Cheap trees?

[Anonymous]

So my son is 6 years old. Hes a Thomas the tank fanatic. His grandfather decides to get him a Thomas train set. It needed something to sit on and be perminant so I decided I would build a simple layout for him.

First thing, Ive never done this before. But I got the woodland scenics how to video and they did a whole 4x8 scene in 1 hour. How hard can this be? I work in the construction industry, I fly RC Helicopters I can mix some plaster and wad up some news paper and build my boy a layout.

HAHA easy nor cheap this is. So after 3 days and 200 bucks wasted on woodland scenics plaster cloth and thier 20 dollar elmers glue. All I have is a mountain with a tunnel and track laid.

Since im so skilled I decided to tra***he EZ track in favor of Code 83 Atlas track, that way I could run it on that nifty foam noise deadner and have the cool balast too!. Yea anyway, once I glued the track down with my 20 dollar bottle of woodlandselmer glue. Its louder then it was originally without foam yay.

So here I sit, painted mountian, painted surface, and track down. Now I spent 200 bucks already for a 70 dollar toy. And I still need to do all the trees and grass and whatnot. I refuse to give woodland scenics anymore of my money, so heres my question...

Is there a cheap way to make about 75-100 trees about 4-5 inches tall? The kind of tree doesnt matter as long as it looks like a tree. Down here we have very hilly areas and they are covered with trees, thats what I want to do to the mountain thing I have, make it into a mountain forest.

And while we are at it, how about some cheap grass? The ground foam looks too much like astro turf to me. Our grass is more like hay, it grows tall and weedy.

Oh yea, I need to have this done before christmas morning :)

[cheese3]

by christmas morning!!!!!! wow!!!!, your running out of time! Cheap trees can be made using some solid wire(not stranded), clay, furnace filter, and ground foam.Take about 5 pieces of wire about 5 inches long or so, twist the wires together at the bottom for about 2 inches and then fan the strands out at the top for armatures. take the clay, cover the twisted wire, mold the clay into a tree trunk shape. take some furnace filter cover the "armatures" and glue on, paint the whole thing grey and roll the furnace filter part in ground foam

[Jetrock]

$200 on a 4x8 scene is absolutely bargain-basement: don't quote me on this, but apparently a common price range for model railroads is around $100-150 per square foot of layout space!

The furnace-filter method is also used to create conifers by using barbecue skewers, painted gray, then jab round chunks of furnace filter material onto the skewers, paint them a suitable green and dip them in ground foam.

One thing to think about, when it comes to trees--do you need to model every tree? If you look at a thick forest from above, you can only see the treetops--consider just using a mass of lichen or foam or other tree material glued to a dark mat, with a row or two of "real" trees in front. That will save you a lot of work...

Woodland Scenics ground foam can be used to good effect--try using several colors rather than just one, to provide some contrast and the natural color variation you see in real grass. For tall grass, many modelers use pieces of fake "fun fur" dyed a grassy green and cut to appropriate length with hair clippers.

[Anonymous]

Nandina bu***wigs look like tree trunk and branches. Dip in diluted Elmer's Glue ( 2 or 3 to 1 water to glue) and roll the twigs in Lichen. Can get at hobby Lobby or get your own and I've heard you can preserve it in anti-freeze. May take a couple of application of the crumbled lichen but looks very realistic.

[waltersrails]

take some flowers that are dried up small ones and spray paint them green works for me.

[tstage]

Nick,

[#welcome] to the forum! Good to have you aboard! [:)]

Here's the link to what Jetrock was alluding to:

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=26674

These are called "Aggrotrees" and are made out of furnace filters and skewers. I think Aggro said that he could make quite a number of these for just a couple of bucks. Also, if there is a Michael's in your area, this is a great (and cheaper) place to pick up craft items. They even carry Thomas the train stuff.

