Tree question

friscobob,

I like to use local plants like yarrow, sedum and oregano. I hear other plants work even better, especially ragweed, but they didn't grow in New Mexico. It's really cheap, and I like the variation. I just spray paint them various shades of green, and occasionally dust them with ground foam. I guess they will eventually dry out and become fragile, but I'm onto eight years and counting for most of them. When they do break, mostly because I'm clumsy, I just replace them. I think I did a tutorial on them a while back; I'll either look that up if you'd like, or actually write one if my memory is faulty. I did publish an article on the subject in N-Scale Magazine a while back that I think I composed on my blog.

 

Hi Friscobob,

This past year I was helping a fellow architectural modelbuilder get his "trees" out into the marketplace and had listed several different types on eBay. They are excellent, airy (the term I use for "see thru" characteristics of the tree), and look pretty nice particularly in N scale. I've attached one or two jpegs of some of them, though as a recent "registrant" I'm not sure of all the "ins" and "outs" of 'file size' for attachments.

Let me try and if successful I look forward to hearing from you. I'm in the middle of a major "house move, coupled with some rebuilding of part of the kitchen" so time is not always the best for me to reply.

Sincerely
Steven R. Schwengel

 

Once again, I thought I'd already clicked on quick reply and am now unsure as to what the status of my reply is.

saguaro3585

 

I use a spray adhesive like 3M or Duo. Spray contact cement. Works great.

Yep, weeks make great 'stems' for trees, especially small ones. When you get bigger Sage branches are awesome.

 

Friscobob - Let me address some specific points worth your consideration regarding model trees for layouts.

The first is that trees and bushes are one of the first things the viewer takes note of on a layout visit. Their realism in appearance makes the different between your layout coming across as a professional-looking diorama, or just a toy train set. Their realism, or lack thereof, will also stick in the minds of visitors just as much as seeing those little trains running around.

I have never quite understood why hobbyists who will spend $300 on a locomotive seem so unwilling to expend any real funds on properly scenicking their layouts. Instead they usually choose to employ very crude and unrealistic-looking substitutes, such as common weeds, fiber puffballs and obviously plastic trees.

When it comes to creating "lots of trees", no product currently on the market, or alternate approach, does a better job for the price than Scenic Express' SuperTrees. While a box of the tree armatures, plus an assortment of ground foams to flock the trees, will run perhaps $150, it is possible in N scale to make upwards of 500 trees from that package - that's about $.30 per tree and enough of them to fully scenic most layouts - while at the same time make the layout scenes appear extremely realistic with relatively little skill and effort.

Here are some examples from my layout:





NYW&B

 

Friscobob - If you have a "craft" store in your area you might want to take a look inside. On a "joint" shopping trip with my B2W (guess who was "ramrod" on that venture) she led me to a Michaels Craft Store.

Once inside I found two rather large packages of greenery, both of which were (to me) quite suitable for trees, a lot of 'em, and cheap. A large amount make up most of the forest around Mullet Pond and the rest serve very well as fill-in for mixed forest.

A bonus was the price on some of the craft paints that I picked up and found very suitable for modelling.

This was for my HO scale layount, but who knows what you might find for N or after some judicious trimming.

 

I'll second NYW&B on this one. The SuperTrees kits are very nice and you can get an awful lot of trees out of one box worth. They include enough of a variety of foliage so that you can vary your trees quite a bit. Also, Woodland Scenics 'fine leaf foliage' is great for trees in heavily wooded areas such as along a right of way or on the side of a road where trees can look fairly scraggly.
If you're concerned about expense, use the nicer stuff up front and the cheaper stuff in the back for fill. This way, anyone looking at the layout will focus on the nicer trees and not so much on the others. Also, since they would be toward the back, the trunks won't be so visible and all you'll have to worry about is a good looking tree-top...

 

Bob-

Something to consider-

Are you going for a few dozen trees for the area in total or a forest?

If a few dozen in total, you will probably get stuck with the individual tree route. But, if you are creating a forest, think of an actual forest. You can only see the trunks and branches of the first few lines of trees and sparser areas (only from above in the sparser areas). Irregularly shapes clumps might just do the trick without breaking the piggy bank for the trees further back. Using dark forest ground cover will also obfuscate what is behind the first few rows.

Do some, ask opinions of neighbors ( I can't since nobody speaks with me) and take several shots from the magic three foot away line and see what it looks like. I bet that if the rear areas are not done in geometrically correct shapes and very slight, if any, subtle color variations,, it will look just fine.

I recently looked at some of the finer, more expensive tree products and shuddered not at the work, but at the cost of the product. I agree with NYW&B that not enough thought is put into scenery, but we are all of varying monetary situations and skill levels.

By the way- don't ever forget the trusty coffee bean grinder for chopping up clumpier material if that is what you want to do. Of course, I was forced to purchase a brand new one for my wife since she didn't feel good about the WS clump powder in the one machine we USED TO HAVE.

 

I'm not a big fan of even Scenic express trees. Aside from Aspens, I'm always a little underwhelmed with commercial product.


But then, I'm mainly looking for Conifers and unless you need it to be a "christmas tree" type, you're going to be out of luck.

 

Bob, here is the least expensive way I found to make trees for the Van Buren Sub. I have Nandina bushes along the west wall of the train room. This bush produces a tree-like armature that has red berries. I strip the berries as soon as possible to allow the armatures to remain as straight as possible. When the armatures turn brown, they will break off the bush very easily. If you bend the armature and it doesn't break off easily, it's too early to harvest. Here is a pic of some armatures after harvesting.


Then I take fine or medium ground foam (pick a shade) and place it in a 3lb coffee can (it gives you more room than a 1lb can). Actually I buy the block of foam and break it up into the texture I want. While holding the tree by the trunk, I then spray the ends of the armature with 3M adhesive (I've tried hair spray and it doesn't work for me) and stick it into the foam and coat the armature liberally with the foam then twirl the armature between my fingers to remove the excess foam. Lightly press the remaining foam against the armature to insure good contact, stick it into a piece of scrap blue or pink foam and let it dry for an hour or two.


After drying plant to your hearts content and you have a forest.


A bag of WS block foam is about $8 and a can of adhesive is $3 or $4 at Home Depot. Depending on the size of trees I build I get about 100 plus trees for $15 and a little labor.