Pine tree tutorial

Here is the Pine tree tutorial (at long last I hear you cry!)

First of all I started by making some templates, these were made from twenty two gauge copper wire cut using some standard modeling cutters (the same sort of cutters guitarists use to trim their strings.)
The trunk of the tree is made from a balsa wood dowel. Just trim to shape (I use a hand drill with sanding attachment which does this very quickly but makes an awful lot of mess which is why I forgot to take photos of this stage.)
Just take your time shaping it and try not to make it too thin. For the shorter to medium length trees I used 6.5mm dowels. For the few larger trees I did I used 10mm dowels.
The average height of the small to medium trees is 24cm, the bottom 7-8cm is removed and the two pieces joined together with a pin (but not glued as this means the section of the tree with live branches/foliage can be removed as needed.) (for actual scale pines in roughly 1/56th the tallest ones would be almost 60cm tall, understandably I have chosen to use a height of roughly two thirds this to give the feel of scale but bearing in mind practicality as this piece is for gaming with.)

If you are going to base your trees individually (instead of planting them into the terrain) you don't need to cut the trunks, just make sure the bases are large enough to keep the trees stable (I would personely go for 50-60mm bases.)
Next you scrape along the trunks with a fine tooth saw blade to create texture within the trunk (do this before painting/staing the trunk, this is something I forgot to take a photo of), after this just stain/paint whatever colours you decide. Just remember that trees are not actually brown, they have grey, green, black red etc within them (just take a close look at the next tree you see and see what colours are actually their.)

Once the wire strands are cut I then start to attach them, the top branch is placed into a cut that I made with a modelling knife. It was then glued in place with some super glue (be carfeull you don't glue your fingers to the trunk when holding the balsa wood together when creating the top branch.

For the other branches I used a 0.6mm drill bit in a hand drill. Take your time and let the drill do it's work, if you apply pressure in an attempt to go faster you will snap the trunk.

It's easiest to hold the dowel/trunk just under where you are drilling, just be carefull and avoiding drilling into your fingers.

When gluing the copper wire into place you only need a drop (micro tips are advised as you will make less mess which is something I forgot to buy when purchasing the materials for this tutorial!) of super glue, nothing more and nothing less.

Branches on the pines that are within the forest don't go all the way down to the bottom, the trees only grow branches where sunlight shines (trees are rather clever and only spend energy on things that are necessary.)

Putting some dead branches on to the trunk adds a little nice touch. For good views of pine forest for those who don't live near any or do not like searching for ages on the internet just watch the intro to the film gladiator or watch the film centurion. 

Once all the branches are in place bend the  a little, try not to have a branch right above another, remember trees try to maximize the light that they catch.

Once this is done we can start to add the smaller branches (before adding the branches paint the copper wire, something I forgot to do for this tutorial as I'm rather busy at the moment and doing too many things at the same time!)

For the longer branches lower down I use woodland scenics fibers (I prefer cutting field grass to length as the thickness is better suited to this but it is just too costly when you are on a very tight budget like myself with a forest to create.)  Don't just pull some from the mass of fibers and glue them down, it will look like a rather low quality children's toy.

Tease the fibers apart by holding a small ball of them in both hands, once apart continue to do this until you have separated the fibers into tiny strands instead of a large mass.

Apply tacky glue to the copper wire and then with tweezers place the fibers into position.

Only do a couple of branches at a time, this will prevent the tacky glue going off before you are ready. (as you speed up you can work on more at once.)

Once the glue is cured trim the fibers to the desired length and shape (this is where you can determine the breed of pine/fir.)

For the smaller branches you can use wild grass from nock, this is far quicker :D  and is great at making the pines that are in the deepest parts of the forest as you only need to do the first third to half of the tree with foliage.

For the smaller needles I use 2mm flock (static grass)  Simply spray from above with a clear varnish (spray glue has too strong a blast I found and gives my lungs problems when spraying batches of trees)

Then spray at a few angles quickly making sure you only spray the branches and not the trunk.

Then sprinkle the 2mm flock (static grass) from above and gently shake off the excess.

Then repeat this process with 1mm flock (available from antenocitisworkshop)

finaly sealing with another coat of varnish.

Testors dullcote has given me the best results due to the very fine spray but at £5 for a small can it's just not possible for me to fund a forest, spray wood varnish is a good cost effective substitute.

Do not use hairspray, hairspray is designed to break down over time. It is not designed to act as a glue.

You could always use scatter (woodland scenics fine turf for example) for a faster method if you prefer (it also cuts out the painting stag,.) instead of the two stages of smaller flock (static grass.)

Thought we were done, not a chance!

Now we air brush the foliage and add a little more depth/character to the trunk.

First we start with black (vallejo primer) just spraying the undersides of the branches to add shadow. We also give a light mist over the lower part of the trunk as not a s much light hits this part of the tree.

Then we use a dark green, for this I used vallejo air olive (number seven) making sure to add little bits of moss etc to the trunk (you could always add texture to this will some fine turf glued on first.)

After the olive I gave it a very light spray of cam light green followed by duck egg green to bring out the texture of the foliage/needles. (it's the air brush equivalent of dry brushing.)

You can always add dead branches with roots cut from a dead bush (ask permission first if you are going to pull it from the ground.)

Now we plant the tree (yay at last.)

First thing I did was to cut a piece of balsa dowel that was used for the tree trunks and attach two scalpel blades to it, one either side using sticky tape.

I then pushed this device into the ground, as I didn't want to risk pulling up any of the ground work when I pulled the device out. Turn it around a little and then push it in again. Continue this until you have a circle cut out.

You may find you have to place your fingers on either side of the blades (flat side attached to the dowel) to stop them from pushing up through the sticky tape when you attempt to create the hole, just be carefull.)

Another way of doing it could be to drill a hole, it's just a suggestion as I haven't tried it myself. 

Once done then use tweezers to pull out the pieces of filler and foam. This is made easier by using your modelling knife to make further cuts inside the circle you have created.

A hole roughly 1cm deep will give more stable results.

Test fit the trunk to ensure the hole is big enough then add glue to the bottom 1-2mm of the trunk as well as a little blog into the hole. I used deluxe materials foam to foam glue for this (as well as origionaly using it for the creation of the hill and attaching t resin scenery to the boards, very usefull glue foam to foam.)

You may find some of the dust from the filler is around the bottom of the trunk or that the hole was slightly too large and some foam is showing, just add a little tacky glue and place some course turf over it, this will look like weeds etc and hide the evidence!)

When planting the rest of the trees make sure that they will fit in place before you cut the hole (especially if you have made the top two thirds of the trunk detachable!)

As you can see, the forest starts to come to life as you slowly add more and more trees.

Just take your time and think about the next stage before you start it, good look you lords of nature with creating your forest. :)

To create dense looking foliage place a branch every 5mm, for looser looking foliage or older trees start to increase the distance between the branch layers as you add them to the trunk.