Big Shrubs or Start of an Orchard?

 

Unintended result: apple trees!

While not everyday, but most days I have been working in the basement. One of the "habit forming" projects at the workbench that I mentioned in my last post was making shrubs with sisal rope. The process is outlined below. You can click on the photos to enlarge them and see details more clearly.

I rewatched a Boomer Diorama video on modeling shrubs, taking notes on his process. Once I had the notes and the materials on hand, I started the process thinking that I would explore making inexpensive shrubs and forming the habit of regularly spending time in the basement/trainroom. I had some sisal on hand from a well-used cat tower, several Noch leaf packets and a jar of matte medium from my tub of tree making supplies, and a packet of 12 mm static grass from a recent trip to Trains and Lanes hobby shop. 

The first step was to cut the sisal into two inch lengths before dipping one end into a 50/50 mixture of matte medium and water. The recommended dip into the mixture was one quarter of an inch. In hindsight, I probably went deeper than that, and I believe the thinned matte medium wicks a bit into the sisal fiber. The result needs to dry overnight (or at least for several hours). The next step is to untwist the unglued end and splay out the individual fibers.

Once the sisal fibers are fanned out, the next step is to turn them upside down, dipping them into more of the 50/50 mixture of matte medium, and sprinkling/dabbing on the 12mm static grass. A couple of notes here from the video and my experience: Lay the wet pieces out on wax paper to dry. Use old yogurt cups for mixing and dipping. Save the 50/50 mixture in capped medicine bottles. Wash goopy hands before the matte medium starts to dry, as it dries almost as tightly and hard to remove as super glue. 

After letting my sample shrubs dry overnight, the next step was to "massage" the branches allowing the loose static fibers to fall off. Then the dipping and sprinkling was repeated a second time. After drying, the branches were again "massaged" to remove any lose fibers. One recommended step that I omitted was a third application with 7mm static grass. In this photo, the trunks and branches have been painted with two camouflage rattle can colors, a dark grey/brown from underneath and a much lighter tan from above. 

The final step is to add leaves. In my case, I used Noch medium green leaves. I also have some light green, but I wanted to see what these would look like. For applying the leaves, full strength matte medium is used. Instead of dipping the branches, I followed the recommended process of dabbing full strength matte medium onto sections of the branch structure with a stiff brush. Then, I sprinkled on the leaves. The goal is to apply leaves to the smaller branches without clumping them onto thicker branches or the trunk. 

As seen in this photo, these sisal models make nicely detailed foliage when they are positioned horizontally or with the trunk hidden. They could represent large shrubs or a small tree. While they take some time and effort, their expense is minimal (compared to some commercial shrubs). The few that I have completed could have some drybrushing done to the trunks and some trimming done of an occasional stray fiber as a final step. After researching what large shrubs that I might model, I could fine tune the paint color and airbrush instead of using rattle cans. I could also attempt to adapt my technique to avoid the large groups of sisal fiber reforming and creating thicker branches than I would prefer. 

Looking at the opening photo, the sisal treees as modeled could easily represent apple or other fruit trees with both their size and appearance. This unintended result is making me think that an orchard scene would be an interesting addition to my plans for the model railroad. Afterall, a fruit and produce packing house is one of my current structure projects, and having an orchard represented in the vicinity would reinforce the story. In cursery online research I found a contemporary orchard in Lynden that also has an orchard in Ferndale. With more research I could identify orchard details to represent in such a scene.