lookin good. I'm planing to just use Spackle for enhanced tree trunks. Either that or wood putty. I've got a bag of skewers and a furnace filter already to get started. Just need time.
Mark, this is the first time I've really had a chance to look through this thread. Awesome work! Those Pines look excellent. Looking forward to more progress.
Well I bought a tube of All-Purpose caulk today. So far I'm not digging the stuff. I covered 6 skewers with it at about 2pm. At about 5pm, I coated another skewer with Joint Compound. At 11 PM I turned the JC skewer into a fully finished tree (my best one yet), while the 6 other skewers are just barely half dry. Furthermore, the JC was easy to carve/shape to a desired trunk texture where as the caulk (testing the parts that are already dry) dont carve/shape worth a darn. So it looks like JC will have yet another use on Thunder Ridge. Here's a photo of the newest tree (the thick trunk on the right), as well as a few rock casting temporarily placed where they most likely will end up.
Well we had a blizzard at Thunder Ridge last night! I finished covering the entire terrain with the first coat of Joint Compound. No more bare pink! Still waiting on rock molds to arrive so I can make all the castings necessary, I continued building some trees. Here's a close up of two with the cherry top finish, the dead branches. Check out the "N Scale- What's on Your Workbench" thread for a quick tutorial on how I made these trees.
Mark, I'm extremely jealous of the amount of time you've had to work on this. Just last night I finally was able to rip into the furnace filter and bamboo skewers and play around with it. I like the use of plaster. As I said, that's essentially what I've done with bottle brush trees and I think it will work hear as well. I'm also toying with glueing multiple skewers together to gain height.
You might try balsa, basswood, or any of the various dowels that you can usually find at hobby shops/hardware stores/craft supply. They come in various thicknesses and last I checked, I believe prices were 25-75 cents for a 2 foot dowel, depending on thickness. I'm heading out to the grocery store here soon and plan to pick out a few dowels at the hobby shop on the way. Since I'm still nervous about CA gluing the dead limbs to the joint compound, I'm going to carve from the thick dowels for some bare/dead trees so I can glue the many limbs directly to wood, and have a sure adhesion too.
Oh yeah, I know about balsa which I plan to use as well, but even at those prices its quite a bit more expensive per tree. Also, I've not seen balsa quite that cheap. Dowels and Basswood would be even more expensive and harder to work with. Plus, the actual carving adds time. It's really only useful for foreground focal point trees. If it had been me, I'd have made a hole all the way down to the skewer and used would glue to attach the branches. Or alternatively gone with wood putty and stuck them in before it dried.
Mark, if you drill small holes for the branches, you will find that they hold much better. Yes it is more work but you get better adhesion. Just my opinion.
Yes, but I'm not sure it will be that much better as the holes would only be about 1/8th inch deep, and even then, gluing to Joint Compound is just not going to hold well. I'll try it with the next one though for sure. I know there's got to be better material for thickening up the trunks than Joint Compound and the Caulk adhesive i tried. Other than the dead limbs, the JC is working great though. I checked out that wood putty last time I was at the hardware store, but it was a bit pricey. Anyways, I'm out the door now. Let's see what I can find with today's outing.
Better than Joint compound and as cheap? That's not the way the world works my friend. One thing I've used for limbs before is Michaels sells a decorative twig broom I bought one and clipped various bits off. Works for deadfall, dead branches on conifers, entire trees structures for deciduous. And you can get a lot out of it. My wife tossed it when we moved, so I'm going to have to buy another one.
Rock molds arrived today! Unfortunately, two of the three molds are the two of the Woodland Scenic selection that least resemble the type of rocks along the D&S High Line (Washed Rock and Weathered Rock, not "jaggy" enough for the High Line. It's ok though, I can make compromises like that. So while I let another batch of rock castings set, here's the newest tree on Thunder Ridge! Unfortunately, it was dead on arrival. But look! At least some form of life came with it! I wonder if that is it's nest in the neighboring tree.
I just took a tiny bit of scrap styrene, filed it down to the silhouette of an Eagle, then painted the body with a black sharpie. It's not so much that they're growing in joint compound as they are growing through it. Like bamboo, I guess these trees are just getting the real nutrients from the heavily saturated pink foam under the joint compound, then sprouting through the J.C. So you see, the real question is, how the heck are these trees growing in extruded foam!
One more shot of these trees. I just cant get enough of how they look on this terrain! Ok, here's the real story. Rock Work!! This is why I love working with foam so much. The rock castings placed over the initial terrain pushed out way too far, overhanging the track. I can easily cut the foam back, and even cut slots where the rock castings can fit into to create a seamless terrain. Unfortunately, after just three castings, my newest mold became damaged. I've contacted Woodland Scenics about getting a replacement as I think the life span on these molds should be much more than only 3 castings. I guess that means it's back to trees again while I wait for the replacement.
I had to fertilize it. I found that "Great Stuff" was the best form of miracle grow for this type of tree.
