Just a thanks to the forum for how great it is in assisting the novice. After pursuing the many ways on how to make trees in the forum and while sure other’s techniques work as well… I chose to make foam from seat cushions/ blender ginding and armatures from florist wires and they turned out unbelieveable in my first try.
Thanks to Dan who I didn’t keep his name but found his foam solution on “dansresincasting.com/ground%20foam.htm” in this forum, and “Grove Den”'s thread. I now have a LOT of cheap foam in different colors which match every bit the qualtity of Woodland Scenics foam, and the ability to twist wire into all kinds of trunk shapes, finish with sawdust and spray paint to receive tops of foam or fiber fill and foam which reasult in very realistic looking trees.
The time you people take to answer our questions, really do have an effect.
For turning out hundreds of background trees I prefer the use of stained double-pointed toothpicks for trunks, and circles and chunks of cheap furnace filters, I spray the funace filter tiers with spray adhesive and then roll them in the ground up foam. In addition to the blenders, I have used an old coffee bean grinder, with good results. I use plastic bags that are partially filled with various greens,(or Fall color), flat paint to color the ground foam, in bulk. I like to use double-pointed toothpicks, since one can change the forest canopy,with the change of seasons. For steep slopes. one can glue on clumps of colored foam without trunks. Bob Hahn
Maxman – I used a working blender I got at a flea market for $6 and followed Dan’s steps exactly. In fact the blender is exactly the same one Dan showed in his pictures. As he suggested, I used a little bit of water, put in some Cremecote hobby paint … and I did regrind after it had dried on newspaper.
Jsperan - thanks for giving the internet address and sorry the one I gave didn’t work.
Bob - thanks for the tips. I have by now also tried double pointed tooth picks for trunks with some success, and small real tree sticks I picked off the ground last fall which really look great after I sealed them and put on fiber fill for the tops. I sprayed the fiber fiil black and then added the green foam. I still prefer the wire armatures with saw dust and foam for pine trees and birches, and real sticks with foam for other shaped trees. Using different techniques gives a nice variety on the layout. But the real winner, is making quality ground foam on the cheap!
I’m not so good with the photography, but I may try to get a photo or two to show.
