The Halloween Tree

[morselchip]

Yay! The other tank looks great too- can't wait to see this one finished (still!)

[ChrisK]

Originally Posted by tkromer

Nice shape and good work, the markered on face made me laugh though

yeah i actually laughed out loud when i saw the green face drawn on too, i wanna see it all finished up!

[Pirateglow]

That is wonderful!!! How about red LED eye lights

[keekalmatter]

Red LEDs would be awesome lol.

[Dane]

I was actually planning on green...

[FatArthur]

Please keep update, it is so amazing.

I have a request, could you tell us that how can you make the texture or the tree?
Did you just use a cutter to cut the foam?
Are there any tricks/skills?

Thank you very much.

[Dane]

I used a series of wood files/rasps to cut the channels and even out the surface. The underlying foam is much easier to coat with silicone.

I debated about using epoxy or a grout mix to coat it, but it's so far behind schedule that I just went with reliable silicone/coco.

I baked some ultrafine husk mulch for about an hour until it turned a deeper brown.



I used this to fill in the depressions that I made with the rasps.


Then I used normal mulch to cover all the elevated planes to help the illusion of bark.


Fully coated!




A picture of the rear side of the eye. I made "sockets" out of a spray-painted plastic Easter egg to run the LEDs through.


MUAHAHAHA!!!


I'm not satisfied with the eyes. I still want to experiment with a few different configurations, but that's how the tree sits right now.

[AlexRible]

Dane all I can say is "Wow". At first I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but the way you made the depressions a darker color really makes it pop and look like a real stump. Well worth the wait!

[MJ]

Looks the nuts mate!

[melissa68]

Wow - pretty cool.