Thanks Phil Bradley and his terrain tip on pipecleaner trees I now have a new way to make lots of cheap, good-looking trees. In the second part of this project Jimmy Orlando shows us his variation on pipecleaner trees.
If you go to a tobacconist shop you should be able to buy pipe cleaners very cheaply - I bought a pack of 100, about 6 inches long, for 1.50 pounds. I also bought a smaller pack (about 15) of much longer, fatter pipe cleaners which were about 10 inches long. These were for bigger trees.
| First twist about 5 pipe cleaners together in the middle to make the tree trunk. |  |
| Then twist three of the five root strands together, and the remaining two together, to make two fatter root strands. Leave the ends of the pipecleaners free like this. |  |
| Do the same at the top to make main branches. Try bringing one of the pipecleaners out at the side and folding it back on itself and twisting it together to make a short branch. |  |
| Twist away to get a natural looking tree shape. You can add extra pipe cleaners part way up by untwisting the trunk slightly and jamming the end of a new pipecleaner in, and then twisting it around the trunk. |  |
I made bases with six trees per base. In the centre of each base I made a larger tree, in exactly the same way but with longer pipe cleaners and lots of twists to make a fatter trunk. I also varied the height a bit by making some trees taller than others. This gives a more natural effect. Next, paint the trees:
Spray the trees black. The fluffiness of the pipe cleaners makes it difficult to penetrate with the spray, so use it closer than usual. It does not matter if there are a few missed bits. When dry paint over roughly with dark brown. When dry again, dry brush up with light brown. Don't be too heavy - let the roughness of the surface work for you to give a bark effect. Now glue the trees to the base with PVA glue.
I used sand on the bases and added grass to give a denser woodland effect
Spread PVA glue around the trees and sprinkle on sand. Paint the sand when dry with very dilute mid-brown (I use Citadel Snakebite Leather) and then dry-brush with light brown, greens, and yellows. The grass is made from natural rope. Untwist the rope a bit and cut off a chunk. Put a blob of PVA glue on the base and stand the rope in it. When the glue has set, stick your finger in and rough up the grass to get a more natural appearance. I coloured the grass with green acrylic ink (50/50 Citadel green and yellow inks). Inks soak into the rope fibres and are much easier to use than paint on this material.
I use lichen as the foliage. I cut quite large pieces and allowed them to drape toward the floor, because I wanted a lush, jungle/everglades look to the trees. As it happens, most people think they look like olive trees, but there you go!
Spread PVA glue on the branches and push the branch into the body of the lichen. Leave some branches completely bare for added effect.
And that's all there is to it. These trees astonish people who look at them, they really are that realistic! They are cheap, and durable too...I accidentally dropped a log onto the first base I made, squashing the tees completely flat. The whole household held their breath in terror... but the trees could just be bent up again. You can push your hand between them to get at your miniatures and they just spring back into shape.
Thomas Whitten sent me some useful tips after trying out this technique. First, Thomas says that dyeing the trees black is more efficient than spraying them. I agree, but I couldn't think of a way to do it. Thomas has solved this - you half fill a jar with water coloured deep black with paint or acrylic ink. Put your tree in, screw the lid on tightly, and shake it up! They take longer to dry but this method will be much cheaper than spraying and quicker than brush painting.
Second, Thomas tells us that pipe cleaner trees look good for 15mm scale terrain too. All you need do is cut your 6 inch pipe cleaners down to 3 inches before starting. At this size Thomas says they are also suitable as giant redwood trees at Epic scale.
Forum regular Jimmy sent me these detailed instructions for a variation on pipecleaner trees.
Make 3 trunks out of pipecleaners. You could give the trunks some roots but this isn�t necessary. You can still add those to the trunk later Don't paint the trunks yet.
Bind the 3 trunks together with nylon thread, so you get 1 big trunk (it doesn't really matter what kind of thread you use, so long as the trunks are bound together very tight). Bend the upper part of the small trunks ( 1 ,2, 3 ) in different directions, so you get a natural trunk.
Now you've got to make the leaves. You can do this as follows. Draw two leaves of the same size like those in the picture ( number 1+2 ), then glue them together ( you can do this with PVA glue ) so you get number 3
Make leaves of different sizes to get a natural tree. When the whole tree is finished glue it on foam or something else of course and add roots. You can make these from pipecleaners as well.
