Fake Plastic Trees

No, I’m not starting a Stereophonics tribute act.

As mentioned in a previous post, my modest collection of scenery was terribly lacking in trees. Luckily ‘Eric the Shed’ had blogged about a very nice orchard he had produced using some cheap trees from an eBay seller in China.

I thought I’d give them a try and ordered some packs, which duly arrived a couple of months ago after a very short wait.

Finally getting around to taking them out of their Jiffy bag the other day, my first impression was that, while they looked very nice, the foliage seems to be falling off quite readily. Cue several coats of hairspray to firm things up a bit.

I decided on the whole to base them individually and, after using up my small supply of mini CDs and coasters, helped Giles to bulk up an order he was making with some round 80mm plastic bases from Hurlbat.

Basing the trees was easy. The trunks are soft plastic, and the bottoms were easily flattened, before drilling a small hole into each one. I then glued a drawing pin onto each base and, once set, dripped a little glue on the pins and poked them up the bottom of the trunks (oo-er). The trunks were then washed with shade.

This contrivance was then covered/strengthened with putty and the base painted, covered with scatter and liberally hairsprayed. I also glued on the odd bush, pile of boulders (dried offcuts of putty) or larger stone slab (drybrushed bark chips).

While not massive, the trees scale up rather well with 28mm figures and so my need for woodland is sated!

UPDATE:-
Ooh, I've just noticed that this is my 200th post on this blog - go me!