Another method for making trees can be found on the back inside page of the January '06 issue of Model Railroading called "Quick background trees". The author uses WS #178 green poly fiber but you could probably substitute in spray painted cotton balls sprinkled with WS ground foam to get the same effect.

Nick, you have an tall order between now and Sunday. Remember there is a point of diminishing return. You have to draw a line and say "good enough". If your son really is the train fanatic that you claim him to be, whatever you do get accomplished, your son will appreciate it - no matter what.

Please report back in and let us know how it all comes out. [:)]

Tom

[mrgstrain]

Jetrock, $100-150 per sq ft. I shure hope thats someone building it for you.

[cwclark]

I make mine a lot of ways....poly fiber or the air conditioner filter material sprayed with hairspray and thrown into a bag of (you got it) woodland scenic's course turf, another one is to purchase some wire and hemp rope..cut the rope into various sized strands, twist the wire around a nail nailed in a board and chuck the other ends of the wire in a drill, lay the rope strands across the wire,( longer ends to the bottom and progress to the shorter ones towards the top and then give the drill a whirl..they make nice pine trees, paint it green....another thing is to go to hobby lobby and purchase some dried plants and paint them green,..i also like to use the blooms from a crepte myrtle tree and hot glue woodland scenic's foliage on the branches...another way but a lot of modelers don't like this is to purchase some steel wool, fluff it up a bit, and paint it green...nice trees...just keep it away from the locomotive because any broken strands from the steel wool, can get picked up into the locomotive motor windings....chuck

[nbrodar]

The trees on the ridge are ground foam covered poly fiber balls. While not the cheapest, in the forground are WS Ready-Made trees. The brambles under the trees in the front are more poly fiber. The bushes in the center are WS clump foliage, highlighted with ground foam. Over on the far right, is WS static grass.

Nick

[Anonymous]

GO WEEDS DUDE! Go find ya some stiff weeds! wa***hem letem dry and then paint them! WEEDS can make some awsome Trees! But its up to you! I would Say that weeds are the cheapest tree out there! You Find these Weeds on the side of the roads and stuff! But I guess it depends on where you live,... Here in NC we Have these tall weeds That grow tall and Kinda flower at the top, (they get poofy) the club im in uses them all the time! they make great trees!

Here is a link to what im talkin about!

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/concord_area_model_railroad_club/lst?.dir=/Making+Tree%27s&.src=gr&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/

I don't know if you have to be a member or not to look at the pic or not but just go ahead and join we don't mind!

[Jetrock]

mrgstrain: Well, I suppose so--my experience is based on building a 4 square foot diorama to museum-quality specs, buying eveyrthing retail. It cost about $500 in materials, or $125 per square foot, although this diorama was not powered, other than building lights, and there was no benchwork. I did get to keep the unused portions of paint, plaster and scratchbuilding materials, so technically that $500 is a "retail cost" rather than the exact cost of the actual materials used. I suppose that if I were to build a layout for someone for pay that is the kind of price I would charge. But of course you can build a layout for less--there was an article a couple years ago in MR about building a 4x8 for $500. It used paper buildings and benchwork was basically two pieces of Styrofoam glued together.

[mrgstrain]

Jetrock Thanks for the response. I am buiding mine with L girder frame, pink foam base and various construction techniques plaster cloth, plaster, ground goop & a variety of tree making techniques. Even with structures & track, except maybe in a congested area as a yard or town, i would have not thought the cost to be $125 per sq ft. Wow that just turned on a new light for me.
Larry

[Anonymous]

I want to say thank you for the advice given. It helped me out alot. I was able to finnish it by christmas eve day, and everyone who has seen it is really impressed. Im pretty happy with it myself specially for the amount of time I had to work with it.

Its a simple loop with a mountain that has a tunnel threw it. The tunnel cover 80% of one side of loop. Has a small pond, Helicopter pad, gravel road, and a Place Sir Topam hat can stand over and watch everything. To me it looks like a park, and im cool with that. I think a park setting is something you would see a Thomas train at. Even the Island of Sodar is kinda parky looking in some areas.

