The best trees

[sirkam]

thank you very much for your tips, I was thinking in buying the super trees kit and then I will do it :D

regards from mexico ;)

[CTValleyRR]

Sirkam --

Trees are about the ultimate tradeoff between time and money in our hobby.  Some of the best commectial trees (Supertrees, JTT Products) are very, very good, but cost a lot of money (as in, $7+ per tree for the most expensive JTT ones).  Some store-bought models are absolute garbage that don't belong on the layout of anyone who wants even a passing resemblance to reality.  Unfortunately, these are the ones most often found on hobby store shelves.

Some modelers aren't satisfied with anything less than individual museum quality trees in every spot on their layout.  The more mainstream modeler's among us can usually get away with some individual, high quality trees, and have the balance of the layout be lower quality ones that never-the-less convey the impression of large numbers of trees.

To this end, most of us end up making a lot of our own.   Some kind of armature, ground foam, and green poly-fiber are some of the most commonly used materials.  WS also makes clump foliage, which can be glued straight on to armatures to make passable trees.  For armatures, you can use natural ones (sedum plants, sagebrush, etc.); Supertrees sells kits of natural armatures.   Or you can buy plastic and metal ones and bend them into appropriate shapes.  People have commented on the WS plastic armatures as being unrealistic, but if you spend several minutes bending the armature, then paint it a more realistic color (tree bark is generally ore of a green-gray, not brown) you can get very good results.

Another method you can use is the so called "puff ball trees" method, which represents the roof of the forest canopy only using balls of poly-fiber and ground foam, without the detail of the trunks underneath.  This is probably the cheapest method of filling a large area with "trees".

[trainnut1250]

Quick rundown:

Best trees in terms of detail are handmade custom trees.  There are several makers on the web but two trees blows your budget.  Most of the other packaged trees in my opinion are not all that realistic and they can break the bank in a hurry.

Your best option cost wise (and detail wise) is to build them your self.  There are lots of options out there. I think the best value, best looking and easiest way to go is with the super trees from Scenic Express.

The starter set is a very good value or you could buy the $25.00 box of armatures, the Noch leaf material ( two shades one lighter than the other), and some matt medium and you will end up with around 60+ great looking trees.  These end up looking like deciduous tress such as Elm, some oaks, aspens (if you paint the trunks white.) etc.  They don't make convincing pine trees.

Here is the url:

http://www.scenicexpress.com/

 

The trees in this shot are supertrees:

Guy

[HHPATH56]

Buying commercial tree sets is too expensive if you want large quantities of tree. The photo below shows a corner of a farm, surrounded with trees that I made from stained olive double pointed skewer trunks,, with green painted furnace filter,(or screen wire),circles pushed on the skewers. Then one sprays this with spray adhesive and sprinkles of WS Blended Turf. For close-up trees use Scenic Express Super Trees for the armature and fine branches. Note the dead trees in the photo. Super Trees come in a box, for $25. from which I made 60 trees. Look at the photos in the thread just before yours,(Homemade Trees), in which I show various methods for making trees. The corn field in the photo is made from a commercial packet of strips of painted corn that you glue in rows. A large field would be quite expensive, so show the corner of the field and hide the rest of the field. Click on photo to enlarge it. Click again to get screen size enlargement. Then, click on Previous or Next to see parts of the rest of my layout Bob

[sirkam]

Hi, I'm actually making my 4x8 ho layout, I have finished the terrain and I need to add a lot of trees :D

but I don't know what is the best brand or the best value kit, the most realistic or the best trees, could you help me to choose?

I would like medium trees between 4" to 7" and spend 60 o 70 dollars in them.

My scenery is a "farm ambiented" layout

thank you