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Super-tree or Super-nuts ?

Well, if the infomercial was right, hanging upside-down is good for you. So, I hung Mr. Tree by his heels (Picture H) so I could apply an elastomeric coating to all the exposed copper. It’s easier to apply this thick, goopy stuff to every branch, tree and individual wire than you’d think. Just play the Rolling Stones loud and continuously, while you repeat the phrase, “I am doing this because I choose to. I am doing this…” Why elastomeric? I figured that between my own fingers that have individual brains and go their own way, just like a cat’s tail, to inquisitive fingers of others, it is better to bend than break. I flipped it right side up to cover what I missed. Imagine the fun YOU would have at this point using your fingernails to remove the elastomeric coating from the end of every single wire, as I did to leave the copper exposed and to try to keep in scale.

Picture I is what wood, epoxy, wire, solder, plaster and elastomeric coatings look like after they collide. Picture J is a close-up showing the various materials coming together. Black marks are for locating places where additional support, more wires, and such are needed.

I used two-part epoxy putty (wood colored) for the bark (Picture K). The gray area was metal colored two-part epoxy that I used after I ran out of the other. This added the additional thrill of setting up in half the time of the wood-colored epoxy. So, with toothpicks, with their ends carved into random diamond-ish patterns for putting in the recesses in the bark, I worked like a Voodoo shaman on speed trying to get the various patterns poked into the epoxy while I had to blend the joints of the small patches I could work on at one time, all before set up time. Picture L shows some of the detail and the boles and the places where the tree heels itself when it loses a branch, prior to painting.

Picture M is the tree base-coated with good ol’ gray primer. I have to remember in the future that airbrushing a tree (or anything else) in front of a paint booth because it doesn’t fit inside and forgetting to cover up your cabinets will give formerly white cabinets a new look!

Real paint. Washes. Highlights and more highlights are shown in Picture N. Lowlights include realizing what is going to happen to all this paintwork after I have to air-brush the leaves AFTER they are on the tree, because I never could figure out how to get the “leaves” painted before getting them on the tree. Picture O gets closer to the wire ends that attract finger and faces better than the kite-eating tree in “Peanuts”. I had to bend and re-bend the branches umpteen times either to get the right look, or, more commonly, because I bumped them doing something else.

Picture P looks like autumn, because the tree is full of brown leaves stuck on with Woodland Scenics Hobby-Tac. I wish I were modeling autumn, so I could stop here. But, even though I wasn’t going for the full-monty of authenticity to the movie, it was summertime. The “leaves” are silver birch catkin seeds. I learned, after more than 20 telephone calls, that apparently no park, arboretum or conservatory in the U.S. has any silver birch catkin trees. But, having a son who lives in the Czech Republic and who likes to hike is the next best thing. Thanks, son, for your two days of efforts for Dad! Was it worth the trouble? Look at Picture Q. The catkin “leaves” are perfect! No darn shredded HO railroad foam or parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme for this tree! Now, what do I do with a drawer full of chopped spices in my playroom that I bought in case that’s what I had to use for this tree? I wear a respirator when I model!

The Finale

“R” we ready for the finale? Pictures R, S and T are three views of the tree, after repainting all the green over-spray. Picture U is a front view showing how the tree blocks Scene Two (the railroad yard with Oddball coming out of the railroad tunnel). Picture V shows how the tree blocks Scene Three (loading the gold from the bank), while it doesn’t block the cutout in the thatched-roof of the barn from Scene One. Finally, Picture W shows the back of the tree with some of Scene Two showing and the backs of Scenes One and Two. Please note that the “tri” is far from finished. I have to detail over forty figures, add posters, trash, railroad yard debris, a waterfall and water drip from the hill and huge amounts or grass, weeds, bushes, smaller trees, etc. Then the pastels.

Other than the fact that the tree took so long to do, I ran out of time to finish the “tri” for our Regional IPMS show May 7-9, I was satisfied with the results. Oh, well, there’s always next year, or, maybe if we get to host the “Nationals” in ’06. Thanks for reading this. Your comments are welcome, good or bad.

Jeff Winkel
“Sealhead”