Trees! (or now for something a bit different)

I took a break from painting miniatures this past week to make some terrain - not for wargaming, but for my sons' wooden railway.  We recently picked up two sets of the wooden railway from IKEA, and it's been a great hit with both kids.  I like particularly most wooden railways are mutually compatible, including IKEA, Thomas the Tank Engine, BRIO and Melissa and Doug.  This means that I can load up on track from IKEA or M&D, and save up for specialized items like bridges or buildings from BRIO or Thomas.  

However, it is very difficult to find terrain other than buildings for any wooden railway.  I searched through many different catalogues, and could only find a handful of trees available, and only as part of a much larger set (I think one set was over $100, and included two trees along with a full set of tracks, trains, bridges and whatnot).  So I eventually figured out that if I wanted trees, I'd have to build them myself.

So I stopped by Michaels and picked up some cones (wooden doll bodies) and balls (dolls heads) plus a length of dowel and some wooden wheels.

I then got to work cutting the dowel to the necessary length, and glued it in place.  The dowel I selected was a perfect fit for the cones and balls, but the holes in the wheels were just a little too big, so I needed to pack them with a bit of modelling putty to get a good fit.

Once the glue dried and the putty set, I slapped on some paint (gloss green for the upper part and a flat brown for the trunk and base).

And here are the trees along with the IKEA train and tracks.  

Nice and quick little terrain project.  Parts cost me around $25, and I still have lots of paint left over (and I could probably find a cheaper source for parts than Michaels, to boot).