Deciduous tree making tutorial

Deciduous Tree Tutorial

Trees are an essential element of realistic looking scenery. As such, making a realistic tree was one of my initial concerns when I started constructing the scenery at Prairie Ridge. There are several how to articles available when it comes to making a conifer tree, and the one I refer to was written by fellow SlotForum member Demether. So if you're interested in making a realistic conifer tree, I suggest that you look here. It's a little more difficult to find how to articles about making deciduous trees. Most suggest using armatures (tree trunk and branches) from dried flower stems or the like which are fine for modeling young trees or layouts in scales smaller than 1:32. Making a realistic looking mature deciduous tree will be the focus of this tutorial.

Modeling any tree starts with the trunk and branch structure, or armature. The successful modeling of a mature deciduous tree depends greatly on the appearance of the trunk and branch structure. Finding the right height and trunk diameter is the first challenge when it comes to finding an appropriate trunk for a mature 1:32 scale tree. The largest deciduous trees on my layout are 33cm tall. This scales out to approximately 10.5m. This is really too short for a typical mature hardwood tree here in North America. Take into account that many of the hardwood trees on my layout are less than 33cm with the shortest measuring 15.5cm tall. Why so many short trees? Cost and availability are the reasons. I have yet to find an armature for a deciduous tree that is taller than 33cm. If you know of a source, please let me know of it, because I'd like to plant some taller hardwood trees at Prairie Ridge. Also, at a cost of nearly 17 USD each for just the armature, 33cm trees are a little spendy. So what can be done about this? I've decided to place a few of the tall trees in prominent locations on the layout and try to make do with shorter less expensive trees on the rest of the layout. Many of the deciduous trees on my layout are in the 18cm range. This would be about 5.7m in 1:1 scale. The first mature trees of that height that come to my mind are fruit trees. And lucky for me, Prairie Ridge just happens to be located on a retired farm. So if you've been looking at the photos of Prairie Ridge and have thought that the trees look a little short to have such mature looking trunks; you now know the reason. They're all apple trees that are beyond their fruit bearing years - retired, like the Mills Brothers Farm.

Enough with Tree Theory 101, let's make a tree.

So now that we know that we don't wish to make a tree from a dried flower stem, not that there's anything wrong with this: let's take care of the first step, and gather the necessary tools and materials. First the materials from Sweetwater Scenery: One "Large" Tree Armature, 1 package of black Poly-Fiber and 1 package of Tree Branch Fibers.

Next, the remaining materials: 1 can of spray adhesive, 1 can of cheap but strong holding unscented aerosol hairspray, 1 can of clear matte polyurethane spray, (1) shaker bottle of Woodland Scenics T1366-Conifer Coarse Turf, (1) shaker bottle of Woodland Scenics T60-Earth Coarse Turf, (1) shaker bottle of Woodland Scenics T1362-Burnt Grass Coarse Turf, (1) shaker bottle of Woodland Scenics T1363-Light Green Coarse Turf, (1) shaker bottle of Woodland Scenics T1343-Yellow Grass Fine Turf, (1) 3.8cm wire nail, (1) bottle of super glue and a disposable rag.

The tools needed include: a drill and bit sized to match the wire nail, heavy-duty wire cutters, pliers, tweezers, needlework scissors, a 13.8cm thick base plate of Styrofoam, a plastic tub of decent size to catch excess foliage, latex household gloves, and a toothbrush (not pictured).

The first step is to insert a nail into the base of the tree armature so that it can be planted into the scenery base. I like to take care of this step first because it makes the tree convenient to work on by allowing it to be stuck onto a temporary base plate of Styrofoam. Start by using the wire cutters to cut off the head of the wire nail. Set the nail aside and drill a 1cm deep hole into the underside of the tree armature base with the drill and bit. Try to center the hole and be careful not to let the drill come out the side of the trunk. Apply some super glue into the hole onto the blunt end of the nail. Using the pliers, insert the blunt end of the nail into the base of the tree trunk . Blot away the excess glue with the rag. There you go, you've just completed the first step and are on your way to a fantastic looking deciduous tree!

The next step involves adding branches to our already awesome looking armature. I first bought the Tree Branch Fibers without an understanding of how they would contribute to the finished look of the tree. When the package arrived I thought it must be a joke because the branch fiber looks like hair clippings - really! This stuff looks bad: so bad that I didn't use it until this tutorial. With you good folks on SlotForum in mind I decided to take one for the team and use the branch fibers like the Sweetwater Deciduous Tree instructions call for. I have to admit, they add a lot to how the trees look and I will never make another deciduous tree without this product. It's still gross however, so let's get on with it. The materials needed are the tree branch fibers, the tree armature, spray adhesive and latex gloves.

