Scenery Hints: How To Make Cheap Trees

By Jeff Williams

Step 1:
Determine how big you want your trees to be and gather and
cut appropriately sized twigs from someone's garden or park.
I usually model about thirty at a time for the sake of
sanity and it only takes about 30 minutes all up.  I usually
cut twigs with two or three branches of different lengths.

Step 2:
Make bases out of a pinch of Das Pronto modelling clay. This
excellent material dries hard in 24 hours and can be hand
shaped into anything you want.  It comes in 485 gram packs
for around $5.00 at David Jones.  This is enough to do
hundreds of trees.  Make sure that you make your base large
enough to support the weight of the finished tree without
falling over.  Remember that when the Das clay dries out it
weighs a lot less and might not be as an effective
counterbalance to the foliage.  As soon as you make each
base stick one of your twigs into it and put it away for 24
hours to dry.

Step 3:
Once the bases have dried, carefully pull the twig out of
the base again and then cover the end of the twig with five
minute epoxy glue and replace it back into the base.  While
you wait for the glue to harden take a green nylon scouring
pad, the Black and Gold variety are the cheapest, and tear
it into small pieces around 5 to 10mm in diameter.  The size
obviously depends on your desired tree size and shape.

Step 4:
Glue the chunks of nylon on the twig with 5 minute epoxy to
give you the basic shape of the foliage.  Once the glue has
hardened paint the base the desired colour with modelling
paint and let it dry.

Step 5:
Lightly spray the tree shape with a spray can of Estapol
matt clear varnish.  This is the most expensive component.
Immediately while wet, dip the tree shape in a container
filled with crumbed sponge pieces.  You can buy a variety of
sizes and colours at the modellers shop in Rundle mall for
around two or three dollars a packet.  I made two hundred
trees with two packets of sponge.  Use two different shades
of green to give you a better effect.  once the tree has a
light coating of sponge, spray it lightly again with the
Estapol to hold the sponge in place.

Step 6:
Allow your tree to dry for 24 hours and it is ready to use.
If you want to see what they look like ask me to show you
some at the club.  I think that with a little practice the
home made trees look a lot better than commercial ones.  As
we don't have enough trees to cover all the tables at the
club I encourage you to give tree making a try.