Please bear in mind that I am definitely not an artist or in any way skilled in model making. Here is my first attempt making a tree. I used the twisted wire armature method. I coated the bare wire with latex rubber prior to painting. Unfortunately I did not coat the wire sufficiently to cover the obvious twist in the wire trunk. Live and learn. I have three more armatures built but I am going to re-coat the latex rubber before adding the greenery. I learned this process by watching Luke Towan videos on youtube. His work is amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNQTxX_jT4
Here is a tree trunk after latex application and spray paint. Notice you can still see that it is made from twisted wire:
Back to the drawing board. I re-coated the three tree armatures with a thick layer of latex:
Once the latex rubber is fully dried I will paint them flat earth brown and apply the foliage.
Here are the products I am using.
Spray adhesive--used for attaching foliage.
To get a more realistic look, I used several different foliage.
Bare wire before latex application:
So I used some old floral wire that I have had for probably 30 years (or longer). I don't even remember why I bought it originally. I have made four trees and as you see, I have barely made a dent in my supply. Here is the wire I am using:
