Tree Making  -   Paul Templar

The need for tall trees on my railroad, from 12" to 18" tall, led me a merry dance for many weeks. I had used in the past dried fern bought from a florists. After making many with this natural material, I found that even a slight knock would damage this delicate fern. So, I looked around for another material which wouldn't break.

An artificial flower specialist came up with the idea of using a plastic type fern instead of a dried fern. The only problem with this fern was in fact that it was a little thicker than the dried fern and brown in colour. Anyway, I bought some of his plastic and Light Brown coloured fern, re-painted them a dark green, made a tree, then added glue and sprinkled on some woodland scenics medium green flock.

The outcome, not a bad representation of a tall timber tree. Then, quite by accident, I stumbled across another way of making a tall tree, and a better looking tree, (I think,) than the dried fern or for that matter, the plastic fern trees had turned out. But, I'll let you be the judge of my latest find by giving you both ways of making the trees.

The basic material for the tree trunk, and for both trees, is 3/8" diameter Balsa wood dowel. As these dowels come in approximately 3 feet lengths, two or three trees can be made from one length of dowel. As for the plastic fern, most artificial flower specialists can order this fern for you. They come in packs of ten and are not at all expensive.

You should be able to make five trees out of the ten branches. Once you have the ferns, brush paint or spray them a green colour and let them dry overnight. It really doesn't matter what green paint you use as the brown plastic tends to soak up the paint and leave it a darkish green anyway. After cutting one length of Balsa dowel to the desired length, you will need a rasp to shape it, to represent a tree trunk.

One painted, one ready for paint, and two waiting to be got at with the rasp.

I tend to make around ten tree trunks at a time, after all have been suitably shaped, I spray them a Matt dark earth, and let them dry. From the artificial fern, cut off quite a few of the leaves, leave a little of the small stem on, and lay them on your work bench.

You will need small ones for the top of the tree and larger ones for the bottom. I tend to group them in order of size, so as to be ready when I start to glue them to the balsa dowel. When you think you have enough of the fern cut and your dowels are dry, a start can be made on making the first of many trees. The only tools required are a pair of small scissors, a tube of Evo stick and a small 1/32 drill bit, to drill the holes or the ferns to be glued into.

Okay, starting at the top of the tree, drill a hole all the way through the dowel, and add a touch of the glue, pick up one of the small ferns and insert the stem into the hole. Turn the tree trunk a quarter tern, and approximately a quarter of an inch lower repeat the sequence. Keep on doing this all the way down the trunk.

A tree partly finished.

Don't forget to increase the size of the ferns as you go down. I tend to use the small sizes for three or four turns of the trunk, then increase the size, then another three or four turns later, I increase the size again. All that remains for you to do now, is to get a cheap hairspray, spray the tree, lightly sprinkle on woodland scenics ground cover. Medium or dark greens work well.

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