Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Choose an armature̵2;the supporting structure̵2;for your tree. It can be as simple (and realistic) as a twig picked up outdoors to a store-bought plastic skeleton of a tree to something as handy as several strands of leftover copper wire (just twist them together, forming a trunk, then bend some of the wires over at one end to create individual branches).
Paint your armature to re-create nature̵7;s coloring, more gray than brown. To ̶0;mass-produce̶1; a forest̵7;s worth of trees, plant several armatures at a time in a piece of inch-thick (or more) foam insulation board. Spray-paint or airbrush with a nonsolvent paint, let them dry, then dip the branches into diluted white glue.
Lower your glue-coated tree into a container of blended hobby-shop foliage. Let the ground cover coat the tree̵7;s limbs then gently shake off the excess into a second container. (For natural-looking trees, your foliage recipe should blend light and dark shades of green scenery grass in fine and medium grades, seasoned to personal taste with fine yellow grass.)
Use the discarded material to touch up bare spots, then plant the finished tree in a second foam-board holder. Let the trees reside in that holder, at least overnight while the glue dries or until you are ready to place them on the layout.