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TELOXYS ARISTATA TUTORIAL

TUTORIAL TELOXYS ARISTATA

FOR A VARIETY OF TREES

Layout made by Tim Huurman

Layout made and tuTeloxys

aristata, also called seafoam, zeeschuim,
meerschaum, espuma de mar, is a natural plant, environmentally
friendly, vegan, and organic.
Seafoam for sale on EBAY
➢ Three minute seafoam tree (Page 2)
➢ Straighten seafoam tree (Page 2) )
➢ Remove some twigs from the seafoam tree (Page 3)
➢ Remove some seamos twigs from tree for more realism
(Page 3)
➢ Bundled single seafoam tree (Page 4-5)
➢ Aspen trees with Seafoam and back grounds (Page 6-7-8-9)
➢ To avoid shade forming of trees on background (Page 10)
➢ Attach seafoam branches to wooden skewer (Page 11)
➢ Twisted steel wire pine trees with seafoam (Page 12-13-14-
15-16)
➢ Making steel wire loops (Page 14)
➢ Adding dead branches (Page 15)
➢ Samples of twisted steel wire trees (Page 16)
➢ Triangular shaped pine trees (Pages 19-20-21)
➢ Contact (Page 21)
 2

THREE MINUTE SEAFOAM TREE

With seafoam you
can make a large variety
of fantastic realistic
looking trees, deciduous,
pines, bushes, and
undergrowth, in spring,
summer, autumn or
winter colours.

Seafoam you can

use straight out of
the package for a
winter scene, or spray
glue them, and sprinkle
coarse turf on it in winter (for instance soft flake snow), or
green, yellow, red, or orange coarse turf.

The quickest
way to
straighten a
seafoam tree, if
necessary, is with a
hot silicone gun
(without the silicone
stick, and not more
than 3 to 5 seconds)
or hot welding rot on the bend sections of the trunk of the tree.
You don’t want to burn the tree. It is the heat that straightens the
bend seafoam tree. There are other ways to straighten seafoam
trees, but this is my preferred one.
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Remove the
long-shaped
leaves from the
tree with tweezers, or
carefully by hand. In
this process some
seafoam twigs might
break off, but don’t
worry they can be used
later, for another type
of deciduous tree, pine
trees, bushes or
undergrowth

Remove
some twigs
from the
seafoam
tree by hand, or
cut them off with
scissors, and if
you like, leaving a
bit of the twig as
part of a dead
broken off branch.
Apart from
thinning seafoam
trees for more
realism, you can also remove seafoam from the trunk by holding
thumb and index finger at the top, and move the other hand
downwards.
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Sprinkle the tree with the

desired colour course turf, and
than spray with a strong
hairspray or acrylic satin
varnish to conserve and give
firmness to the tree.

Your low cost, very realistic

looking deciduous tree is
now finished, within more
or less 3 minutes. A bit longer
if you have to straighten the
seafoam tree.

Make a hole on your layout

where the tree is going to go,
and carefully plant it (Seafoam
tree trunks are delicate and
fragil.

BUNDLED SINGLE SEAFOAM TREE

You may have thin looking
seafoam trees, with only a
few branches, may be slightly
bend, which are not good for
a nice-looking single tree.
Notice the loose twigs. They
came loose while removing
the long sleeved leaves.
Don’t throw them
away. I will be using them
in the next step
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The before mentioned thin

looking seafoam trees, with
only a few branches, may be
slightly bend, which are not
good for a nice-looking
single tree, .can be ideally
used for bundling 3 or
more of them
together, as shown in the
picture. If you look carefully,
there are plenty of them in
nature, and will look very
realistic on a layout.

Notice the 4 loose twigs earlier. I put 3 at the bottom into the
foam, and 1 on the left trunk in the middle

Spray glue each tree individually, as

well as the pieces at the bottom of
the photo. Sprinkle course foam on
the tree in the desired colour.

In this case I used sand colour course

foam, sparya glued it again, put light
green fine turf, and finished off with
light green grass vezels. Your
bundle of trees is now
finished.
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ASPEN TREES WITH BACKGROUND PHOTOS

I took some wooden twigs out

of the garden. Painted them off
white, with some black-brown
spots on them.

