Trees -handmade

[cowman]

If you need an expanse of somewhat distance trees, I have seen a number of layouts with puffball trees that look quite  good.  It can be done with individual puffballs or take part of a batt of fiber and tease it into shape.  I'd recommend you use dark fiber, saves the step of painting the white.

Good luck,

[mechengr]

Can you tell me if the 3M #77 adhesive remains "tacky" on any surface that remains exposed or does it dry completely on such a surface?

Am concerned about a tacky surface that would cause unwanted material to stick to it later.

 

[bogp40]

All the ideas mentioned, do make very realistic trees. WS poly fiber was not mentioned. Using the above ideas of a selected weed, branch ar armature, cover the tips with pulled fiber (very thin to wispy) spray with adhesive or unscented pump hairspray and sprinkle with varying shades of fine ground foam. This method will duplicate any of the spreading broadleafs and you can control the size of the canopy as needed. I have doctored up many older trees on the layout by using the hairspray/ ground foam method, w/o having to remove them. Do cover to protect from overspray the hairspray is nothing more than a laquer. I had inadvertantly coated the double track mainline in 2 complete areas once, there were a few upset members. Oops for sure.
Bob K.

[Anonymous]

[:)]I have made some homemade trees using various twigs . for armatures.your local hobbie shop can supply you with the material to cover them. also check with your local hobbie shop sometimes it is more convinent to purchace trees inexsensively.
i picked a pack of 100 pine trees in 3 different sizes for $20.00 not a bad deal. they are very realistic looking and cuts down on alot of work. good luck.

[Anonymous]

My couple of cents worth-I use store bought bottlebru***rees for the main body of any woodland on my layout but around the edges I use those really fine filigree type trees from Scenic Express or WS. This has a dual purpose, if you stand about 100m from any wood or coppice you really only see the trees on the edge, the main body of the wood is there but indisctinct-the other purpose of the bottlebru***rees is to 'protect' the delicate filigree trees from accidental damage.

Those bottlebru***rees are easy enough to make.[:)]

Tim


http:www. altezeitgruppe.com

[ericboone]

The club I used to belong to had a pine tree assembly line. We trimmed christmas tree garland into the shape of a pine tree. (Be sure to use garland with a wire "trunk". All plastic garland makes droopy trees.) The trees were dipped in gray or brown latex house paint. (Acquiring paint from the reject rack often works well. Some places are even willing to try to tint the paints off the reject rack for you.) The trees were hung on a line so the excess paint can dribble off. Be sure to have a tray or trough to catch the paint that dribbles off because it can be reused. Once the excess paint drips off, take the tree by the trunk and shake it inside a large jar of ground foam. (A jar works a little better than a bucket as the narrower jar neck helps keep the foam in the jar when shaking.)

[Anonymous]

great ideas here! Good thread!

[jdolan]

Hand making trees will be alot of work but well worth it . They are alot more realistic than ready made ones. Chinese elm trees have small branches that work very well for tree trunks. Others do too. My wife and I gather tree parts from a farmer friend timber when we go there for walks.

[scotttmason]

Handmade trees will almost always look better as long as you vary size, trunk bark (smooth, rough, scaley, bare), shape (elm vs poplar etc) and arrangement (clumps to create a "canopy" of treetops or lone oak, the more light a tree is exposed to, the more leaves/limbs it will have, forest trees only have leaves at the very top growth). Strive for randomness. Store bought trees are often 1 dimensional and check out color samples on your layout - getting a realistic mix of greens / browns makes a huge difference. I'm tackling some sedum (elm) and maple twig (oak) trees myself.

[cwclark]

I use the blooms from the crepe myrtle tree and hot glue woodland scenics "foliage" to the branches...also there are various weeds and flower branches that make nice trunks...Hobby Lobby , Wal mart, and Michael's, sell dried bouquets that have very complex branch structures that can be used as tree trunks...lichen is another good material for trees and bushes that is readily available and so is bumpy chenille which make good pine trees....Chuck[:D]

[Anonymous]

Just my ideas on trees. I have made some extremely authentic looking trees using various weeds, usually just when they are getting ready to lose the last of their blossoms in fall. I spray them rather heavily with 3M spray adhesive, (cheaper brands work ok, but I prefer the 3M) and then sprinkle them with mixtures of coarse, medium and fine ground foam. Then I give them another light spray of adhesive and stick them in a foam base to dry a couple days, or mount them direct on the layout, depending on location because they are still sticky for awhile.

One note, they are very delicate after dry, so you have to be careful when handling trains, etc. around them. But they do look fantastic and no two are ever alike. And even if you happen to damage them by handling, the broken off parts make great low bushes and ground cover.

[jhugart]

The basic method is to get good weeds or twigs for the trunk structure, and then you have something with the right organic shape. Beyond that, some sort of colored fiber to serve as a foundation for ground foam, some hair spray or 3M 77 spray adhesive, and you are set.

For things like pine trees, you can use straight dowels painted a variegated gray, that same foundation material cut to a conical shape and painted dark green, and you are set again.

Most scenery books have information on trees, at least the Kalmbach books do. (For whatever reason, every time I check a public library for model train books, I find things from the 1970s or from Europe.)

[Anonymous]

I need hundreds of trees for my layout and am looking for any ideas on the best way make them myself rather than purchase. Layout is fairly large so any tree variety or even time of year can be worked into the appropriate places. Thanks in advance.