Trees

[Anonymous]

I am new to the hobby and have found making trees a bit difficult.

Could you all give me some tips and pointers?


Thanks
Ryan

[orsonroy]

Making trees is like saying making dinner. There's all sorts of methods!

Probably the simplest is to find a "treelike stick" and glue chunks of lichen to it until it starts to look like a tree (use white glue). I first learned how to make trees this way when I was five, so you can figure out how complex this method is! The biggest downsides to this method is that lichen doesn't look a whole lot like leaves without a lot of work, and since it's a natural material, it'll eventually dry out and shatter. The plus side is that it's simple and the sticks are free!

A second simple technique is to find those "treelike sticks" and glue what's called batting to it. (batting is quilt stuffing. You can find it in black, or spray paint it a dark color, or spend about 9000% markup for the Woodland Scenics stuff). Pull the batting into very airy "poofs" of material, and glue it to the stick. The batting represents the internal twig structure of the tree, so you'll need something for leaves. Take the stick and DRY batting and dip it into a bucket of matte medium (art supply stores have it, or again, pay about 500% markup for WS), just enough to get the batting wet. Flop the wet batting around in a pan of fine ground foam. Let dry. If desired, add a second coat of foam by spraying the tree all over with Aqua Net unscented hairspray (maximum hold) and sprinkling more flocking over that. This process is pretty messy, so do it somewhere that you don't mind getting dirty. It also takes a bit of practice to get the batting "poofy" enough to look realistic. But, if you buy the batting and matte medium at a art store (or Hobby Lobby) you'll get it so cheaply that you won't mind wasting a few practice trees.

Woodland Scenics and Scenic Express both make plastic, bendable tree armatures that work well. Bend up the armatures until they look "treelike" and add WS clump foliage to them with contact cement. This process makes the most durable trees in model railroading, but it gets expensive if you need a few hundred trees.

Scenic Express also sells "Supertrees", which is some sort of dried weed. Basically, dye the weedy material in a warm dye, water and glycerine mix (to get the material both supple and looking like a tree color), hang to dry, and add foam with matte meduim. The process is very realistic, and cheaper than using the plastic armatures. Unfortunately, the weed is still very brittle, and little critters like to eat them.

If you have a mountainside you want treed, it's very simple to do. Most modelers add "poofs" of batting to the side of the mountain and add foam. I personally don't like this method, since most modelers don't use enough foam to hide the batting. I've covered mountainsides with toothpicks dyed blackish and stuck into the mountain. I then add a small pinch of WS foliage clusters to the toothpick. The mountainsides look MUCH fuller. Unfortunately, while the toothpicks are basically free, the WS product isn't, and this technique can eat dozens of bags!

Well, there's five (six?) techniques I know on how to make trees. Mostly, it's a matter of what your wallet looks like, and how good you are at visualizing what a tree looks like. Believe it or not, it's always better to make trees outside, so you can stare at a few of them for inspiration! It gets you out of the basement for awhile, too!

[dehusman]

Go buy polyfiber pillow stuffing at a cloth or craft store.

Get some cans of various green spray paints, camo green, avacado and regular ole green.

one a big flat piece of cardboard spread out a handful or two of the poly fiber into a layer a couple inches thick. I can stretch out a handful or two to cover an area 3 feet square a couple inches thick. Take the spray paint and paint it so all the fiber is green. Let it dry. You should be able to pick up the whole wad of fiber in one big chank and turn it over. Spray paint the other side. When that dries, you can tear the fiber into tree sized balls. Spray it with another coat of green paint and drop the ball into a paper bag with coarse ground foam rubber of your choice in the bottom and gently shake the bag to coat the ball with ground foam. Let it dry and then shake off the excess. Repeat if necessary.

Use browns, reds, yellows and oranges for fall colors.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

Astillbe and sedum are two perrenials that are a good start for making trees.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by qwikinvestigator

I am new to the hobby and have found making trees a bit difficult.

Could you all give me some tips and pointers?


Thanks
Ryan

good question i am not a begnneer but most of my laypouts never made it to the scnery stage[:(]

[dehusman]

Another good source is Goldenrod. In the fall find dried flowers and harvest them.

Trim off the leaves and spray the heads with green paint, then dust with gound foam. Very cheap and very good looking.

Dave H.

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy


Scenic Express also sells "Supertrees", which is some sort of dried weed. Basically, dye the weedy material in a warm dye, water and glycerine mix (to get the material both supple and looking like a tree color), hang to dry, and add foam with matte meduim. The process is very realistic, and cheaper than using the plastic armatures. Unfortunately, the weed is still very brittle, and little critters like to eat them.

I've used this product and got some pretty good results. I have a couple of pictures from my layout that have these trees in them (I model in N-scale):




I've seen these trees used on an HO layout, and the detail is breathtaking.

[krump]

furnace filter trees: (look great)

1)at the hardware store / thrift store, buy a furnace filter sheet in brown or blue -they need to be the meshed fibre variety. (approx $5-6) remove the casing, and keep the screening material
2)cut the filter screen into small squares 1-1.5 inches squared, using an old but sharp scissor or cutter - you'll get several hundred small sreen squares out of this
3) pull stretch the small squares (cubes) out - try not to pull them apart though
4) get a bag of skewer sticks (grocery store) commonly used for kabobs (perhaps 100 pieces or more) these are the tree trunks - paint (diluted) or stain them brown or ? if you wish for trunk colour
5) put white glue (dries clear) on the held skewer stick about 1.5 - 2 inches from the flat end
6) from the pointy end of the skewer, place a filter screen cube on the skewer stick and place over the glued area (stab it through the screen)
7) repeat steps 3-4 going up the skewer stick until you reach the top (three or four screen cubes stretched out should cover the stick)
8) after several hours to dry (day ?) trim the tree with the scissors - widest at bottom, peaked at top point, shape / thin out to your preferences
9)spray paint brown, green or ? and let dry (a chunk of old packing styrofoam is a great stand for trees)
10)coat the tree with adhesive spray glue and then without delay ...
11)sprinkle ground cover (greens) onto the tree, tapping off excess
12) plant the tree

These trees take some time ( I've made about 80 trees in the past 3 visits to our Club) but they turn out great and look typical of evergreens (or blue spruce if you done paint them). We at the model r/r club estimate that it is about 8-10 cents per tree when all costs are included (skewers, furnace filters, glue, spray adhesives, spray paint, and ground cover)

if you try this, let me know how it works. I made my first tree 2 weeks ago, so it's new to me also.

[Anonymous]

Here's a link I found in another post some time back.
http://www.fcsme.org/bcarl/how_to_make_scenic_express_supertrees.htm

[Anonymous]

Dave - that's a great link!

Thanks.

Andrew

[MAbruce]

Dave - great link! Thanks for sharing it. Their process is very close to mine, and they gave me a great idea to straighten those crooked trunks. One of the drawbacks to this product is some of the material comes bent, probably a result of the packaging?

I would advise one change. Instead of hairspray for the final coat, use a diluted Matte Medium spray. I have read how some believe that hairspray has a short lifespan. Besides, the manufacturer recommends matte medium anyway.

It looks labor intensive, but the material costs make it a very cost effective way to make a lot of trees. In N-scale, I’ve made hundreds of all sizes from one package. That’s pennies per tree!