A few pieces of seafoam twigs

I sprayed with glue, and
sprinkled with yellow-orange
course foam autumn colours.

I painted a piece of
hardboard with sky
blue acrylic paint.

I down loaded a free

photo of a aspen tree
forest. I printed the
photos on 2 A4
sheets. One of them
printed reverse. Cut
the A4 sheets along
the top of the aspen
trees, and glued them
with paper glue that
doesn’t wrinkle onto
the hardboard.
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I put the painted

twigs from the
garden into the
foam layout base,
and some against
the photos. On
this photo there
are already some
prepared loose
seafoam twigs
glued with PVA
glue on the top
part of the aspen
trees on the two
photos.

I completed the forest

diorama layout, gluing
some prepared yellow-
orange seafoam twigs
on the background
photo, and on top of
the trunks of th aspen
trees in front of the
photo, giving an extra
sense of depth.
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I completed the diorama with some deciduous and pine trees I had
prepared, as well as some additional prepared aspen trees.

The result gives a scenic forest effect.

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The background is a hardboard sheet painted blue with clouds.

The mountains are from a free photo I downloaded from the
internet. Printed on a A4 sheet, cut out where the mountain meets
the sky, and glued onto the hardboard with paper glue that
doesn’t wrinkle. The forest in front of the mountains is also from
a free photo from the internet, cut out the same way, and glued
onto the photo with the mountain.

For a complete view of all the layouts I made up to date, with

many photos and videos, visit my website
www.trainset.webs.com
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Another layout of mine. To avoid shade forming of the trees on

the hardboard blue sky back ground, pine trees are cut in half, and
glued to the hardboard.
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ATTACH SEAFOAM BRANCHES TO SKEWER

Another way is,

using a wooden
skewer, and attach 2, 3
or more skinny, barely
covered seafoam branches
to the wooden skewer, or
twisted steel wire length.
The best way to attach the
seafoam branches, is with
sewing thread. When you
wind the sewing thread
around the trunk and the
seamos branch it sort of
automatically sticks.
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TWISTED STEEL WIRE TREE WITH SEAFOAM

For a strong unbreakable, bendable tree trunk and branches with
seafoam, I recommend steel, aluminium or copper wire of 0,5 mm
to 0,7 mm diameter.

• Twisted steel wire trees look very unnatural. You can use
masking tape, which you can immediately paint once you
are finished.

• You can also use use aluminium foil on the trunk and
branches to cover up the twisted steel wire. Aluminium foil
bends and shapes very easily, but doesn’t hold acrylic paints
very well.

• Cover the trunk with PVA glue mixed with fine sawdust,
and once the PVA glue is dry, paint the trunk. Another way
is using acrylic paste with a brush or spatula. Let the paste
dry and paint it.
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Top left: I cut 8 pieces of steel wire 20 cms length, and 0,5 mm
diameter. Depending on what scale you are modelling you have to
adjust the length, not necessarily the diameter.

Top right: Here I started twisting the wires by hand. 3 lengths on

one side, and 3 lengths on the other side. At least 7 or more
twists. If less it may not hold.

Bottom left: · wires for roots on one side, and 3 roods on the
other side. 2 wires pointing downwards for pinching into the base
foam board. You can also twist 2 wires together for pinching into
your layout foam board. If you use plaster, you will first have to
drill or pinch a hole.

Bottom right: Starting to put masking tape onto the trunk

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Top left: Here I

used 6 x 20 cms x
0,5 mm diameter
twisted steel wire.
Covered the trunk
with masking
tape, about 6
turns.

Top right:
Showes loops

Bottom left:
Showes to starts
of winding a
masking tape
around a branch
of the tree.

Bottom right: Continuing winding masking tape around the

branches of the tree

Making steel wire loops

Top left: showing two
branch wires

Top right: Take the left

steel wire, and bend it
over the other branch.

Bottom left: Twist the

end of the loop wire with
the right steel wire.

