Trees

I've given trees quite a lot of thought. The ridge running along the pasture section of my layout was originally intended to have a row of pine trees suggesting the edge of a forest. For these the standard bottle brush tree would suffice. However for the terminous and foreground I wanted a more varied deciduous tree. The prices of trees varies enormously, from cheepy bottle brush derivatives to exquisite etched brass specimens. After some research, a few sample purchases and a lot of head scratching I have gone for sea foam.



It comes in a big box, was quite expensive, but seems to have  enough contents to far surpass my requirements.

You need a suitable adhesive, (I bought a propriatory spray adhesive but dilute PVA in a plant spray should work fine), a selection of fine foam foliage material, a sharp scissors, a tweezers, perhaps a sieve and whatever else you think may help.



I selected a suitable stem of sea foam and pruned it to my desired shape. I've tended to make quite tall, but the height can be adjusted when I come to fit them on the layout. I kept all the bits i trimmed off as they will make good bushes/shrubs etc.


Holding the pruned stem with the tips of my finger I sprayed it with the adhesive, twisting it as I did so to ensure a complete coverage.
The foliage material was initially applied with the  sieve, but a sprinkle with the fingers worked just as well, and was good for touching in. (I found a mix of light and dark green foliage gave a nice variation in colour.) A very gentle shake removed the excess, any bare patches were resprayed and touched in with foliage. The whole process takes probably less than a minute.

 
Instant tree!

I tried a batch of trees, but the adhesive dries quite quickly and made it difficult to get them all coated sufficiently and then covered with foliage, so I went back to single speciments.  However five minutes later...



Instant wood
(A piece of polystyrene near by made a good stand to dry them on.)




They look good close up too.


A couple of trial plantings.
To plant the trees on my layout, I drilled a small hole (approx 2mm diameter), dipped the base of the tree in PVA glue and stuck it into position. A little bit of grass sprinkled around the base covers the excess glue.


Of course not everything goes right...


An abortive mix of fine and medium foliage material. 
As a further tip I've been told that a spraying the finshed product with hair spray helps to 'fix' the foliage, but it seems to be well stuck with just the adhesive at the moment.  I might try painting the lower trunks on my next batch a dark brown/grey for a bit of variation.


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