If only real trees were as easy to deal with as model trees!

My plans for today went out of the widow as I dealt with the aftermath of yesterdays apple tree disaster. With the collapsed branch dealt with I found several large dead branches which had to be removed and cleaned up. The end result is an odd looking tree but happy cattle in the field behind who are benefitting from the apples which are not big enough for me or Mrs. woody to eat! They could well get fairly fat as I have three sacks of them.

Dealing with model trees is a lot easier and having planted the palm trees on the base for the Egyptian T34 tank yesterday all I have to do with them is tone them down with a misting of a grey/brown paint which will make them look a little less Disney like! 

On the base itself I coated it with PVA glue.

Once the base had been covered the wet glue was covered in some kiln dried sand.

Once dried it looked good to me!

Although neither the base or tank is finished I could not resist posing them together - just what I hoped for! Just need to push on and finish it subject to any more issues with real trees! 

Its all trees today!

Getting back into things after a few days away I started to make a base for the Egyptian T34 tank. I made one for the Russian T34 and just as a reminder here it is.

 I made the base for the Egyptian T34 in the same manner and to the same size as the one above using the styrene base that pizzas used to come with - I built up a stock some years ago as I eat many pizzas and now the styrene is no longer environmentally friendly so has been replaced by cardboard.

The new base was cut out.

The tank was placed on it and a small raised section added for a little variety.

In the WMD HQ Stock Room some palm trees have been languishing for some years - I bought them because I wanted one for a project but could only buy a pack of six. However they have now been useful and another two have been used for this project.

The base was sprayed with Halfords grey primer and two palm trees were glued in place and the tank placed to see how it looked.

I would have applied the sand base to it this afternoon but unfortunately my plan was curtailed by my apple tree in the garden which decided the weight of apples was too heavy for one of the branches and it half broke off. 

It is an old tree - about 50 years in age - so I guess it is coming towards the end of its time. I will be spending some time cleaning this mess up. I managed to fully cut the broken branch off as it was resting on adjacent branches which could have ended up breaking under the additional weight. Mrs. Woody and me need to decide if we take the tree out completely and plant a new one or see if we cut it all back and get some shape into it whether it will last a few more years. Whatever we decide, it is only when you start clearing up something like this that you realise just how big trees are in kit form but then again it is all about the trees today!