What's your favorite ways to make storebought trees more lifelike? I have a gaggle of trees I bought, but they look nothing like a real conifer. I need to do some scenery, but want to improve their looks before planting them. These trees are all evergreens. Ideas??
I trim mine with scissors to make them look more random. Then I poke them into a chunk of foam and spray generously with camo spray paint.(Krylon) While the paint is still wet sprinkle on various shades of green ground foam and let them dry.
Got plenty of that stuff. Will have to give it a try. Sounds quick, too. Good, because time is at a premium!
What you want to do is get two or three different shades of green. It wont cost you any more in the long run as you will still use roughly the same amount of paint. Then spray your trees from a little distant using both/all colours. This usually gives a far better effect. Also make sure you buy matt paint, sometimes i have made the error of buying gloss aerosols! Good luck
Hemi, The photo below from a few years back shows a bunch of Heki trees that I modified to improve their appearance I usually "hack" into them with scissors to get a more random foliage structure & some light thru I also glue a short piece of wire into the very top of each tree so that when I add my own ground foam I tend to get the "pointy" tip common with pines I then use 2-3 slightly different shades of ground foam to vary the apperance From someone who has built thousands of model pines over the past twenty years I think these save a heap of time & give me a better chance of covering a mountainside Sure I still scratchbuild all my foreground trees but the Noch & Heki trees can be improved with good results Steve