Bottom right: Twist the

loop, as much as you
prefer. Cut the remaining loop with a cutter.
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Adding dead
branches is not
obligatory, but adds
more reality to a tree,
particularly with tall
pine trees. Use a long
steel wire, two times the
length of the trunk, and
start just under where
the trunk splits into
branches. Make 3, 4 or
more loops. This may
need some practise, but
don’t give up.

Paint the twisted

steel wire tree
covered with
masking tape, with
acrylic paints. The
bark colour of a tree
differs from one
tree to the other. I
recommend to take
a photo of the tree
you want to model,
and paint in the
colours accordingly.
A dry brush of grey
paint may give
added reality. You
can also put this tree as is, as a dead tree onto your layout.
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Top left and right:

Use scraps or twigs of
Seafoam. Or take a
seafoam tree, and
remove the twigs from
the trunk with your
fingers.

Bottom left: Put PVA

glue or spray glue the
tip ends of the tree
branches. Place the
seafoam scraps or
twigs onto the tipends
of the tree. The twig
end facing into the
tree.

Bottom right: Spray glue the tree, and sprinkle course turf or fine
turf, or a mixture of both. In this case I only used fine turf.

Samples of twisted steel wire trees, but all with the same basic
steel structure method as described earlier.

Pine tree made with

seafoam scraps and twigs,
sprinkled with course dark
green foam, and dusted
lightly with light green fine
turf. The trunk covered with
PVA glue mixed with fine
sawdust.
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Pine tree made with

seafoam scraps and twigs,
sprinkled with course
dark green foam, and
dusted lightly with light
green fine turf. The trunk
covered with masking
tape, and painted with a
mixture of dark brown,
ocre, and white acrylic
paint. You can bend it
anyway you like.

Pine tree made

with seafoam
scraps and twigs,
sprinkled with
course yellow
grass foam, and
dusted lightly
with dark green
fine turf. The
trunk covered with
masking tape, and
painted with a
mixture of dark
brown, ocre, and
white acrylic paint.
You can bend it
anyway you like.
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Twisted wire
deciduous tree made
with seafoam scraps
and twigs, sprinkled
with course yellow
grass foam, and
dusted lightly with
dark green fine turf.
The trunk covered
with PVA glue mixed
with fine sawdust,
and painted with a
mixture of dark
brown, ocre, and
white acrylic paint. You can bend it anyway you like.

This is exactly the same

deciduous tree made with
seafoam as above. Being
bendable steel wire, I just
shaped it differently to show
the possibilities.

Steel wire trees take a bit

more time, but are definitely my favourite. A steel wire tree as
described in this tutorial, around 15 cms high, takes me about 15
to 25 minutes, and 5 minutes more if adding dead branches.
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TRIANGULAR SHAPED PINE TREES

Triangular shaped pine trees, are the only ones I normally make
with twisted steel wire and sisal instead of seafoam, as it is much
quicker to make. I do usually 3 or 4 at the time, each tree about 15
cms high, takes me more or less 20 minutes, e.g. about 5 to 7
minutes per pine tree.

Modelling a triangular shaped pine tree with seafoam

Image on the left. Twisted 2 x 20 cms wires, and than made

loops with a 40 cms wire. Shown here are the loops cut.

Image on the right: Covered the tree frame entirely with PVA
glue, and then with scraps and loose twigs of seafoam
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I cut the seafoam and shaped the tree

with scissors, to give it a triangular
shape.

Spray glued the tree all over. Sprinkled

the tree with course green and course
burned grass turf, and last with fine
green turf.

The height of the tree is 20 cms. This

tree took me almost 20 minutes to make.

For comparison below triangular pine trees made with twisted

steel wire and sisal
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Layout made by Tim Huurman

I certainly hope that this tutorial has been helpful for you, and
please do not hesitate to contact me for more information.

Seafoam for sale on EBAY

CONTACT
Tim Huurman,
Denia (Alicante), Spain.
Mobile: +34 609142089
Email: huurman.tim@gmail.com
Website: www.trainset.webs.com