Tree planting in something other than styrofoam

[overall]

I have a very large mountain on my layout that I made by building a cardboard strip web on a wooden frame work and then glueing layer after layer after layer of newspapers on top. Enough layers of newspaper made a surprisingly strong scenic surface. I have had this in place for about six years now and it has held up well. I use a lot of woodland scenics tree kits to populate the mountainside with trees. My problem is attaching the trees so they stand up straight rather than at an angle as would be the case if I used the trees straight out on the box. Planting them using the base that comes with them on a sloping surface would result in the trees growing at an unnatural angle. Real trees always grow straight up regardless of the slope of the land they are on. Simply bending the base doesn't work because it just springs back to where it was. If I had a styrofoam scenery base I would not have this problem because I could just embed the trees in the styrofoam by hand.

Ideas gentlemen?

Thanks in advance for the responses.

George

[oleirish]

Ok! been there done that,take the bases of the trees,punch a little hole in mountain,insert tree,and use fast set CA glue,this works for me.
Jim

[ARTHILL]

When CA does not work, use hot glue gun. If you can't get at it from underneath, form the hot glue like a root system and paint it to match. On Oak and especially maple, you need the roots to look good.

[selector]

Great ideas. Man, this forum has punch!! [tup][tup]

[dgwinup]

If you can get underneath the mountain, you can glue small blocks of foam where ever you want to plant trees. Drill a hole first, locate it under the layout and glue a block over the hole. After the glue dries, plant your tree. You can use white or yellow glue, Gorilla glue, Plio-bond, hot melt, almost anything to hold the blocks. Hot melt is good because it bonds quickly. Otherwise you have to brace the block in place until the glue sets.

Sounds like a lot of work, but much easier than tearing out the mountain and rebuilding it with foam!

Darrell, quiet...for now

[overall]

I think that glueing styrofoam under the shell is what I will try.

Thanks,

George

[nbrodar]

Before foam, I punched holes in the hardshell, and used tacky glue to hold the trees in.

Nick

[RMax1]

I use a low temp hot glue gun for most trees. I'll drill a hole into the surface add the glue to the base of the tree and insert it. I'll hold it in place until it is ready which is about 4 or 5 seconds. Every once in a while one will fall over. Just remove it and redo the steps to put it back in place.

RMax1

[Anonymous]

I use a SHARP awl that I found years ago in a leather craft store. I tap it with a small hammer, stick the tree in the hole with a little Elmers white glue and there you are. I use the same consruction technique except using plaster. If the plaster cracks, O well, I just dab a bit of paint around it and some scenic grass mat'l - and who knows it was broke? Like a friend says, there ain't no wrong way to do it. when it comes to scenery. JOHN.

[Anonymous]

One trick I have used to plant lots of trees real quick without hassle:

Hold the tree in place where you want it.

Dribble thick CA on the trunk let it run to the layout surface.

hit it with accelerator and in literally seconds the tree is in

I would suggest putting the acelerator in an eyedropper so that you dont have to spray it (nasty stuff) Just touch the eyedropper to the glue and the glue hardens instantly

Dont like the placement?? You can pull the tree up and do it again very easily. I savede all of the trees from my old layout that I installed this way (100 or so )

[oleirish]

[tup][tup]Guy That is my way allso!
JIM[:D]