Saturday, December 12, 2020

Even more trees

Awhile back, I got a load of cheap Christmas village trees from someone at the club (Scott, maybe). These sat in my "future projects" pile for a long time. 


I finally got around to doing something with them on Remembrance Day. First up was a soak to get the snow off. This was 90% successful but left an inky mess in the sink.



Bruce suggested spraying them with rustoleum green. He got a pretty good effect (below) and didn't even bother with removing the snow. I didn't have any paint laying around and have been trying to avoid going out unnecessarily.


I did, however, have a bunch of Army Painter flock (for some reason) and some glue. So I flocked the trees and they looked great. Then I sealed them with more diluted glue and a lot of the flock got driven back into the tree, leaving them looking so-so. 


I think the effect is still pretty decent for basically no outlay. Not sure the extra effort gives a superior result to just spray painting, though. Live and learn. 


They are rock hard due to the glue so should wear well at the club. I reused the bases they came with: some black paint, sand, seal, drybrush and flock.

Up next: Maybe a holiday themed post.

7 comments:

fireymonkeyboy said...


What glue did you use, and how did you apply it, please?

Bob Barnetson said...

Just diluted white glue (PVA), thin enough to bush on. I didn't have a spray bottle handy but that can also work.

tim said...

I like the variation in tone you got from adding the flock - rather than the rather stack dark green. I wonder if simply drybrushing some lighter green paint onto the trees might have a similar effect? I'll have to try it on a few that I have squirrelled away somewhere... if I ever FIND them!?

Terry Silverthorn said...

They turned out quite well I think! I have a box of those same trees garnered from one of the Michael's boxing week sales that could use this treatment. Never been a fan of the winter basing on figures or terrain, as I always thought it limited their use.

Bob Barnetson said...

Tim: yeah that might be an easier way to get more variation.

Terry: For a zero cost project, I was super happy. Agree on winter basing. Totally reduces the utility of whatever has snow on it.

Scott M said...

Yeah, those were from me. I believe I picked them up at Canadian Tire.

Phil Dutré said...

I've seen those exact same Christmas trees on a lot of blogs over the years. There must be some giant factory in China producing those.

I also have 2 packs of them, but I keep them for my battles set in the snow ...