A couple of months ago I made about 25 Woodland Scenics trees. I bent the branches into tree shapes, applied Hob-E-Tac, let it dry, stuck on the foliage and ‘planted’ them on the layout. Today I looked at that area again and I swear some of the trees have reverted to their original out-of-the-box flat shape and many of them have had foliage drop off eventhough the glue is still tacky.
Any ideas or similar experience?
Been there, done that! I mostly use Scenic Express Super trees now.
I had the same experience with Woodland Scenics trees. I was considering placing them into a warm oven, bending to shape, then immersing them in cold water to see if that would help. With all the other things going on, I just haven’t gotten around to it.
Obviously the trunk has somewhat of a memory and will want to return to their original flat state. I am not sure what you can about that, but you could try using something like thin florists wire wrapped around some of the “exploded” tree branches to hold them in the shape you create.
Obviously the glue isn’t holding well either. Try a different glue. Or it could be teh tree returning to a flat state that “shakes” the foliage off. ALso, Is your layout in a damp spot where maybe the glue isn’t curing so well?
You might want to try using poly-fiber, hairspray and fine ground foam for the leaf portion rather than the clump foliage. Not only does it look better in my opinion, but it probably “hold” better over time.
Here’s an armature with clump foliate:
!(http://www.candida-yeast-problems.com/stuff/Woodland Scenics average tree.jpg)
And here’s one using poly-fiber and fine turf…
!(http://www.candida-yeast-problems.com/stuff/Woodland Scenics better tree.jpg)
I have made many trees using WS armatures. I followed the instructions, giving them a good twist out of the bag, and that seems to have cured any memory issues. Leastaways, the branches are still where I put them, or so close that I can’t tell the difference. Maybe people are afraid of breaking them so the don’t bend them hard enough?
I paint the trunks and branches a custom paint that I mix myself (gray with some green and brown), cover them with polyfiber, and use ground foam, or else glue individual pieces of clump foliage on. In either case, I use Alene’s Tacky Glue to glue things to the arnatures, and dilute matte medium
I’m glad you posted this as I was considering picking up some W/S armatures the next trip to the LHS just to mix up the trees but I think I’ll stick with super trees.
Without beating the proverbial dead horse, I appreciate the responses - at least I am not alone. From this experience it seems the plastic has a memory and the trees that have lost the most foliage are those that are almost flat again. I have a couple boxesof Super Trees and soon with have a limitless supply of dried weeds so I will probably end up replacing or re-doing the WS. Considering the cost, for me this wasn’t a good deal and may end up being a waste of time and effort.
Gosh, I wouldn’t say that.
WS armatures do have their place. The one problem I have with Super Trees is the size of the trunk… Very puny.
I mix my tree’s, so they all don’t have the same look to them. And that’s what happens when you use all Super Trees.
Woodland Scenic’s armatures can yield a very nice looking tree, even with clump foliage…
