An exotic garden railway feature

Buying presents for my dad isn't easy. He doesn't do technology or flash stuff. No point buying sweets either since he went sugar free.

With father's day approaching, I found myself in Hereford Model Centre looking for ideas. No kits - like me he has a huge backlog of projects. I wanted something fun anyway.

 He's always been interested in birds, there is an aviary in his distant past as well as a couple of years working at a zoo. When I spotted the Playmobil Tropical birds set, it looked perfect and as expected, amused him greatly.

Now, we have a little garden railway project on the go and Playmobil products are about the right size, so could this live outside? Well, it's plastic so no worried on this score but that means it's light and would be blown away in the wind. That tree needs roots.

Like most modellers, I collect "useful" things and in the paintbrush pot are several swizzle sticks.

Breaking one in half, it fitted into a 4mm diameter holes drilled up the tree. Dipped in Plastic Weld, the paddle end soon stuck in place. That ought to be enough, but as I had more stick left over, I added a piece through the paddle.

Job done, the "roots" are pushed hard into the earth and the tree should stay put no matter how hard the wind blows.