Olive tree tutorial

[Gluteus Maximus]

Excellent tutorial Lt Hazel!

An alternative to steel wool is some of that plastic "pan-scrub" material used in washing the dishes. It's often used for hedges etc.

Although very dense and coarse as bought, it can quite easily be "teased-out" until it is quite soft and made to resemble fine branches in a very similar way to steel wool. I have had a problem with rust in the past with steel wool, due to a damp house I used to live in when some of my trees started turning orange and looking autumnal. It was very pretty, but not a good effect for the African bush

It is a little more work with the scrub material, but the effect is just as good as with steel wool and has the advantage of being dark green, so you don't have to be quite so thorough with the brown spray stage. There is some dust created in the "teasing" process, so ventilation is probably recommended.

Any supermarket or local "corner shop" should sell packs of them very cheaply.

[Grimm]

you are a genius !! I will do that too !!!

[Gluteus Maximus]

you are a genius !! I will do that too !!!

Grimm, I wish I were 

Sadly, the truth is I picked it up somewhere, either on the web or from a terrain book.

Never mind, though, it makes a nice change from being an idiot - even if only for a few minutes 

[Le matou rouge]

Never mind, though, it makes a nice change from being an idiot - even if only for a few minutes 

 

meow,
Matt

PS : Lt, thank you very much for the tutotrial : that is the way I intent one day to do my future trees, I just miss the tip about paper toilet...

[Aaron]

As I was searching  the craft store over the weekend for pot toppers and other suitable terrain stuff I came across something called "floral stem wire". It is simply florist's wire covered in a textured tan paper, used to make stems for artificial flowers I guess. I think it might save the messy glue and TP step, but I have not tried it myself yet.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Merci beaucoup, Matt!

I love that song and didn't realise there was a video on YouTube.

Wonderful stuff! 

[Rhoderic]

I've been experimenting with steel wool (the proper, non-soapy stuff) now and I'm finding it a bit difficult. It seems to be the exact same stuff as in the materials picture, but I can't get it as fluffy as in the tutorial. It's also tricky to glue, I'm using PVA glue and it just gets soaked up by the wool, leaving precious little on the actual contact surface.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Lt. Hazel]

I pull the wool apart till it´s fluffy enough. And I don´t glue it to the wire, just wrest it around. It works. Come to the Tactica and I will show you how to do 

[stuzzar]

Have just seen the completed olive grove in another section and wondered if there was a tutorial on making the trees knocking about, glad o see that there is, very useful and very helpful, thanks very much.

Cheers

Stu

[Bako]

Very nice tutorial. The use of steel wool must have leaked from my brain or something because I never would have guessed at using it for tree foliage .

[Shazam]

outstanding a holiday experiment