O Gauge Modelling on the GWR
A personal Journey
Foliage, hedges and shrubs
Using hedges and trees to create depth and shadow in your landscape is very easy to do and adds atmosphere to your dioramas.
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As You can see from the two pictures above, a carefully placed tree can enhance a flat landscape and bring it to life. The hedge at the side of the road and a small tree begins to make a real difference and provide height as well as enhanced depth. Making trees and hedges is not too difficult and with the help of products from Treemendus can be done quickly.
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The basics are right here. Spray mount and a fibre strand from Treemendus in conjunction with two colours of the leaf scatter. A piece of card to make the hedge up on and collect any left over unused leaves even if it is 'contaminated' with spray mount and fibre can be used again. Just scrape it up and bag it for next time! |
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First pull out and tease out a little of the fibre, (about 5cm can be pulled to make a hedge of about 25cms in length). |
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Spray the spray mount over the fibre. Then pour on the leaf scatter. Dark stuff first then another spray followed by the lighter stuff. If you use the lighter scatter carefully and organise it you can make it look like the 'sun' is shining from one direction which adds to the realism. |
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Pull out the 'hedge' to the required length and place it on the landscape. As it is still tacky you will be able to position it and stick it down. Give it another blast of spray mount to help it set! |
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Nothing is wasted as you can scrape up the leaves from the board along with some fibre left from the hedge and you can mould this into small bushes or shrubs and place them on your landscape. |
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The left overs in situ. These can be stuck between hedges on top of
them or alone in fields as needed. |
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A neat trick with trees is to use some old privet ends. The 'trunks' are already green and using the fibre you can create a canopy easily. |
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Old privet makes a great tree trunk. Choose carefully and prune to the required shape. The green on the branches means they are ready to use. |
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Securing the tree to the ground is best done by drilling a hole in
the base of the trunk. Then inserting a length of brass tube. Similarly,
drill a hole in the baseboard and introduce the tree to its hole. You
can hide the tree trunk/ground meeting place using rough grass. The
beauty of using natural wood like privet is that it looks real before
you start! Use bigger bits for near view and smaller bits for far away viewing to give a feeling of depth. |