Bushes and Trees for inside on the Cheep

[dunnyrail]

Whilst I have been doing Mallets and Pway Trolleys I have also been doing some ongoing Scenic Works in my Shed. Part of this work has involved coming up with a cheep way to add Trees and Bushes. I have in the past used Various Garden Plants and Weeds so this short missive will give a feel for what I have been up to.

As we Gardeners know, whilst the plant life may look somewhat Dead at this time of the Year. Things are going on below ground and this plant is the interest of some of my Garden Foraging. Now I cannot name this Plant but this is what it is doing just now:-



and these are what I harvested from the Garden Clean up last week



I trim them to varying sizes, dunk in a sloppy 50/50 mix of PVA, best do this in a Tub of some kind and wizz it round in that to get rid of the excess Glue. Then hold it over a bit of dry say card and sprinkle Scenic Scatter both on top and below. I tend to use varying types to represent different Bushes. A clump can be Glued together to make Larger Bushes or indeed a Tree. Have not worked out how I will do the Trunk as yet so I have not yet got around to the Tree. Here are some drying out after being pushed into some Expanded Polystyrene.



Here is a pic of my Production Line of Coloured Flocks



I have a bit of a worry about miniature animal organisations eggs etc living in the Plant Material so give it a 30 second Nuke in the Microwave before using.

Needles to say I am only using these indoors, but I can see no reason why they could not be used outside accepting that they may only last a season or three. If so I would used Exterior Grade PVA.

They have not yet been planted as it has been a bit Cold for working in the Shed too long for the last week or two.

JonD

 

[nicebutdim]

Clever idea and very interesting. Reasonably cheap and easy to make so even if they do last one season it isn't a huge loss. Plus every year you get new raw materials to start again

 

[cbeckett]

I first spray them with cheapo woman's' hairspray, to seal them - particularly the stem. Polyethylene Glycol does it better, if you can get hold of it. For thicker trunks, I use airclay. - solid within 24 hrs for scalpel work, painting etc.

I've had outdoor ones for several years. Some do better than others, but as you guys say, its virtually free!

I hadn't used the scenic scatter before - good tip! I tend to pick plants which still have some semblance of leaves on them...

Some of my thicker ones, when dried out, have a tiny drill up their bu*s, and copper wire inserted to
make them stronger....

 

[Zerogee]

I first spray them with cheapo woman's' hairspray, to seal them - particularly the stem. Polyethylene Glycol does it better, if you can get hold of it. For thicker trunks, I use airclay. - solid within 24 hrs for scalpel work, painting etc.
........

Who are these cheap women, and why are you stealing their hairspray...?

Sorry, couldn't resist (though probably should have tried harder...) - seriously, some great suggestions from everyone in this thread.... trees for indoor layouts in large scales are always a problem, because you don't often think about just HOW DAMN BIG real trees are, and if made to true scale a decent G scale tree would be quite a size, much bigger than any of the commercially made ones, most of which are colossal prices as well....

Jon.

 

[viaEstrecha]

For small spaces when I want to put in a little vegetation but it is not practicable to grow a real plant, I use aquarium plants (plastic), which are only a few cents a packet in the Spanish equivalent of a poundshop. I doubt the poor quality plastic will survive more than a couple of years outside, but as it is so cheap, replacement is the simple solution.

 

[PhilP]

I like the concrete panel fence as well..

 

[dunnyrail]

Nice idea Martyn, must keep my eyes open in the cheepo shops. I wonder if it is worthwhile giving them a quick splash of Matt Paint, might give them a longer life. Of course they may possibly turn matt outside with time. Think i can see how the Fence was made, but sure that some of the guys on here would be interested in your methods if you have time to enlighten us.
JonD

 

[viaEstrecha]

Nice idea Martyn, must keep my eyes open in the cheepo shops. I wonder if it is worthwhile giving them a quick splash of Matt Paint, might give them a longer life. Of course they may possibly turn matt outside with time. Think i can see how the Fence was made, but sure that some of the guys on here would be interested in your methods if you have time to enlighten us.
JonD

The fence was a lucky experiment - I needed to hide the wires from the adjacent building and so knocked up a short piece to see how it would look. I will need to make a long run of fence to go around the future fuel depot and this design seems to work. I have an 'article' in draft which is almost ready for posting, about the latest 2 buildings I have made, and I'll add a bit about this too. Now I have some spray matt varnish for making decals, I'll give the 'plants' a treatment to see if that will assist longevity.