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Simple Trees

There are a few ways to make scale trees; I hope to be able to show you a one of them. This will make a simple tree using items that are quite easy to get hold off and don’t break the bank.

The base for the trees is plants know as "Sea Foam" which is available from model railroad shops and suppliers. See picture [tree1.jpg]

As you can see from the picture sea foam on its own looks like small scale trees, but looks a little plain and boring when placed on a base as it comes out of the box. So to give it some life we add spice. See picture [tree2.jpg]

Readily available in most stores (or your moms/wife’s kitchen), dried spices are a cheap method of creating scale leaves. By using a spray adhesive they can be easily attached to the branches of sea foam. See picture [tree3.jpg]

To attach the spices to the sea foam, spray the sea foam with the spray adhesive; ideally spray over some old newspaper and in the garage out of the way. See picture [tree3A.jpg] Sprinkle the spices over the tree foam, do this over a sheet of paper so you can reuse the spices that fall off. See picture [tree 3B.jpg] Keep going spinning the sea foam around until the whole of the sea foam is covered with the spice. See picture [ 3C.jpg]

Once you have given the sea foam a good coat of the spice give it a coat of matt Varnish. This will help seal the spices and remove the stickiness of the spray adhesive. Then leave to dry over night. See picture [3D.jpg]

After the varnish has dried give the sea foam and spices a good coat of a PVA glue/ Water mix (use a spray bottle) then leave to dry.  When drying I usually peg them upside down on some string strung across the garage over night. You can use various different spices to give your trees a varied look :

Parsley : See picture [tree4.jpg]

Thyme : See picture [tree5.jpg]

Oregano : See picture [tree6.jpg]

These are just three of the spices I had to hand when I tried this method they look good on there own but when combined together......See picture [tree7.jpg]

you get a miniature forest.See picture [tree8.jpg] See picture [tree9.jpg]

All that needs to be done is to add them to your base by drilling a small hole then filling it with glue and placing the miniature tree into it. Don't forget to paint the trees when painting the base as the spices will go brown if not painted over time.

So there you go how to add some intresting back drops to your Dioramas using simple products.

Happy Modelling

Keith Forsyth