I tried the starter kit last month and the trees came out great. The only thing I did not particularly like was the color of the tree trucks and branches. I have seen DVD’s by Allen Keller where some individuals will spray paint the “tree” and later place it in the matte medium. Does this work? My question is whether or not it will affect how straight the tree will be. Can you still place a clamp on the end of the tree as it dries with the flocks on it and have the tree straighten out?
If you follow the directions & you get the trees straight they will not change shape with a light coat of spray paint. Just make sure the tree is completely dry first. I was also thinking of adding some dye to the matt medium solution, I think a brand name is RIT.
For stubborn trees you should boil them in the matt medium solution before hanging them with the weight. Jerry
I have not done a Supertree yet, but our tree expert at the club did a demo recently. I believe the instructions say to soak the crooked tree armature in dilute matt medium first, and hang it upside down overnight to dry with the clip weight attached. After that paint and add the flock
The correct procedure is to boil any “trees” with crooked stems (I boil all of them and thus never get a crooked tree, unless I want it to be that way), then immediately hang them up side down and weight the tips to straighten them. Once dried, you dip them in the Matte Medium. When that’s dry, then you paint the stems and branches. Simply dipping in MM and hanging them up to straighten them (without the boiling process) is a poor and often ineffective approach. Painting before dipping in MM defeats the intended purpose of the dipping process. Incidentally, I typically spray my Super Trees with ordinary light grey auto primer before flocking them.
As to your final question regarding whether one can straighten the trees after flocking them, the answer is essentially, “No.”
CNJ831
So, you boil the tree structures in hot water? How long do you boil them? After boiling, do you hang them upside down until dry or put them in the matte medium? After which step do you spray paint them? Any particular spray paint or just something (say gray in color) out of a spray can? By the way, your trees look fantastic.
WOW!!! Nice work! I am planning a fall layout in the Ozarks. I would like to see more of your tree photos and hear more about your construction steps. I have never used SuperTrees but am considering giving them a try.
Boil batches of the armatures in a big pot for about 20 minutes (do this with the windows open as the process gives off a slight but noticeable odor). Immediately after boiling, hang them up outdoors in an inverted position weighting the tips as necessary to straighten them by attaching one, or more, spring clothespins. When dry, dip them in Matte Medium, gentley shake off the excess MM and hang them back up to dry fully. This latter process impregnates the tree armatures with the MM, allowing them to remain slightly flexible over time, as well as sealing them. Failing to do this can result in the tree stems drying out and becoming brittle over time. As I’ve already indicated, I paint my tree armatures mostly a light grey color using common spray can auto primer. Other colors (like white for birch trees) can be employed to give variation.
CNJ831
What material (leaf) and colors do you use for your fall folige?
Good link that’s been around awhile.
Nice visuals of the boiling, hanging, coating, painting, etc processes.
http://www.fcsme.org/bcarl/how_to_make_scenic_express_supertrees.htm
Jim - I prefer Scenic Express’ extensive range of ground foams in autumnal colors, often mixing them together in various combinations to produce my own unique blended hues. I would add that, since I also have some background in landscape painting, I was able to blend and manipulate my colors to closely match photos of my local area I had previously taken during the height of our autumn color.
CNJ831