Really? Dead trees?
What can I say? Simple, yet a nice addition to the table. This is one of my first "successful" projects. I wanted to make trees but felt I wasn't ready for the wire frame method. The trees people make using thar technique are amazing and I definately want to practice and do it eventually.
But when I made these I had only started a couple things and had finished less. Wanting to get something done in a day I rhought I was clever enough to use this tutorial by DM Scotty for making dead trees and adapt it to make live ones.
I did end up making a single live tree and you see more about it here. But this was much more work than I imagined and, I can't say I think it turned out very well.
So, having made several "stumps" and a ton of roots that I went back to following DM Scotty's tutorial pretty faithfully and ended up with these.
The video explains making these far better than I can but here's a few notes about what I did differently.
- DM Scotty used a lot of hot glue for texturing. I used some but I also painted my trees with a mix of PVA, brown paint and sand. This added some durabulity and gave it a rough, bark like texture.
- I ended up using the "roots" I made as branches as well. I didn't have any of the fake flowers that DM Scotty used.
- I played around with making a base for one. It's cardboard, sand, some small rock, fake grass and a few Woodland Scenics tufts.
- In addition to making trees I left one as a stump, upright, as if still in the ground. And I put another stump lying on it's side, with another attempt at a base.
Otherwise, basically the same as shown in the tutorial. I used paper towel ans toilet paper rolls for the trunks. PVA, water and cheap toilet paper to make "clay" for the base of the trunk, the roots, and the branches. All in all a very inexpensive, yet satisfying thing to build.