Thank you again guys!
@GamesPoet - that one is easily my favourie as well
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So - back with another update.
The trees are almost finished! I was going to make a test one first, but got caught up in the flocking madness. This sometimes happens to me, when I’m really close to finishing a project. This weird frenzy descends upon me and I won’t leave until I either completely finish it or completely ruin it. I'd call it artistic fever but I'm just really freaking impatient sometimes.
It all started calmly enough though. First I decided that I need to build a branch structure for the leaves (flock) to sit on. This did not turn out to be really that necessary (more on that later).
I know that people use seafoam, which looks like real branches:
But it’s another of those weird natural modelling materials, which are incredibly hard to get, unless you are willing to shell out for a woodland scenics pack. I surely wasn’t.
Moss is another popular choice for canopy-building and since it only costs a trip to the forest I went with that. Anything to make me move my fat ass is a bonus too at this point.
So here are three moss types. The middle one was bought as christmas decrations, the one on the left is lichem and the lighter one on the right I collected and cleaned. I picked up some other ones too, but they did not turn out to be useful.
(excuse the poor cell phone pics)I’ve decided to try all three and see which one works best. I applied the moss to the branches of my trees, first by using superglue (didn’t work) then with 2 part epoxy glue. The light moss was so wooly, that I just wrought it around the branches and didn’t bother with adhesives. The next step would secure it anyway. Here’s how they looked before being blasted with spray-glue. Note that I pulled out the moss from the shortest tree before spraying, as I didn’t like how it looked. Figured I will just try using clump foliage on bare branches and see if it can hold up without any other support (spoiler - it did).
After being sprayed with glue, I simply sprinkled flock or clump foliage onto them. Here's how they ended up:
The tree with dyed Christmas moss:
It’s a bit messy, with the moss sticking out in different directions. The colour of the moss blends with my flock well, but still showing through a bit. Need to pull out a few strands that stick out.
Tree with lichen:
This one I had to abort and start again. At first I was using some very fine light green turf, but it just did not look right, the shapes of the lichen clumps made it look super unnatural. I panicked, re-sprayed it and started covering it with light green clump foliage. The end result is thus a bit haphazard, with different tones of moss and foliage. Learning experience I guess!
Tree with moss I picked myself
I think this one turned out the best. I’ve used fine, yellow-green flock to match the moss and the end effect is pretty realistic. The only dowside is that's very fragile, but a few coats of sprayed-on scenic glue should make it robust enough.
Tree with clump foliage straight from the bag:
Nothing to say much other than it worked and was faster. Good to know it’s possible to produce foliage this way, even though it eats my supplies rather quickly.
Here’s a group photo of the trees:
And did I mention they are pretty true scale
:
I don’t mind them being big really. I will get myself some medium sized trees in the future too.
Overall rather pleased with how they turned out. I have 2-3 more trees planned, including a SUPER BIG tree, but mailny I will start working on the forest bases now. Stay tuned.