Planting trees in plaster-over-wire mesh

[freeway3]

Thanks to all who replied, lots of good info. My concern when drilling was possibly snagging the wire screen, but if Wayne hasn't had a problem with this, that's good enough for me. I may try Guy's super glue and kicker method, as well. And Mel, I'm just as clumsy - you offer good solutions.

For the foam advocates out there, the advantages and disadvantages of terrain base construction methods have been discussed ad nauseum - that's not what this is about. I understand tree planting in foam is a breeze, but I'm using plaster over screen for my base.

 

[UNCLEBUTCH]

doctorwayne

Wow! I didn't realise that it was so difficult to drill holes. Wayne

Well ya see Doc;

First you havta find the drill.

Then charge the battery.

Then select the correct bit.

Actually drilling the hole aint bad.

But then clean up the mess.

And then plant the tree.

Then put every thing away,or at least some place else

 

Just too darn stressful

[RR_Mel]

Most of the trees on my layout are Woodland Scenic 6” to 8”.  They have a ⅛” stub on the bottom of the trunk that plugs into a plastic mounting piece.  For years I tossed the mounting piece because to me it looked toy like and glued them in holes .

 

About 8 years ago I needed to replace some of the 20 plus year old flocking.  Removing them really screwed up the surrounding scenery.

 

During the process I discovered just how clumsy I had become.  I not only screwed up the scenery around the trees but I took out all kinds of stuff, power polls and damaged a few structures.

 

I made a decision after looking at all of the screwed up scenery to make every thing sticking up on my layout removable beginning with the repaired trees.

 

Because I tossed hundreds of the plastic mounting pieces I went with Plastruct ABS ¼” OD ⅛” ID tubing for the tree mounts.  A ½” to ¾” piece of tubing glued in the scenery base works slick to hold the trees and ⅛” diameter power poles.  I use ⅛” dowel stock for light weight poles and 3/32” for large poles.  I simply make a ⅛” stub on the bottom of the larger poles.

 

 

 

As I added trees over the last few years I use the WS mounting piece glued to the surface then fill in the open spaces with Sculptamoldand cover it with flocking, much easier than installing the tubing.

 

 

 

The bottom line is Clumsy Mel can now easily remove anything that he might take out while working on his layout.

 

I recently went to ⅛” x ⅜” Neodymium magnets to secure my structures to my layout so they are now easily removed too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Weird) Mel

 

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

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

 

[doctorwayne]

Wow!  I didn't realise that it was so difficult to drill holes.

Wayne

[UNCLEBUTCH]

From my experence, D-90 drys to be quite hard, I don't think pokeing will work. You will need to drill, or find a way to surface mount.

[ should have used foam]

[trainnut1250]

I prefer medium thickness super glue and kicker. Dribble some glue on the base of the tree, hit it with kicker and your done. No drilling in plaster and no waiting for glue to dry. I have planted several hundred tree this way on my current layout.

 

Guy

[mbinsewi]

I've used a scratch awl to poke holes in hard shell.  I just kind of wiggle it in while pushing down.

A spike works too.

Mike.

 

[rrebell]

Thats why I like foam, just poke a hole.

[doctorwayne]

Ed, I use natural plant cuttings for my tree trunks, and usually drill a suitably-sized hole in the plaster, and vacuum-up the plaster dust.  I then put some white or yellow glue on the bottom of the trunk, then jam it into the hole.  In some instances, the tree may need to be supported until the glue hardens.

The ones in the photo below are fill-ins, between the background trees formed from batt-type insulation, and foreground ones which will be added-in nearer the viewer.  Some are installed in holes, while others are temporarily leaning against them, mainly to determine proper spacing,  As you can see, the plaster dust from drilling has not yet been cleaned-up...

Here are a couple of pictures taken later, as the area was forested from back-to-front, to avoid damaging trees already installed...

...and the more-or-less "finished" scene...

I don't usually bother with making any representation of a root system for areas like this, but might do so for trees planted in more urban areas.

Most treed areas are not too near the edge of the layout (a too-near clothed wrist or elbow could quickly de-nude several trees in seconds when the fibre used to give some shape and body to the tree is contacted by cloth), so areas like the ones shown below are easiest to create...

Wayne

[RR_Mel]

For the most of it I have been using WS trees and they have a ⅛” stub on the bottom of the trunk.  I either use the WS mount glued to the surface then landscape to hide them or drill a ¼” hole in the base and glue in a 1” long piece of ¼”OD ⅛”ID ABS tubing.  That way my trees are easily removable.

 

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

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

 

[freeway3]

I'm considering using the DuraBond 90 plaster over aluminum screen terrain modeling method as described on this forum by DoctorWayne. Wondering how best to plant trees in this hardshell terrain?

If I may paraphrase a Three Stooges reference - "Paging Dr. Howard - Dr. Wayne - Dr. Howard"!