Larch practice…

I love the practice of model railways. The scope for learning and enjoying a real breadth of art, creating miniatures, considering all parts equally and putting as much love into nature as the trains that trace our model rails…

Outside my front window, just down the lane where I’m often sat on the sofa gazing out whilst writing the blog, sits a lonely larch. Fresh growth reaching skywards whilst the older branches bear the scars of harsh winters, clashes with the hedge cutter and life in all weathers here in the Dee Valley.

I have pondered trying a model of the tree for some time, but before I get that far I wanted to explore the art of creating a different style of tree armature. I’m sure none of this is new, but with my experience of copper wire on deciduous tree creation combined with a bamboo skewer left in the kitchen after my daughter had been baking (to test the cake to see if it was ready, it was and tasted great) the scene was set for some gentle mindful experiementation this morning.

The skewer was drilled by hand randomly down from the top. Lengths of copper were threaded in and secured with superglue (photo 1). These were splayed out randomly to create some shape, and then a quick blast with grey primer, then a black spray from underneath and a white spray from the top. This dried quickly allowing me to progress without delay. Some PVA was painted on the tops and or sides of the branches and a darker rich ‘summer’ shade of Mini-natur 4mm static grass sprinkled on. Once all covered a hairdryer was used to blow these first branches downwards, and to dry it quickly. Spray over with my usual Matt lacquer spray and more fibres were liberally applied, two or three times to build up the density. The result, something that looks larch like in shape and colour.

I’d say this practice has been a success, it’s not a show tree but could happily blend in with a small copse. If I were to do a more ‘front of scene’ tree I’d consider shaping and tapering the bamboo skewer, it looks to perfect and straight which would work well for a group of pines perhaps, but not in this case. I would also build up the first application of fibres more carefully. The glue had a tendency to dry before grabbing the fibres which was less than ideal. However, I greatly enjoyed the process and the result. Time well spent for both my peace of mind and practice of the art. I hope this has encouraged you to have a go at something outside of your current experience and try something new. Until next time, more soon…

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