Finally here's the tree on the club layout. In order to brighten it up, I sprinkled on some grass blend that the club had. You can see how much taller this tree is than the commercial and bottle brush trees underneath. My plan is to replace many of the sissy Z scale trees over the next few months. To complete perspective, smaller trees will be in the back. You can also see how I'd put way too many branches up top. It looked ok initially, but once the ground foam is on, its just too dense for the type of look I'm going for. The next 2 trees I did I used just the grass blend. I felt these were too light. My final mix will probably be 66% conifer green 33% dark green. These to me make excellent Ponderosa or Lodgepole pines. I'm not sure how they do for Douglas Fir which I will need a number of. I think bottle brush or possibly even more complex trees would work better.
Nice looking trees! Are you modelling in HO or N? Has anyone ever tried using Scotch Brite pads for the foliage on their trees? It is a lot denser than furnace filter, but it could possibly be tufted out to thin it down. I may just go home tonight and try it out. BvL
I have (for N Scale) and they turned out great. I was able to pull about 3-4 layers of foliage from a single pad.
I'm working in HO. My problem with Scotchbrite is that 1: the cost per tree is too high This is fine if you're only doing a few trees along an Alpine tree line, but if you're say...modeling Western Oregon/Washington or Upstate California, it is...not cheap. 2: I don't actually want it any more dense than Furnace filter is already producing. I let the Turf/Foliage mix create the density. I currently have my stash of old bottle brush trees that I made a few years ago. They still look good albeit a completely different type of conifer. I've discovered that the Super77 glue pretty much never completely lost it's tack, so the trees are now deformed with branches stuck together. So I'm currently trying to clean them up and reflock them and improve their trunks. I also have some Moss based branch material I grabbed from my club. This is expensive stuff for fancy foreground trees. I'm going to try to make a few with my current trunks. finally, I noticed on a trip up to Mt. St. Helens over Labor day that there is a type of tree in the higher altitude tree farms that has a much more gray green needle structure. It's also got near horizontal branch structures. They look like big noble firs, but grayer (at least they looked grayer there). I'm trying to dope out how I might make some of those. I'm also contemplating how to turn Woodland Scenics conifers into passable cedars and similar style trees.
I made 21 trees from a 1.99 (6x9in) scotch brite pad found at the hardware store. Add a few cents for the skewer and Joint Compound for the Trunk that's just about 10-12 cents per tree.
Furnace filter are 20x30x1 for $6-$7 and i'm getting around 10 trees out of the same material as your pad. Given that my HO trees are twice as tall for a given prototype That suggests I'm getting around the same number of branches for a given amount of material. Roughly 10 Scotchbrite equivalent sections in a 20x30 sheet means that you're talking about 6¢-7¢ per tree for the material plus cost of trunk and flocking. I'd say I'm probably making out at around the same price you are, but my trees are by nature larger. If I were making half size trees, my cost would be around halfish. Again, not a big deal unless you're talking about an awful lot of trees. Which I am. Again, I'm not poo pooing Scotch brite as a material for making trees in general, I'm saying in My case, H.O. needing a large number of trees, it just isn't as cost effective as furnace filter.
:tb-biggrin:YoHO: I'd say you're doing it right. I've been using the same technique for quite a few years on my Yuba River Sub, which is set in the Northern California Sierra, and for high-country Lodgepole and Ponderosa (which is prevalalent in my neck of the woods), you've got it pretty much down. Another option for trunks instead of dowels, is to use redwood shingles, split at an angle and rounded off with a fairly rough file (I can't use the term on the forum, but we used to call them the same name as an illegitimate child in the Medieval Era, if you get what I mean--the big files with the rough edges). The file will give you the needed trunk texture and the filters will slide over them and really STAY! The redwood itself won't need much in the way of coloring, though I generally use a light overspray of dark gray to 'weather' it. Then spray the whole thing--filter and trunk--with some really CHEAP hairspray and sprinkle on the foliage. I generally use a mixture of WS dark and light green ground foam. Let it dry a little, shake off the excess foam, and then give the tree another good soaking with the hair spray. I've got trees about seven years old that haven't started shedding yet, and my layout's in a "California Basement" (uninsulated garage). Stuff really works, by golly. PS: Check Home Depot for prices on their furnace filter material--I found a 1x3' blue natural fibre pad for about $6, and I've made about 30 trees so far and only used about a quarter of it. The natural material pulls apart into VERY thin 'branches' and can fill a tree up to about 12" high. If you get the 'plastic' fibre, it doesn't pull apart as thin. It also doesn't take the hair spray as well. Tom
If you buy the filter material in bulk rolls 3'x25' you could make even more. And we machinists still call them "mill b¤¤¤¤¤¤s". Large flat files in fine to extra course pitch. But as usual the selfish PC police must have there way. :tb-hissyfit:
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ files You don't need to be wary of using this term in the sense you are meaning. Definition (borrowed from Wikipedia because it was quickly available but verifiable on more serious sites) of a bas tard file: The cut of the file refers to how fine its teeth are. They are defined as, from roughest to smoothest: rough, middle, ba s tard, second cut, smooth, and dead smooth. In other words, "bast ard" is an official term for a type of file, not a word some perturbed user hung on it. Bill B South Okaloosa N Scalers (There! Been a trainboard member for weeks. Now I won't get the message at the top of every page that says "because you have never posted...")
Names of files aside, here is a picture of my first ever attempt at scratch built trees. The two on the left are Scotch-Brite pads, and the two on the right are steel wool, Grit '0'. I think with a little more trimming the steel wool may have the potential to look like something. I used collected twigs, spray adhesive, textured spray paint, and regular spray paint. They are still a little shiny, but I think a little foam will mask that and bring them to life a little better.
Mr. Bevale: Those are nice looking trees, but I'd be VERY wary of using the steel wool anywhere near the tracks, because it gets VERY attracted to locomotive motor magnets. Just a caution from this end. Tom
Good point on that. After having made 1 or two more out of steel wool, I am not sold on how they look anyhow. It is off to try the next idea
Ooo, Cedar Shingles. There's a good idea...and easy to get around here. I agree, for lodge pole and Ponderosa, they can't be beat. Now I have to figure out a Douglas fir The problem with douglas fir is that the branches are generally angled up, not straight or down. I'm thinking bottle brush, but flipped upside down and trimmed correctly. Will have to play around with it. I've also, as I mentioned, got some of the fancy "Moss" product to play with. As for Ba s tard. There's also the B as ta rd Sword which is a pretty common term. Alas, we live in a world where those aren't the primary uses of the term and thus we must adjust our mindset.
