If you are modelling the West Highland Line, you need fir trees, and lots of them. Given the price of commercial trees, I have to make my own for the quantities that I need.
The trees are made from bailing twine, copper wire, and various scatters.
- Copper wire is cut and bent into shape as seen below
- Lengths of twine is then cut matching the required tree diameter
- Each length is then unwound and separated into individual strands
- Place the mid point of the wire trunk into a vice
- The unwound strands of twine is then placed between the two legs of the cut and shaped wire
- Once fully loaded, the ends of the wire are placed into the jaws of a power screwdriver
- Using the power screwdriver, spin the wire until tight and all strands are tightly wound
- Remove from vice, cut off wire loop at top and then trim twine using scissors into the tree shape desired.
- Spray tree in base paint
- Cover branches in scatter
- Spray with matt varnish, repeat scatter and varnish as necessary
- Leave to dry
The first few trees are time consuming but I can now knock out 20 trees in a couple of hours. I find it most efficient to do 10 or 20 trees at the same time, completing each stage of the batch before moving onto the next.