Holding the tree armature by the base stem, apply a liberal amount of spray adhesive to the branch structure of the armature. Make sure that the adhesive gets to all sides of all of the branches. You'll notice that the branch structure starts to turn white from the adhesive: don't worry about this yet. Stick the base of the armature into the Styrofoam base plate to free your hands up for the next step. Take a pinch of the branch fibers from the package and dab (touch lightly) to a branch located near the middle (relative of top and bottom when viewed from the side) of the tree branch structure. Pinch the branch fibers lightly, because you're trying to get the ends of the fibers to attach to the branches of the armature. It's easier said than done, but with a little trial and error, you'll find the right touch. I suggest starting on a branch near the middle of the tree, because it will be less noticeable when you have completed the tree.

When you're comfortable with the technique and feel that you are ready move on to the rest of the tree, start at the middle level of the branch structure and work from the center out to the edge. More branch fibers should be used as you approach the edge of the branch structure in order to recreate the look of a real tree. Do this branch by branch working your way around the circumference of the tree. When you've made it around the tree at this level move up and repeat until you get to the top. When you've made it to the top, return to the middle where you started and work down to the bottom of the branch structure. I'd like to add that I found it necessary for additional applications of spray adhesive. It's easy to tell when more adhesive is necessary, because the fibers will no longer stick straight out when dabbing. Here's what the tree armature should look like when you are done adding the Sweetwater Scenery Tree Branch Fibers.

Applying Poly-Fiber is next on the to-do list. This will serve as the foundation to which the foliage is applied. It may not seem like it, but this step has a big impact on the success of the build. It also happens to be easiest to blunder.

I use black Poly-Fiber material offered by Sweetwater Scenery. It's important that the Poly-Fiber be black.

I first tried green Poly-Fiber, thinking that it would blend in better with the foliage, this was not the case. It wasn't awful, but it sure wasn't invisible. I've read articles on model railroading forums about saving money by buying large quantities of white Poly-Fiber with the intent of dying it black. I tried that too, and wasn't satisfied either. The black was more of a dark silvery-grey. It was worse than the green fiber. Finally, I came to my senses and bought the black Poly-Fiber from Sweetwater. My hesitation from starting with it in the first place was the cost. I had no idea of how much product was needed to make a tree and was concerned that the 2.95 USD per pack would add up quickly as trees filled up the vacant landscape of Prairie Ridge. As it turns out, the packs contain a lot of material. I've built more than a dozen large deciduous trees and have barely made a dent in the contents of one pack. At this rate, one bag may be enough for all of the deciduous trees on my layout- surely two packs would take care of my needs.

The purposes of the Poly-Fiber are to provide a base to attach the foliage to and also to fine-tune the shape of the canopy. The key to a realistic looking tree canopy is to use the Poly-Fiber sparingly. I can't stress the importance of this enough: Using too much Poly-Fiber will result in the tree looking like a stick topped with green cotton candy. This seems like an easy directive to follow, but the first trees I made were pretty bad. I think that the source of the difficulty can be traced to a couple of issues. First, the teased-out pieces of black Poly-Fiber are difficult to see against the tree armature. Second, it's difficult to know how much is too much. This gets easier with experience, but at first it can be rather frustrating.

Are you ready to add some Poly-Fiber? Let's go! If you do this step immediately after adding the Tree Branch Fibers the spray adhesive should still be tacky enough to hold onto the Poly-Fiber. Spray on another application of adhesive if it's been a while. With the armature ready and waiting, I tear off a piece of Poly-Fiber about 5cm square.

It looks good, like it's ready to go onto the armature doesn't it? Nope. Tear a smaller piece from it and set aside the first piece. Then tease (stretch) it out it out some until it looks something like this.

Compare the density of the fibers in the last two pictures. The size of the clump in the second picture is about half of that in the first, but the quantity of fibers has been greatly reduced. Fix this image in your mind, because it is the desired density required to achieve a realistic looking deciduous tree.

When the Poly-Fiber piece is sufficiently teased out, place it on top of the Tree Branch Fibers working from the center of the tree out. I make it a point to keep the Poly-Fiber slightly away from the trunk, because I want to be able to look in through the canopy and see the trunk and larger branches after the foliage is in place. Also, most of the leaves on the deciduous trees that I know of tend to grow nearer the ends of the branches, away from the trunk.

