Dyeing Super Tree Stems?

[C855B]

Only 150 to go?  Haha!  She has no idea!   

We're sort of safe... I think...

Don't forget that 2/3 of my layout depicts Southwest desert. Now those sagebrush tufts @Dave V found are another thing altogether - 55-gallon drums of 'em. 

[Dave V]

Obviously for aspen trees I paint the trunks white.  A black Sharpie adds the black scars you see on mature aspen trucks.

However, I have to introduce you to my go-to paint.  It's like Old Bay...you put it on everything.

I use it to spray paint Supertree trunks for non-aspen trees, but i also use it any time I need something to look like weathered wood (including wood itself!):



It's really a perfect blend of gray and brown.  Case in point...I used it on this Walthers plastic stock pen:



And on tree trunks:

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh holy crap. THAT is getting picked up next time I'm at Lowes...

[C855B]

I dunno, guys.... I'm liking tonight's experiments:



These are dip-stained stems with trimmings CA'ed to the core for shaping.

The new instructions captured from Scenic Express doesn't soak any more, just sprays the diluted glue/medium. She likes the quick-soak method. My inclination is "Keep doing what you're doing!"

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not bad, but what are those, ornamentals?

Don't forget... trees are tall!

[Dave V]

Not bad, but what are those, ornamentals?

Don't forget... trees are tall!

Not in the part of the country he's modeling, Ed.  Trust me, I've been out there.  The brutally windy and cold winters ensure they never get that tall.  Seeing trees taller than 30 feet in western Nebraska is unusual.

[C855B]

Exactly. Scraggly is the order of the day. There are a couple of taller trees in the grove she's working on now, but they're standouts:



What's not in her work product picture above are the scrubby bushes that fill-in the base. They were still on the line drying.

Robyn has really been focused on trees over the past several years. She advised me over breakfast there are real-world prototypes in her mind's eye she plans to model once she has the techniques down. Some will be decidedly out-of-place - "The lone cypress at Monterey. You are going to have a cliff somewhere, aren't you?" - and there is a huge one in the next town, 60-70' tall, that is the classic standalone spreading oak, even including the tire swing hanging off a branch. "It's going on a farmhouse scene, yes?"