I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK…

With the strains of Monty Python’s Flying Circus in the background, I commence the final of the series of entries I’ve been writing about using tree armatures to make trees with. The last time I posted about these was to report my failures on May 17 this year.

I had resolved to try putting lichen on the armatures initially glued in placed with PVA glue, then sprayed with watered-down PVA. So, I began by gluing everything together: . This time, the film cannister lids and armatures were glued onto the sheet styrene using PVA, as I discovered that the Revell Contacta glue was warping the sheet styrene early in June. So, I had tree trunks fixed onto bases: . Then I had to search through the lichen for suitable clumps: . I can’t describe how I chose the pieces, except to say that the fluffy rounded top bits obviously went onto the top of the armatures or where I wanted to show new growth on a big limb. I tried to select pieces that were stretchy thin “sheets” that I could wrap around the armature and cover as much as possible with, but I also put on smaller clumps here and there so that each tree didn’t look too uniform in appearance. PVA was thickly brushed on to each single limb, to a depth of 1.5cm, or until a fork was reached (or both): (you can see a blurry big drop of PVA waiting to have lichen pressed onto it). I hoped that it would be a quick process – the first tree seemed to be done fairly promptly: but when I finished all 6 an hour had gone by. I left them overnight, hoping to spray them with watered-down PVA today, but the weather was against me. So, more tree updates as they sprout.

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I’m working on too many things at once again. I am slowly preparing enough figures for a company of Panzer Grenadiers. I didn’t have any suitable Platoon Commanders (Sergeants?) so I cut MP-40s off excess numbers of one pose and glued them into the empty hands of another pose: .

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The Panzer IIIs are having their tracks painted. This involves two painting stages and four wash stages, so it’s taking some time to do.