A little experimental arboriculture

I've made trees before now using the twisted-wire-skeleton method demonstrated by Mel the Terrain Tutor but I'm out of suitable wire at the moment so I thought I'd try an alternative method.

Years (nay decades) ago I remember one of the Blue Peter presenters (probably John Noakes; it always turns out to have been John Noakes) making intricate models of winter trees by manipulating and welding together rods of semi-molten glass.  It occurred to me that I could do something similar.

After half an hour with some plastic sprue, liquid polystyrene cement and a candle I had:

I've cemented each tree skeleton to a piece of thick plasticard and then glued the plasticard to a larger cardboard base.

After they'd had a chance to set, I started applying Green Stuff bark to the trunk of one of them:

Not a very clear picture but I think it will look OK when it's painted.  I've only bothered with texturing the lower parts.  The upper branches will be covered by foliage.

The next stage will be to paint and then attach the foliage.  Of which more later.