Spring has arrived!

Well there are now leaves on the trees anyway!

As you can see from the picture I've had a tree foliage session. The tree in the polystyrene block on the left is the wire-trunk one I made for Landswood Park, the rest are for Awngate. The two in front in cork bases are based on whitemetal trunk/branch armatures from Realistic Modelling Services, the other smaller trees in the polystyrene block are based on plastic trunk mouldings picked up for a few pence at an exhibition. Given a lick of paint to take away the shiny plastic look, and with foliage matting stretched over the outside, the effect is quite good considering the little effort involved!

Foliage is the matting type, I had some Heiki and some Woodland Scenics, which is teased out and either stuck accross the branches (in the case of the large tree), or just stretched over the outer branches like a tent. The second method was much quicker and just as effective for smaller trees! The branches were coated with PVA glue first, and after the main foliage was in place a spray of glue (or hairspray) was applied, and any left over foliage scattered over the top, ensuring no bare areas.


















The big tree fitted in place on Landswood Park, it adds to the rural feel, helps hide the hinge in the backscene (lid), and disguises the fact that the buildings are low-relief. It is actually a "low-relief" tree, he long trunk slots into the plasticard "pocket" fixed to the back of the box-file, which has now been hidden by a short fence made from coffee stirrers.

The buildings have now been fixed in place with PVA, the joins where they slot into the ground have had a little excess glue applied and some static-grass applied with a Noch puffer bottle. It hasn't stuck up as much as I expected, it's the first time I have used it and perhaps it will work better on a flat area.

This is really coming together now, I have been gradually making and painting up detail items which are about ready to be added. I also need to have a tree-planting session on Awngate!