There is an article in Great Model Railroads 1998, pg 75, on using a pollyfiber batt to cover a large hill. It was then teased to represent the various trees, sprinkle on various colors of ground foam. Would make the distant hills easier than making all those little puff balls. Here again, using a dark fiber would speed the process.
Nice view, by the way, can't blame you for wanting to replicate it.
Have fun,
sparkyjay31Thanks for the advise guys. I can see my mistakes clearly now ( no pun intended ). I was clumping the poly way too tight ( not airy enough ), and was not using a spray base color at all. Since my layout is based on fall here in NH I will have lots of yellows, oranges, and reds. There will be plenty of green too. I think a trial and error process of spray paint color is in order. But you have given me lots to work on. Thanks to all.
Sparkjay, I propably don't need to remind you of the fall New England colors. I see them every year myself also. Fall folliage can be somewhat difficult to reproduce. Very rarely do you ever see any tree with all the same color. When actually doing the trees keep the color a bit muted. Extreme contast w/ all the vibrant yellow, orange and red can end up toy like. I would experiment with light greens and hint the yellows. maples especially, may have green, part yellow and a hint of orange starting. Additional ones in different stands may start to go orange/ red. I believe you know this, but the modeling aspect can be a different story. You may even have to alter the coloring of the very bright colors of production ground foams to mute the brightness of those colors. Distant trees may even need airbrushing to show a haze and knock down the color. I have done this w/ backdrops and distant tree canopy. Thinned light grey/ blue dusted on them does make quite a difference.
I only have a few pics that show a hint of the hazed backdrop, Forground trees are not placed in these. This is only a touch of early fall color, no where near peak that I assume you're looking for.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
bogp40 I prefer the Dave Frarey methed described by grampy. The loose fiberous look of the polyfiber balls give a bit of airyness/ depth to the distant tree canopy. Forced prospective can be used by applying smaller balls towards the rear/ distance. I will only use the for distant trees, as the trees close on the forground polyfiber and armature tress are used. Don't forget that fiberous material can be used where forest undergrowth is seen throughout the mid to forground. Make sure to pull the polyfiber apart and try to keep it airy. The product isn't cheap and compressed balls will eat up you supply real quick. When doing this vary the colors and shade of the polyfiber as well as the ground foam covering. A good hint that I got from Joe Fugate is to lightly dust (spray or hairspray yellow grasses paint) to the finished forest or canopy to show the lightened highlights of sunshine on the tree tops. This woprks even for individual trees as well.
I prefer the Dave Frarey methed described by grampy. The loose fiberous look of the polyfiber balls give a bit of airyness/ depth to the distant tree canopy. Forced prospective can be used by applying smaller balls towards the rear/ distance. I will only use the for distant trees, as the trees close on the forground polyfiber and armature tress are used. Don't forget that fiberous material can be used where forest undergrowth is seen throughout the mid to forground.
Make sure to pull the polyfiber apart and try to keep it airy. The product isn't cheap and compressed balls will eat up you supply real quick. When doing this vary the colors and shade of the polyfiber as well as the ground foam covering.
A good hint that I got from Joe Fugate is to lightly dust (spray or hairspray yellow grasses paint) to the finished forest or canopy to show the lightened highlights of sunshine on the tree tops. This woprks even for individual trees as well.
Good point bobp40, I sometimes forget the importrance of highlighting and usinge different shade of ground foam on trees and turf.
Here's Joe Fugate's web site, spectacular easy ways to make trees and all scenics for finer real looking detail.
http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1270.0
I prefer the Dave Frary's methed described by grampy. The loose fiberous look of the polyfiber balls give a bit of airyness/ depth to the distant tree canopy. Forced prospective can be used by applying smaller balls towards the rear/ distance. I will only use the for distant trees, as the trees close on the forground polyfiber and armature trees are used. Don't forget that fiberous material can be used where forest undergrowth is seen throughout the mid to forground.
Make sure to pull the polyfiber apart and try to keep it airy. The product isn't cheap and compressed balls will eat up your supply real quick. When doing this vary the colors and shade of the polyfiber as well as the ground foam covering. Go easy w/ color changes though, avoid stark contrast unless actually needed.
A good hint that I got from Joe Fugate is to lightly dust (spray or hairspray yellow grasses/ paint) to the finished forest or canopy to show the lightened highlights of sunshine on the tree tops. This works even for individual trees as well.