So with Herold the Helo sitting on his Helo pad, Burny the Bus taking short trips from the helo pad to the lake to Sir topam hat, it feels and looks neat. All with Thomas Screaming around the layout moving his eyes back and forth. ;)

It was the last gift that he got. We hid it in our room Christmas eve night, and made him open up all the other presents first. Then we walked him into our room. I got to say all the work and money was worth the look on his face when he saw it. That was priceless.

One thing I didnt consider was how my duaghter would react to it. It became her favorite gift as well. They left all the other toys and dolls lay while they spent the whole day screaming: I WANT TO BE THE CONDUCTOR. Shes 8 years old and a very girly girl. Loves make up and dress up and dolls. But she really like the train.

I dont know what ive done, but today Ive already been asked if we can get some switches to make thomas go diferent places, and to get more trains.

I took them both to the hobby shop and we looked around. They each had christmas money and decided to put thier money together and get another engine. So we came home with a 0-6-0 Loco with tender, it has smoke come from its puff as my son says, and has light for the tunnel.

It amazed me how they bought it together, and have so far shared very well with it. Both taking turns being the conducter while I run in every now and then and make him smoke from his puff again.

My duaghter asked me to build her one too. So it looks like my shop will be converted into a train room. Its 14x8 and is finished with heat and AC. So it looks like I will have my hands full for a long time. Now to search and find the cheaper way to do everything. Woodlands scenics stuff seems high priced for what I get, and rather go a different way this time.

Sorry for the long ramble, Just wanted to say thanks for helping me make this christmas something to remember.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you did a great job so far! Post some pics, we'd love to see it.

A quick Woodland Scenics note.... I saw in another thread that the Hobby Lobby has train stuff on sale for the week after christmas. I went and bought a bunch of the Woodland Scenics at 50% off! I got 2 grocery bags full of scenery materials for $50. Not a bad price for Woodland Scenics, I think. There is only one Hobby Lobby that I know of in Dallas and it is on the other side of town but worth the 30 minute drive this week. (not my usual train supply store by the way)

[CNJ831]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jetrock

mrgstrain: Well, I suppose so--my experience is based on building a 4 square foot diorama to museum-quality specs, buying eveyrthing retail. It cost about $500 in materials, or $125 per square foot, although this diorama was not powered, other than building lights, and there was no benchwork.

No, Jetrock, your figures are pretty close to average for a quality layout (although many hobbyists absolutely hate to admit it). I've always considered $75-$125 per sq. ft. a reasonable basis to go by when doing it yourself.

I also recall that $500 4x8 layout in MR a while back. I considered it an absolute joke...looking like someone's first effort from the 1950's! Quite honestly, any well done, completely finished and detailed, 10x10 layout is going to run the builder from $7,500 to $10,000 today, unless he's modeling a section of desert. Heck, we've got structure kits today that run $200 a sq. ft.! Unfortunately, while you can build a layout for significantly less, quite often I'm afraid it looks like you did. By the way, those custom built jobs, of about the same 10x10 foot size, start at around $20,000 and go up from there! Some of the larger layouts in MR are certainly in the $100k range.

CNJ831

[Jetrock]

Bad news for those who would buy a custom layout, but good news for those of us with the skills to build 'em! (visions of dollar signs dance in my head, plus the absolute fun of GETTING PAID TO BUILD MODEL RAILROAD STUFF!)

The whole "things cost too much" thread is a real hot-button topic, but what I find is that I can spend as much or as little on my layout as I want to...there are always cheaper ways to do it if I don't mind doing a little more work.

Nick_P: Sounds like a fun project--I want to do something similar for my nephew, basically a 3x4 foot miniature loop with basic scenery. Glad to know your gift was so well received--it's definitely something that can't be found at any toy store!

[Anonymous]

Just wait till your son wants a 400 dollar Broadway Limited steamer!