How do you 'plant' your trees?

[iawestern]

Getting ready to make lots of mature trees for my HO scale layout.  Have never really paid attention to how you all attach trees to the scenery.  Do you drill a hole in the scenery?  Use a hot glue gun?  Others?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[DSchmitt]

A previous Thread on topic

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/208637.aspx

 

[michaelrose55]

I poke a hole using an thin screw driver and I use a drop of wood glue to attach the trees.

[MisterBeasley]

My layout base is pink foam, and I also use pink foam to add contours to the surface.  I sometimes add plaster cloth on top of that to smooth the contours, and then a layer of Gypsolite plaster to get a gritty, rough "natural" surface in wooded areas.

I take an awl, punch a small hole, and stick the tree in.  If it doesn't end up in a firm spot, I add a drop of white glue.

When I buy a package of pre-made plastic trees, they usually come with bases.  I save those for the situations where I don't have a soft spot where I want a tree, like where I've used hardboard for the scenery because there's a subway line right beneath the surface.

[doctorwayne]

I drill holes in the plaster-on-screen landforms, put a little white glue or carpenter's glue on the base of the "trunk", and plug the tree into the hole.  Here are some background trees positioned to determine where the holds need to be drilled...

...and some trees temporarily set in place, with another row positioned to determine hole placement...

The plaster dust gets vacuumed-up before the trees are glued in place.

I also used a similar method to install some short wooden skewers, then applied a little more glue to the exposed portion and impaled some lichen on them to represent underbrush.  It got dusted with some hair spray and ground foam after installation...

...and the same area filled-in a bit more...

Wayne

[RR_Mel]

I use mostly 6” to 8” Woodland Scenics Tall Pines tree armatures in and around my mountains.  I use Plastruct ¼” OD x ⅛” ID x ¾” long tubing.  The WS tree armatures have a ⅛” x 3/16” stub on the bottom that is a snug fit in the tubing.  I drill a ¼” hole ½” deep in the ground cover and glue the tubing in the hole.  That way the trees are easily removable but very sturdy.

 

Away from the mountains I glue the WS tree base (large and small trees) to the ground cover then hide them with flocking.  I paint the white Plastruct tubing Burnt Umber which closely matches the WS trunks, with a tree removed they look like a tree stump.

 

Years ago I glued the tree armatures in a drilled hole and they were bad news to remove for maintenance.  I try to make everything on my layout removable.  Constantly changing things is a big part of my model railroad.

 

I have over 400 tall pines now and 160 more to install in my mountains.

 

Over the years the tree foliage deteriorates, by making them removable they can easily be redone.

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[selector]

I use a 1/8" drill bit to make a hole at least 3/4" deep if my goop/foam can stand it.

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

Depends on the tree and the ground. If the ground is plywood or MDF I drill a hole and stick them in using a small amount of white glue to hold them. On ground made from plaster soaked paper towels draped over a cardbord skeleton I just glue them using that really thick white glue from Woodland Scenics which is thick enough to hold them upright until it dries.

[kasskaboose]

As others noted, whether I drill a hole depends on tree and location.  On foam the trees punch through easily.  When I make my own from flower wire and cord, the wire easily goes through the foam and so too from mesh insulation on a BBQ skewer.  Foam is a great way of adding/moving trees easily.

[SeeYou190]

I mount my trees the same way I mount figures. I use a small steel wire through the base into the scenery. This allows the trees to be moved, posed, and even exchanged with other types of trees.

.

I do this becuase I consider photography to be a part of Model Railroading.

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This might not be right for most people.

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-Kevin

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[NYBW-John]

My trees vary from Woodland Scenic Armatures to Super Trees to puff balls depending on location and they are planted on varying surfaces, plaster, plywood, or foam. Most require a hole to be drilled. With foam I just put a drop of white glue in the hole before planting the true. With the others I find the hot glue gun to be the best method. With the Woodland Scenics Armatures, they can be planted on a flat surface using the base. To make them look right I use a little filler material to conceal the space between the base and the trunk then paint over it.