I've made hundreds of these trees myself, but unlike most posters I bought Woodland Scenics and Scenics Express ground foams in various shades of green. Scenics Exress has Blue Spruce that is great and a lighter,brighter green I use for White Birch and Elm trees and some young Maple trees, also they have a very dark Conifer green I like. I tried making my own ground foam but for the time it takes cutting it up small enough to chop it up in the food processor/blender, dyeing or painting it, you have to spread it out or it will dry in one big clump or ball, I found it to be a pain in the butt. I also used the bamboo skewers cut to length and sharpened to a point on one end, and round tooth picks, some I spray painted the trunks browns or grays (those I used in the foreground), you can rough up the trunks with a course hack saw blade to make bark texture on the trunk. Cut up furnace filter pushed and glued on the trunks and spray painted dark green or black, and sprayed with Elmer's spray glue, then sprinkle on the ground foam directly over the top. I found that sprinkling over the top, it leaves normal "see through the tree" instead of a blob of green as you would get if you sprinkle on sideways. I also made tress with poly fiber, and spray painted them black or dark green before applying the ground foam, again I use the spray glue. another great way to make fir and white birch trees is sissle rope twisted in a wire loop using an electric drill. Sissle rope is great too if cut up in 1/8" pieces and sprinkled on sissle rope fir trees, it gives a long needle pine effect and real looking dead needles. All trees I also spray with the cheap hair spray to seal only after I apply the ground foam.
One other solution to coloring polyfiber is to dunk it into a small bottle filled with dark green or black dilute flat paint. I am at present making 300-400 deciduous trees by using stained wooden skewers, ( cut to 1/3 length and sharpened at both ends with pencil sharpener, then stained in bulk, in a paint roller trough) For background trees and hillside forest canopy, branches are not necessary. Higher on the hillside, even trunks are not necessary either,(except to hold the tiers of foliage together). I use cheap blue furnace filters that have been pulled into two layers and spray painted with green or black. I cut the filters into 1" to 1 1/2 " wide strips and then cut the strips into rough circles. About 5 circles are then pushed onto the sharpened stained skewers. I use scraps left over from cutting the circles, as tree tops. I use spray adhesive, or Tacky spray adhesive, to spray the circles on the trunk, and then sprinkle on Fall or Summer colored WS foam, (or colored home-made fine foam) I usually give the trees a final adhesive spraying, to assure foliage permanence. I stick the completed trees into scrap sheets of Styrofoam, until finally planted (without glue) as forest canopy. I use weed branches for trunks, of only,. the foreground trees I change the entire forest of trees according to the season. One can buy a bag of Super trees, or lichens, for dead or Winter trees. Don't forget to sprinjkle the space below the trees with "fallen leaves, brush and tree tunks".. I intersperse conifer trees among the deciduous trees. Bob Hahn
Click on the photo to enlarge it. Click on the photo series on the upper right to see my entire photo album of MR photos.
Hi: Here's the method that worked for me. I've made over 1800 "puff ball" trees, using Dave Frary's method. He used WS green polyfiber, scenic cement(matt medium). and coarse ground foam. Pull and stretch the polyfiber in all directions. Put some ground foam into a plastic bag. I used this formula for colors: 3 parts med. green, 2 parts dk. green, and 1 part lt. green. Soak the polyfiber balls in the scenic cement, then drop them into the bag with the foam. Do about 12 to 18 at a time. Shoe shine the bag of foam for a minute or so, remove and set on waxed paper to dry. Glue on layout with full strength white glue. To break up the eggs in a catrton look, I placed WS clump foliage between and around the "puff balls".
Yep, spray paint it black/brown/green first. Lichen also works well instead of using polly fiber. I've made some decent looking back ground trees with it.
These are made with lichen and home made ground foam.
These are made with polly fiber and WS foam.
First, any trees I have seen using white poly fiber, got a spray of paint, green, brown or camoflage first. Could sprinkle on some of the foam then. From these forums the cheaper the hair spray the better and most seem to recommend the pump spray bottles opposed to spray can (can use the sprayer for other uses later). You can get dark poly fiber used in quilting from some craft or quilt shops. I had to order mine, but the clerk was very willing to order it for me.
There are several articles and videos on making trees to cover large areas, puffball trees. Some folks seem to rely on them, others don't care for them. They are made by pulling the fiber apart and rolling it into loose balls, then treating them much as you did yours, spray and sprinkle until satisfied. These are definitely background trees as they have no trunks or limbs. Adding an occasional bare twig sticking out to represent a dead tree adds to the effect. Use slightly different combinations of color to represent different types of trees.
Where are you in NH? A couple of nice clubs over there. Two shows coming up soon in the upper valley that I hope to get to. The one in W Lebanon usually has a good scenery clinic.
Good luck,
I've done only a few, but I spray paint the polyfiber flat black after glueing it on the stick. Then I start attaching the ground foam with the hair spray. Any fiber you see will seem more like branches. You could also spray paint the fiber the same color as your foam so it blends in. Painting it should reduce the number of times you have to repeat the foam step as well.
I hope that helps.
Glenn -- PRR in Georgia