I like to work one branch at a time and from the bottom up. This allows me to focus on each branch making sure that the placement of the Poly-Fiber look even and light. Working from the bottom reduces the numbers of times that fingers get caught in the carefully placed material. Some of the branches are very close to one another, and it's for those occasions that I use tweezers to set the fiber. Go back and carefully stretch out the Poly-Fiber in the vertical direction on all of the branches. This will add a little more volume to the fiber. The last thing to do before moving on to foliage application is to place additional pieces of Poly-Fiber, teased out like the last ones, spanning horizontally between adjacent branches that are less than 6cm apart. Here's what the tree looks like from above with all of the Poly-Fiber in place.

Before we leave the topic of Poly-Fiber, I'd like to show you something to be on the lookout for.

These heavy looking stands are commonly found as you are teasing out the Poly-Fiber. Remove them from the pieces you use on the tree in order to keep the fiber as invisible as possible.

Congratulations! This was the most tedious part of the build, and my least favorite. It's a lot more fun from here on out.

Foliage is the next step, but before we start shaking on the Woodland Scenics there's one last thing to do the armature and Poly-Fiber canopy that we've being working on. That would be to coat it with clear matte polyurethane spray. Polyurethane will do two things. The first is that it will stiffen up the Poly-Fiber to make it a better foundation for the foliage. The second is to conceal the spray adhesive. A fine white coat of spray adhesive has been building up on the tree armature each time it was applied.
Before spraying with polyurethane:

Once dry, the polyurethane will leave the trunk with no evidence of the adhesive. It's necessary to use matte or flat polyurethane since we don't want to have gloss tree trunk and branches. This picture shows the 'cleared' up tree trunk. The polyurethane was quickly absorbed by the wood, but has yet to dry on the Poly-Fiber. Not to worry, it will dry clear on the fiber as well.
After spraying with polyurethane:

It's time to start putting leaves on the tree, and means that it is time to bring out the industrial strength aerosol hairspray.

Hairspray will act as the glue that attaches the foliage to the Poly-Fiber. With a shaker of Woodland Scenics T1366-Conifer Coarse Turf nearby and a plastic tub at the ready, coat the fiber liberally with hairspray on the top and under sides until you can see it beading up.

This is when the reason for using unscented hairspray becomes obvious! Quickly, while holding the tree by the base and angling it to expose the underside of the branches, shake on a generous amount of Conifer Coarse Turf. Holding it over the catch bin will allow you to recycle the turf that doesn't make it onto the fiber. When most of the underside is covered, or when it doesn't seem like the turf is sticking onto the fiber any longer. Stop and evaluate your work. Look at the underside of the branches closer to the top of the tree. Are they coated with turf? If not, or if you aren't pleased with the amount on the lower branches, apply more hairspray and take another run at it. It may take a few applications of hairspray and turf to get the desired coverage: repeat and rinse as necessary

Coat the turf with another blast of hairspray when you are finished applying the turf.

You might be wondering why we're using the very dark shade of Conifer green for the foliage on a deciduous tree, and that's a good question. The dark color on the underside of the branches replicates the look of the shaded portions of the tree. Combined with the lighter colors to be used on the topside of the branches, the color variation will add to the visual depth of the tree canopy; creating very realistic looking shading.

The next batch of foliage to add is Woodland Scenics T60-Earth Coarse Turf. This color is brownish-grey and will break up the dense conifer green color that was just added. The color works well in the shaded portions of the tree since it is rather dull. It isn't necessary to apply more hairspray if you apply the Earth Coarse Turf immediately following the Conifer Coarse Turf. This time not as much turf will be used since we are not trying to cover the entire branch structures. I can often finish this color in one attempt, although the number of attempts isn't critical. What is critical is achieving the right balance between the conifer and earth colors. Remember to coat your work with good amount of hairspray before moving on to the next batch of turf. This picture shows what the underside of the tree should look like after adding Earth Coarse Turf.

We're moving right along now that we're into the foliage stage of the build. Each color application takes less than five minutes, and improves the look of the tree greatly. The next batch of turf to add is Woodland Scenics T1362-Burnt Grass Coarse Turf. The first application of Burnt Grass is applied with the tree held horizontal to the falling turf. This blends the color nicely into the Conifer already in place.

We would be left with exposed Poly-Fiber on the edges of the branches if we didn't hold the tree horizontally when applying the first application of Burnt Grass. With the turf in place at the edges, apply hairspray to the topside of the branches and shake on the Burnt Grass while holding the tree upright. It's important to get the turf onto the Poly-Fiber near the center of the tree, since we don't want to see any of the bare fiber when we are finished.

