Start Here
The first
step in making pine trees is to round up some various sizes of balsa wood
What you will actually need depends on how you populate your forest. You
will only need a few really large trees for the foreground, about twice as
many to give your forest some depth and twice that in smaller tries to fill
in the background. I used a total of five different sizes.
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Foliage
You are also
going to need something for the foliage. Air fern or plumose work quite
well in most cases. A good source of material is Regenboorg Dried Flowers
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Start Here
Each tree
begins square as shown on top. This is sanded down to a roughly round
diameter with a coarse (50-grit) sandpaper (More about tapering the trunk
later.) The next step is to score the bark using the teeth of a modeling
saw. The final step will be to apply the initial coloring. I use dry-colors
with a bit of varnish and thinned to provide more of a heavy stain than an
outright paint.
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Creating
the Taper
Create the
taper by holding the trunk flat against a work surface and sand to an even
taper as shown at top. Do not be afraid to press down and sand in both
directions. Sand in one direction toward tip as the trunk approaches the
final size, as shown. Hold the trunk in one hand and gently move sanding
block against trunk to finish the tip. Note that the point is exaggerated
here for clarity and should look like bottom two trunks.
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Semi-Finished
Here, the black area
represents the work area. Keep the trunk tip just inside the edge and roll
back and forth while sanding taper down.
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Finishing
Tip
Another
view of the final shaping of the tip.
Remember that the taper shown here is exaggerated. The idea is to reduce
the trunk diameter as much as possible and still be able to poke a hole
through for the uppermost branch and taper the trunk to a point from there.
The -crown- will be built in this area (see below).
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These are
what we are making
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Height
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Diameter
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Foliage
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18 in
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5/8 in
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8-12 in
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15 in
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1/2 in
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10-12 in
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12 in
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3/8 in
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8-10 in
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8 in
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1/4 in
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5-7 in
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6 or less
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3/16 in
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full length
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Trees ready
for assembly
Another view of a batch of trunks ready for
assembly. Note the slight variations on the trunk colors and textures. This
is to be expected in nature and will be further highlighted as trees are
installed.
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Holding Block
Before we
go any further I would suggest building some kind of holding block for your
workbench. This will keep damage to trees to a minimum and save a lot of
walking back and forth to the layout.
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Waiting to Plant
Just cut
off a 6 by 6 inch chunk of wood (or whatever you have laying around) Then
cut the heads off a few pins and stick them in with some pliers about two
inches apart and that is all you need.
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