Growing trees - Part 2

 Another method of adding foliage to the trees is to use a fibrous material and a separate scatter material.

I think my fibrous material came from Green Scene although I don't see it listed now, the Woodland Scenics polyfibre looks similar. The leaves can use any scatter material, I use a fine ground foam from various sources. 

The fibre is applied in a similar way to the foliage matting, but there are differences. I tended to cut off a chunk and tease out to a large "cloud", then cut smaller pieces from it to attach to the tree, using matt modge podge. This material is teased out to a much greater extent than foliage matting, taking up many times its initial volume.

The fibres fill out the tree shape, effectively providing the twigs without leaves. I suppose it looks like a winter tree, although the transition between the plastic branches and the fine fibres looks rather abrupt. At this stage the tree is sprayed liberally with hairspray and the chosen scatter applied, sprinkled from all sides - including from below, but mainly from above and the sides. A repeat hairspray application and scatter make sure the covering is secure and even.

The result is a more bulbous tree with a relatively dense covering of leaves, although the leaves are around the outside of the tree shape and not through it - as often seen on real trees. I guess the foliage could be less dense if the fibres are teased out even more, although if that leaves the fibres visible I find the result less convincing. 

In this tree line-up tree one (on the left) uses Woodland Scenics dark green foliage, two uses Heiki-flor foliage in light green, tree four (far right) uses Woodland Scenics mid green foliage, but tree three (third from left) uses the fibres and foam scatter as shown above. The resulting different shape of the foliage adds variety, and the denser foliage can be useful when using the tree to block out a background or give the appearance of more dense woodland. It is also useful to be able to use a wider range of scatter material colours and textures.