon baggie, spray the tree liberally with hair spray, and plop it off into the bag of ground foam. Make sure you submerge the tree into the ground foam throughly. Shake off the excess ground foam and plant it on the layout. I can do about 6 - 10 trees an hour with this method…chuck
For a Douglas Fir or any large pine tree I have found a 3/8 inch dowel, tappered with my spindle sander worked the best. A stationary belt sander will work as well. I use the coursest paper I have. I then carve bark with my Dremel using the back edge of a pointed grinding tool. I like Caspia for branches and for Dougls fir I use the ones with the least foilage. I than add green Static grass for the needles. It takes about an hour per tree. For Norway/White Pine I use the Caspia with the most foilage. A couple of pics.
Ed Kapuscinski’s take on N scale winter trees…
I know what you are saying - right now I am in the throes of getting up the courage - often called procrastination - to model some Southern Cyprus and knee’s. I have this excellent how-to-do article from an earlier issue of MR - it’s so good that it’s only failing is that it dosen’t quite make the tree models for me. I will one day have to make a start, but there is a lot of wood carving and it all looks fairly daunting. [sigh]
Bruce[:)]