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Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Fitz on 24 August 2017, 07:06:30 AM

Title: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Fitz on 24 August 2017, 07:06:30 AM
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2t9n7pmjp9A/WZ5qJZNfzaI/AAAAAAAAI0Y/3yehnAsRyWsZ5Vxol-GkreXxyLCtwhRQgCLcBGAs/s1600/20170824Forest.jpg)

Some time ago I bought a whole lot of plastic trees from China to make wargaming terrain with. I've finally got around to making a start on basing some of them.

The bases are 3mm MDF, the brown forest floor is real dead leaves munched up in a little ten dollar coffee grinder, and the grass is old-school sawdust flock. Lurking in under the trees behind the Lanchester armoured car is a 15mm British wireless operator, but so good is his camouflage that you can't really see him.

They're not the most realistic terrain pieces ever made, but considering that the trees cost me about fifteen cents each, and everything else was basically free, I'm pretty happy with the results. This is about a fifth of the whole bunch, so I've still got a bit of work ahead of me.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Golgotha on 24 August 2017, 09:09:42 AM
I have also bought similar and they are well worth it and with a bit of work can look really good.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Noverre Man on 24 August 2017, 02:58:59 PM
If only they would do some Not Merit alder trees.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Vagabond on 24 August 2017, 09:54:49 PM
Fitz - the problem with trees is that every manufacturers looks so different that generally they don't match. i think these look good, do you have the link to the manufacturer, i may need to buy some of these.
thanks
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Shahbahraz on 24 August 2017, 10:26:24 PM
Fitz - the problem with trees is that every manufacturers looks so different that generally they don't match. i think these look good, do you have the link to the manufacturer, i may need to buy some of these.
thanks

Seconded.. those are some of the best ones I have seen.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Sterling Moose on 24 August 2017, 10:45:47 PM
Care to share a link for the trees?  I could use some more but want a fairly realistic look not the horrid, shiny, soft plastic type.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: FierceKitty on 25 August 2017, 12:26:49 AM
I avoid Chinese mail-order these days, having previously got stuff that bore no resemblance to what I'd ordered.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Fitz on 25 August 2017, 01:31:06 AM
Do you have the link to the manufacturer, i may need to buy some of these.
I don't, I'm afraid. I just did a search on Aliexpress.com for "railway modelling trees" and it came up with a bajillion of them.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Sterling Moose on 25 August 2017, 11:41:50 AM
Quote
I don't, I'm afraid. I just did a search on Aliexpress.com for "railway modelling trees" and it came up with a bajillion of them.
That's the trouble, Ebay and Co are saturated with them so finding some that look decent is a challenge.  In fact you could say that you can't see the wood for the trees!!
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Rich H on 25 August 2017, 01:07:16 PM
I've binned several batches of cheap trees, mostly because they are luminous green.

Sometimes you get lucky though and htey look fine.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: PhilB on 25 August 2017, 06:41:01 PM
I've binned several batches of cheap trees, mostly because they are luminous green.

Sometimes you get lucky though and htey look fine.

Couldn't you, like, re-dye them to be a different shade? Something like a paint dip?
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Fitz on 26 August 2017, 03:40:19 AM
The most lurid, ghastly coloured trees can be salvaged with a couple of cheap cans of spray-paint.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Rich H on 26 August 2017, 07:58:18 AM
They were not nice shapes or nice trunks and the foam was falling off. 
I'd have to remake them which was why I was buying them in the first place!
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Mako on 27 August 2017, 11:50:54 PM
Those look nice, and you can't beat the price.

Thanks for sharing. 

Even if you need to re-flock them, they certainly are far less expensive than those from railroad hobby shops.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Just a few orcs on 06 September 2017, 10:52:26 PM
Fitz - the problem with trees is that every manufacturers looks so different that generally they don't match. i think these look good, do you have the link to the manufacturer, i may need to buy some of these.
thanks

Not one of the trees in my garden matches any of the others., in shape or colour or size.  Even in our local wood there is vast variation 
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Curis on 07 September 2017, 12:58:23 AM
I agree with jafo.  Trees aren't mass produced by nature – variety is natural.

These look great!  I'm inspired to have an eBay trawl you've made them look so good.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: Vagabond on 07 September 2017, 04:21:26 PM
Not one of the trees in my garden matches any of the others., in shape or colour or size.  Even in our local wood there is vast variation 

I think you will find that all the trees in your garden do match, they have branches and leaves or needles, they are constructed in the same way even if to you they look different.

Whereas model trees are not constructed in the same way. Some are made with horse hair and flocked, some are made with sponge, picked about and dyed, some are made like bottle brushes and some are made with clump foliage and there are many other methods. They each attempt to simulate a real tree but in a different way.

I personally don't think generally that different methods of manufacture go well on a table.

It is not a question of all trees are the same, patiently they are not but different manufacturers methods of producing trees do not always match, irrespective of it being a big tree a little tree, deciduous or coniferous.

I think these trees look good but I would not put them on a table and expect them to sit well with my sponge trees or my horsehair trees because it only  brings diversity and variety of manufacturing method not of tree type.

Hopefully I have explained my comment for you.
Title: Re: Super-cheap Chinese trees
Post by: FierceKitty on 08 September 2017, 12:12:28 PM
"patiently"?   ???