Well everyone, here is the final tree (almost). I have finished the canopy I painted a bunch of the visible 'stalks' of the lichen to better represent tree limbs. I painted them various shades of brown. I then use arisol glue (elmers and yes I won't be able to touch it once its' dry and brittle - will try other methods on other trees), then I shook parsley on it. To give it variety I mixed a number of shades of green and painted a random array of leaves different colors. Can you say teadious!
The lighting in these photos is harsh and doesn't show off the leaves very well. Ohwell - waiting for daylight savings time for mother nature.



Other side



The next update will probably post planting - in the dio.

Comments always welcome.

WOW, nice looking tree.
This is my first time looking at your ongoing tree building tutorial as I rarely look in the dio forum. Your excellent "guide" has inspired me to add a tree to my next dio (I hope).
Thanks,

Andrew

Hola Scott,

I really like the tree, very realistic, however, on the picture it looks like it could use some more parsley as it looks like it has some bare spots. Maybe it dont in real life or maybe its just me if any of the above ignore this

Anders - you're absolutely right. When I saw the photos I thougth the same thing. That's where the (almost) came in on my post.

I do appreciate the feedback - it confirms and echos improvement tips.

Oberst - thanks for the encouragement. The tree is actually pretty easy. I hope you got enough out of the posts. If not let me know I'll try to fill in any gaps.

Thanks for the feedback.

WOW, VERY NICE WORK
CONGRATULATIONS

ROBERTO

This has turned out really well. I've always been sceptical about using Parsley for leaves, but your tree shows it can look damn fine. I'm not sure I agree about bare spots, natural trees are so varied and very rarely do you see a tree with a very formal shape (except in formal gardens )

I'll have to have a go at this. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Roger

Scott,

This would make a perfect article for Armorama!

Love the methode, this is one to remember, I was not that thrilled about the use of lichen, but you convinced me

Hi all - I spent an hour this morning adding individual leaves to some of the bare spots that were a bit on the bigger side, hit the happy medium. Just dipped each in white glue/water solution and stuck it to the lichen - ok ok - I can hear to goans. On the Armor side you have rivet counters on the diorama side you now have a leaf counter #:-)

Roadkill - I hear ya' talkin' I'll start putting it together today!

Scott

What a fine looking tree dude. with the extra leafes added will it be even better. That lichen thingy is the stuff where you glue your leafes on right.
I`m asking this because I`m going to use some techniques seen in your tree thingy with the tree technique of Jan (gen Fail.)

Great that you are going to make an article about it

When can we expect a 1 by 1 mtr. dio of the hurtgen forest??? #:-) #:-) #:-)

I'm with Ronny on this one.

Thanks again guys,

Faust - the lichen stuff is what you typically see in model Rail Road layouts. I got mine from Scenic Woodlands. They sell different size bags and with different base colors, green, yellows, mixes. It is very soft and supple and easy to work with. It gives a great basic shape to the tree.
http://www.woodlandscenics.com/

At the top Click Landscaping then Lichen. There are a couple of good closeups to give you a really good idea of what it is and looks like.

Lets see Sherwood Forest for the next dio, hmmm maybe I'll do that ...... maybe... :-)

Hey Slodder, I just picked up some of the materials for doing a tree this weekend.
Unfortunately, I did not get lichen, I got clump foliage. The description on the back of the bag indicated that it could be used for trees, what do you think?

Thanks,
Andrew

The clump foliage will work alright. Not as good as lichen.

Oberst
I'm not too familiar with clump foliage but I would imagine it should work fine. The thing that brings this kind of tree to life is the parsley leaves. If you get good coverage with the leaves it should come out fine.
Howitzer sounds like he's used it and I would agree with him.

I just 'planted' my tree this morning. When the resin roots dry I will be taking some more update photos and then completeing an article on it too.

Clump foliage is the the stuff they use on O-scale model train trees.

I think I will exchange the clum foliage for the lichen...
As for the parsley, doesn't it wilt and brown over time?
Also, did you chop the parsley?

Thanks,
Andrew

I've had my diorama out on display for abou 1.5 years and the parsley has darkened a bit. There are a few brown 'leaves' as well, I don't know if they came that way or if they browned on thier own. I'd say overall they won't change drastically.
I purchased a small can of parsley from the grocery store and didn't do anything special with it. Just opened it up and shook it out. When I placed individual leaves I did notice that some were in better leaf shape than others, some are large than others. I just took them as they were.

HI Slogger impressive job!
Just a curiosity: how long ita takes to build up such a tree?

This one has taken about 3 calendar weeks. But that's not full tilt production.
The trunk could take as little as 15 minutes to get the materials, 30 - 60 minutes for construction of the trunk. Painting will take a couple of days with time for drying. There are about three to four layers of various shades and washes etc.
The canopy was the lengthy part. I did it in five areas. I would glue the canopy material on and give it 24 hours to dry. The hands on would be about 15 - 30 minutes per area.
The overall leaves only took about 15 minutes or so. The individual leaves took 2 hours. Then painting the leaves took another hour. If you pushed it you could get one done in a matter of three days. You could a faster setting glue, I used elmers and it was kinda slow in drying.