I'm too cheap to buy ready made Cypress trees so I'm making my own and thought I would share my process with you all. I use dowel rod for the trunk and shape it with a dremel tool to taper it. I then paint it with a wash of black and drill a hole in the bottom to glue a tooth pick into for an attatchment. I then stick it onto a piece of foam with a wax paper barrier to protect the foam from the Green Squadron Putty(it eats it up). I then add the putty aroung the base and work it to shape with a stick and make the vertical lines with a razor blade. After this dries overnight I can paint the tree's base and trunk to blend things in. A balck wash really brings out the vertical lines in the base of the tree that is so typical of these swamp trees. Lastly I add the leaves by using the tops of my bulk tree kit weeds that I cover with ground foam and hair spray and glue to the trunk. Everything is blended with touch up painting and strategic ground foam application. Enjoy the photos of my process and maybe someone will get something out of this little web clinic.
Great Cypress Trees! Jim you are a great modeler. This is awesome! I'm learning so much from you! Great use of Squadron Putty. How are you going to do the water? Lilly pads? Swamp grass? Any sunk row boats? Birds? Derailed equipment sunk in the water/mud? Oh the possibilities!
Just for fun. I've applied my swamp tree putty process for use with regular tree trunk and roots. Some basic procedure but less thickness at the bottom and I still use and X-acto blade to press into the wet putty to form the contours and roots. When dry I paint the bases black then dry brush the brownish or gray tree color over it to leave the black grooves. Here's a few photos for some Sunday viewing. The smaller one represents an old knarly pine or cedar tree. It's cheap and fun and yields surprisingly realistic trees (at least in my opinion).
YOU ARE THE MASTER! They look great! Maybe you can carve out a hollow in the trunk and tuck in an owl with two tiny LED's as eyes. (Just a suggestion - as you are getting such an education - on lighting)
I guess incandescents would get too hot and burn the tree down. But if I use the proper resistor..........
Jim, An owl's eye's would not be reflective unless a light source was gleaned off of it, such as the moon, or a flashlight. That being said, I would think that a pair of yellow lantern jewels would work better than lights, as they would catch the light at certain angles and be dull at others. Perspective in both ways, make the case. I'd experiment with jewels first. Easy and cheap to do.
