Pine tree workshop (photo heavy)

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
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Hello out there in MRR land. I’ve had a few people ask me about my trees and how I made them so I thought I’d throw together a small work shop explaining how I made my pine trees. What better to do on a cold snowy Pennsylvania morning?

The first pic is some basic supplies. Floral wire, wire cutters, hair spray, power driver or drill, scissors and baling twine, some different colors of ground foam and a vice. Although I have the model glue out I don’t use it. I’ll explain what it’s for later. Before you begin you need to take the baling twine (you should have a bunch if you bought a real Christmas tree this year) and soak in some water, it doesn’t take long and it will fray apart, I always cut it into 2-3 inch lengths before soaking so it’s easier to unravel.

Now I take some floral wire, (it’s very thin green wire used to make floral arrangements and can be found at any craft store), and bend each end into the middle and cut where they meet. This will give you roughly the right scale height you’ll want for a tall pine tree. Now take one of those bent pieces and put the cut ends, not the loop end, in the vice and make sure both ends are secure.

Next comes the tricky part. Take a small bunch baling twine pieces and role them gently in your hands, it will sort of bundle back up. Carefully feed that bundle between your wire loop then spread it out the length of the wire, don’t worry about making it look conical just yet. Spread the bundle out until it looks like the photo. This is where you can use some tacky glue like the model glue to hold the twine in place. I usually just hold my hand under it as I twist to keep the twine centered. Speaking of twisting…

[IMG]http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd207/wrench1103/layout%20pics/64f5cb2b.jp

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Thanks. [swg]

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Thanks for the pictorial instructions. One way to hide the floral wire trunk if it’s really necessary would be to use different diameter black heat shrink tubing. Shrink each successive layer until you get the trunk to the size that suits your tastes.

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ARR,

Thanks for the tips. As I told you in the PM, I had done a few following your earlier information.

I hadn’t done the soaking. It sounds like a good idea to make the stuff behave a bit better. Do you dry it completely after seperating, before twisting? A little tacky glue on the wire could certainly help hold the strands to the wire in preperation for twisting. I did mine a little thicker, as many of the trees around here are quite thick. I also trim them to a more conical shape before doing the paint and ground foam. I had a spray can of green semi-gloss that I had no other use for. The ground foam covered it, so any gloss was well covered. Didn’t do the hair spray on the first batch, but did on the second.

For those who do not have a vice handy, I clamped my drill to the bench with a bar clamp. Put a cup hook in the drill. Then I held the tales of the wire with pliers and turned the drill slowly.

Thanks again. Even from your earlier, brief tips I have made some trees I think look pretty good. Will see if I can get son to take a picture of two and post them for me, so you can see how your students are doing.

Have fun,

Richard