Monday 11 June 2012

The Wood for the Trees



Just the briefest of posts to highlight the birch trees featured in the previous post, 'Bigfoot!'  It needs to be said from the offset that this wasn't my idea at all, but instead one that I came across on the marvellous 'TerraGenesis' forum.  Unfortunately I can't find a name to credit, but whoever it was deserves a medal for the sheer brilliance of this design.  It called for a couple of 'ingredients' that I hadn't heard of before but with the power of the infoweb at my fingertips they were soon tracked down.  To make the three stands I used one pack of white paper covered wire at £1.69 and half a roll of white stem tape, used for bouquets, costing the princely sum of 65p!  The rest of the bits and bobs I already had lying around so there was no other additional cost; as I said earlier the design is brilliant!  I won't repeat the whole process here but have collaged some photographs together to illustrate the method.



1. Paper covered wire rolled in stem tape then marked with a Sharpie.


2. One pack of wire and the tape produced all the trees pictured.  They were fixed to MDF bases and textured.


3. I got a bit carried away with the painting and texturing of the bases, but wanted to have them match the recent additions to the livestock here at 'Awdry Towers'!  They really were that simple to make and helped in the staging of the photographs, but of course would work perfectly for gaming  too.  A few more interspersed with fir trees and you have instant forest, perfect for all those backwoods scenarios.

Whilst on the subject of  trees I picked these up from the 'The Model Tree Shop' and based them the other day.  Perhaps a little on the pricey side, but fantastic service and the etched brass fronds do look great.  Obviously the ideal would be to make one's own and recently I saw a wonderful post by Paul of "Paul's Bod's" fame.  However this project is on hold until I find a squirrel! (click the link to see what I'm wittering on about!)





26 comments:

  1. Wow, these are great... Now I'm wondering if I could make some the same way (preferably some northern sort of pine trees). On the squirrels, there's a huge walnut tree in the neighboring garden and I usually hear them but too many cats around to 'convince' one to do the job!

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    1. Thanks Andrew, I have to say that I was really pleased with how they turned out.

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  2. They're bloody brilliant Michael, it's like a movie set for a wilderness survival movie!

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    1. Thank you Fran; I keep catching the bears and the wolves heading for them - of course that could be Mrs. Awdry playing around again!

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  3. Brilliant, Mr. Awdry!

    I saw the same tutorial many moons ago, but didn't think i could possibly replicate it. I might have to give it a go at some stage myself!

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    1. Thank you Sir! Definitely worth ago as once you pick up the 'rolling' knack it is really very simple. Well done TerraGenesis

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  4. They are fantastic Michael! Very impressed.

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  5. Very neat, thanks for the heads up on this technique

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  6. Excellent birch trees. I didn't know that there is something like "paper covered wire".
    I have to look for that in our local craft shop.

    Thanks for sharing!
    Monty

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    1. Thank you Sir, apparently the wire is used for cake decorations and flower arranging.

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  7. Very nicely done. The autumn leaves on the bases are a real treat for the modeler's eyes.

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  8. Really nice mate. Thanks for the 'how to' guide as well

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  9. Excellent tips. I will have walk up the forest behind where i live for you if you like, there will be bucketloads of them - there are loads of squirrels thats for sure!

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  10. Holy cow, those are gorgeous. Well done! Consider this well and truly nicked! Now I just hope I can just come close to the effect you achieved.

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  11. That´s a brilliant idea for birch trees...I´ll pinch that one :-D
    Thanks for the shout...
    It´ll get recipro,ressipro,recept..rezip...returned:-D
    Cheers
    paul

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  12. Fantastic, I would never have believed they were so simple to make???

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  13. I did some similar last year with dried twigs, until the Viscoutessa hurled them across the room in a fit of pique. Hey Ho. But yours are far better

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  14. Fantastic and creative work. They definitely look the part. Dean

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  15. These make a nice change to the bog standard green tree and I think every games table should have some.
    Thanks for sharing, just hope the rest of us have fingers as green as yours.

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  16. Excellent stuff here Michael!

    I was lucky enough to get my birch trees from a local craft and hobby chain (Actually named Michaels ha!) when they put all their Christmas Village stuff on 75% off after the season. :)

    Jason

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  17. They are marvellous Michael and look so easy to do. I am going to check out the website now.

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  18. Well executed. Nice to see the tutorial that I wrote was put to good use. Snitchy sends.

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    1. Thank you and I'm delighted to finally know who wrote the original tutorial - it was inspired Sir, bravo!

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