Here is my first draft of a willow tree, need constructive critisizm please
it took me about 15min to make so, not that long
Too heavy on the folage and everything clumped together intead of like very loose hair.
thanx for the advice, I just read some comments saying the same thing on another forum, and after looking at the picture I totally agree, I’m getting ready to try another method without using ground cover, just paint and much thinner vines, I want to try to get loosely hanging vines like the real thing, something that will move with the air movement on the layout.
I would still use ground cover but very little, like the ammount that would stick to fresh paint that had some blown onto it. Use the finisest wire that will hold its shape, spray it brown and before the paint dries blow on some green. It dose work but hard to do. You are trying to make one of the hardest trees to model, I think.
First of all, kudos to younfor being willing tomtake a crack at it. It’s a tough tree to get right.
First of all, tree bark is more grayish green in color, not brown. In fact, very little tree bark is actually brown, even though that seems to be the favorite color to paint them.i actually use Vallejo color #883, Stone Gray, to paint tree bark.
Second your structure is too spread out. Willows have a massive core with long, wispy branches. I’d use wire and putty to make a solid trunk, branching somewhat towards the top.
Take some green poly fiber (about 1/4 as much as you used), comb it out to a very fine layer, and lightly drape it over the top. It should have a light, airy structure to it, almost transparent.
Lightly apply foliage material. This will suggest tiny leaves coming off the branches. Viewed from a distance, the predominant characteristic should be the long, drooping branches, not the leaves. You should be able to see lots of poly fiber through it.
Again, don’t take this too hard – lets see what your next try looks like.
As I remember the tree that was in the yard when I was in HS, it was very see through. The leaves were a very light green, almost a gray/green.
Don’t know what your understructure looks like, but I’d say it has too many limbs to start with. Some fine standed wire, unraveled, Maybe dip in glue and add fine ground foam. Alternative attempt would be to attach thick, light green thread, frayed a little the full length of it to make it look like the foliage.
Just a couple of thoughts. Admire your willingness to attempt to model a difficult subject.
Good luck,
Richard
Now, if you said you"re making Spanish moss, I’d say you’ve nailed it.
ok, thanx for all the input guys, here is my second attempt, a little better, I think I will have it on the third one, I’m not really concerned with the trunk right now, just the foliage, I’m gonna thin it more, I get carried away with the poly fill, and I’m gonna omit the wire drops behind the hanging vines
As I replied on the other forum, willow trees are very wispy. Poly-fiber is not going to work very well for a willow tree as the branches are more individual strands hanging down as opposed to a leaf covered canopy. Instead of using poly-fiber and ground cover (both of which are way too thick), try bulking up on your branch structure using bundles of wire and coating them with leave material such as that carried by Scenic Express …
http://www.sceneryexpress.com/Leaf-Flake-Flock/products/1009/
This willow was made using a wire structure and covered with a leaf material such as that …
Mark.
What gauge wire did u use?
I would use these instead.
http://www.homodeltrainsales.com/scenescapes-willow-trees-3-3-5-3/
or
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Bachmann-Scene-Scapes-32214-5-5-5-Willow-Trees-p/bac-32214.htm
I agree with Dave, Spanish Moss, you got it. Since I haven’t seen any for years, I couldn’t think of the name, but knew it looked right for something.
As Mark said, use several small pieces of stranded wire for the limbs and just cover the individual wires. As I said earlier, they are very see through.
Good luck,
Richard
Looks good and would do fine on 90% of the layouts, now try for the last 10%! I must say the general shape is looking real good!!!