I am Building an HO layout with about 75 square feet of foam board hills needing to be covered with forest. What is the most economic and best way to create a tree covered hillside? Thanks.
Jim Norton
Huntsville, AL
I have used Woodland Scenics green fiber balls dipped in ground foam with good results.
Most recently I tried mixing a batch of Woodland Scenics clump foliage and applying it to the hilltop.
Results were not what I hoped for, but it was much easier than the scenic fiber method.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Kevin's method above works well for creating distant tree covered hills. However, as you near the foreground, make the puffballs increasingly bigger and end the front edge with actual trees. Your minds eye will see the actual trees in the foreground and just assume the entire hillside is covered in the same trees.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
jimnortonI am Building an HO layout with about 75 square feet of foam board hills needing to be covered with forest. What is the most economic and best way to create a tree covered hillside? Thanks.
That is a fairly large area to cover. If you want primarily deciduous trees then the 'puff ball' approach that Kevin referred to will work. All you need is some detailed trees showing trunks and some branches at the front of the forested area. Behind that all you will see will be the tops of the trees so the puff balls work nicely. Vary the colours a bit to add interest.
If you want coniferous trees, RRMel came up with a neat method for making lots of trees real cheap. He used chenille 'bump strip' pipe cleaners. Here is what they look like:
You should be able to find them at fairly cheap prices from craft stores. Again, these would be used to fill in the background with more detailed trees at the front and distributed throughout the forest. Painting them in somewhat darker colours to match the foreground trees would help too.
For the more detailed trees, I have had some luck on eBay recently finding a variety of decent looking coniferous trees. Here is one example:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/40pcs-Model-Pine-Trees-6-5cm-Deep-Green-Pines-For-TT-Scale-Model-Railroad-Layout/223695579339?hash=item34154ba8cb:g:lYgAAOSwcH5e-bOy
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
That's a large area. Yes, you want detailed trees up front and the opposite in the background. I too suggest the puff ball method. Another idea is to break up the forest with some rocks, out croppings, or other type of scenery.
Thank you so much for the information!
Jim
I'm sorry that I don't rmeember the issue (it may have been a special like GMR or MRP), but they showed using a batt of cotton, teasing it to look like a canopy, then spraying it green and shaking on ground foam.
I personally used puff ball trees and liked it, though teasing the batt would certainly do a large area faster.
Good luck,
Richard
cowman but they showed using a batt of cotton, teasing it to look like a canopy, then spraying it green and shaking on ground foam.
The problem with this method is that it is virtually impossible to cover all the white from the batt with spray paint, and white showing through the trees ruins everything.
This method is also not convincing in real life. You can probably get a good shot from one perspective for an article, but I have never seen it work out well on a layout.
The Woodland Scenics green colored scenic fiber is a much better choice to save headaches.