Getting Real Column - 18
Super Tree tips
People have asked how I make so many trees. I do it in stages, and
it helps a lot that the weather is perfect for painting the armatures
outside. Much more difficult in the winter!
I take the best armatures from the largest Super Tree case and
quickly pick off the little leafy “thingies” that are on them. Too
many in some cases! I use tweezers, lots of light, a comfy chair
with a sheet covering it and the floor, and a good old movie I’ve
seen a bunch of times that I can mostly listen to. A Super Tree case
contains about six “plants” that you pick apart, and I usually do an
entire plant, or one and a half, in a picking session. My wife is usu-
ally long gone to bed when I do this!
The next day, or at the next opportunity, I take them outside and
spray them all flat black. I used to mist the bigger ones here and
there with flat gray, but it proved to be totally worthless when
modeling dense forests. I’d still do that for stand-alone foreground
trees. I use $1/can WalMart spray paint, which has the perfect
spray pattern and is ideal for this use. A good can of Krylon proved
not so useful: too heavy a spray and four times the price! One
cheap can does about 30 trees, and when I go there I buy a dozen
at a time. Each spraying session, or roughly 90 trees, consumes
about three cans. I used to let these dry overnight, but then
found that I could spray them in the morning, make the trees after
or just before dinner, and install the trees by midnight!
The trees are dipped into a 50/50 white glue/water mixture. Matte
medium also is great for this, just a lot more expensive. I then
shake off the excess fluid and immediately sprinkle on first darker
green, then lighter green fine ground foam while holding the ar-
mature at about a 45-degree angle. Doing this minimizes the
amount of foam that sticks to the trunk. You’ll find you get good at
this very quickly.
I had always hung the trees upside down using clip clothespins as
shown, let them dry, then stuck them in a box with many holes
drilled in the top so that I could spray them with Aqua Net Un-
scented Super Extra Hold #3 hair spray and sprinkle them with
Noch light green leaves. The different colors tend to give the trees
some depth, and you want the lightest colors to the outside where
they’d catch the “sun”. Lately I’ve been immediately putting
the trees into the box where I’ll spray them, which saves steps.
They’re stiff enough that they don’t droop. After a few hours
they’re ready to plant, and this can be hurried by putting a gentle
fan breeze on them to dry.
With this tree making technique I can plant roughly 90 trees in 10
minutes. Once the armature has been painted, the making of the
tree is not much more than 30 seconds. My total production of
trees in this two and a half month phase was well over 900 trees,
basically equivalent to my entire tree-making output of the past
few years!
MRH-Sep 2014