The later application of lighter colors will make the Burnt Grass portions look like shaded potions of the finished canopy. Coat the turf with a good dose of hairspray before moving along to the next color.

Here's a look at the tree after applying Burnt Grass Coarse Turf. Notice how the colors at the bottom of the canopy give it much more sculptural look than the monochromatic top portion of the canopy. The top of the canopy will be addressed soon enough.

Okay, we're at our last batch of foliage. Give the topside of the branches a good spray of hairspray and grab the shaker bottle of Woodland Scenics T1363-Light Green Coarse Turf. This is the lightest of the greens to be applied to the canopy, and as such it is to be added to the tops of the branches.

This goes along with the idea that the darker colors are to be on the shaded portions of the canopy, while the lighter colors are to be on the parts of the canopy in direct sunlight. Once again, grab the hairspray when you're done with the turf. So here's our tree with all of the foliage and 99% of the color added to the canopy.

It's looking pretty good, but not good enough. The side view looks decent. It has nice texture, shading and a little transparency, but where are all of the neat looking branches that we started with? And the top? Not terrible, the edges are nicely defined, and it has nice color variation; but the top center has that cotton candy look - kind of a green blob. Yuck!

I equate this stage of the build as hitting the 'wall'. We've put a good amount time, effort and money into the tree and it's looking pretty decent. Better than the trees we've made in the past. We're a bit drained and the layout is nearby so why not just plant the tree and move on to the next, or better yet: forget it and race some cars around the track. NO, put that controller down right now! The next part is what will transform the tree from looking pretty good to really great.

Get scissors Daniel-san; it's time to make bonsai.

The next step is to carefully prune the canopy in order to better shape it and make it less bulky. Another goal is to increase the number of areas where daylight can be seen through the canopy. I will refer to this as making the tree more transparent. All of this will give the tree a lighter, less blob-like appearance.

The scissors are prepared to prune a portion of the foliage that appears to be too heavy and is drooping off of the branch. The goal isn't to remove the entire clump, just sculpt it some to create more definition. Another issue to address is that the foliage is obscuring the branches of the armature. Use the scissors to poke through the foliage and snip the Poly-Fiber to detach it from the branch. You will then move the foliage up and off of the branch. The fiber/foliage composite should stay where it is moved to because it's kind of like Velcro at this point. Here's a look at the sculpted clump and the newly exposed branches above and to the left of it.

Here's another before photo of foliage that is in need of sculpting.

Notice how the general shape is still present, however it now better defined. Pruning exposes the interior of the canopy allowing the darker green foliage colors to be seen. This color variation enhances the visual depth of the canopy.

The next four pictures show the transformation process of a poorly defined part of the canopy. Notice the improved definition and transparency that results from pruning and shaping the foliage.

This next pair of photos shows the underside of a branch. Here, the branch is pretty close to being right.

A little work with the scissors will expose more the branch and give the tree a lighter look.

Let's take a look at our progress. Here's a top view of the canopy before we started pruning and shaping.

Here's the top now.

Its better, but still more pruning and shaping is needed.

And more…

By this time it may seem like we've cut away a lot of foliage, but we haven't. Here's the damage so far.

It looks good to me. We have transformed the blobs of foliage into defined branches, and the added transparency shows off the wood branches and the full range of colors used for the foliage. Keep in mind that the colors are applied to different layers of the canopy. This is not the same as using the four colors on the same layer. With the branches better exposed, it's time to use the toothbrush to brush away some of the stubborn foliage that has not yet come off. Use a light touch with toothbrush to avoid damage to the parts that you don't wish to disturb. Compare the branches in this photograph to what they looked like in the last.

There's one last step to complete the tree: and that is to very carefully apply Woodland Scenics T1343-Yellow Grass Fine Turf to the tops and edges of the branches. A little goes a long way to make parts of the branches appear as if they are being bathed in sunlight.

That's it; we're finished with our tree. Let's take a look at the finished product.

Now that you're seen the method I use to make a deciduous tree, you might be wondering how long it takes. It usually takes anywhere from thirty to forty-five minutes per tree from start to finish. The time and difficult vary from tree to tree, and surprisingly; I find that smaller trees can be more difficult and time consuming than larger trees. Having fewer branches to work with can actually increase the difficulty of achieving good results.

So that's how I go about making the deciduous trees you've seen at Prairie Ridge. I hope that you found it interesting, and that it may be useful the next time you make trees for your layouts.

Have fun,
Brad

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