Tipped Tree, part 1

I've been busy squirrelling away some modelling efforts of late. One that I've enjoyed doing is a fallen tree for the layout. Ages ago whilst flicking through some railway books looking for inspiration I found a photo with a tree that had been partially uprooted but had continued to grow. That would be a great tree for SSC!


I built the tree out of florist wire, nice and stiff, and no soldering required. I wanted to try some acrylic artist texture paste to build up the trunk. There was a sample one somewhere that I tested it on, and it came up ok, with quite a solid feel to it.


Twisting up the florist wire took about a half hour for the basic shape, then onto a base and out with the acrylic paste. The first layer I did without any watering down, let it cure then out with a second coat that had been watered down a little, to hopefully show a few brush marks on the 'bark' that will come up in a dry brush later on.


I have built some trees using the twisted copper wire with a layer of solder on the top to keep them rigid, and yep they are certainly finer. This time I went with the florist wire as there will be less of the fine branches showing if all goes to plan.

So that I'm consistent here's some very ordinary photos for you to look at. The bark doesn't really show up that well.  It does look a whole lot better with some paint on it. I'll get some photos of the finished tree in the next few days. 


Oorroo! 
Geoff.