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Planting HO Pine trees on the layout

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  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Franconia, NH
  • 3,130 posts
Planting HO Pine trees on the layout
Posted by dstarr on Sunday, December 16, 2018 4:10 PM

I bought this box of pine trees some time ago.  I decided it was time to get them out of the box and onto the layout.

Here is what they look like out of the box.

They come out the the box with plastic bases.  I removed the bases by clamping the tree trunk in my benchvise and tugging on the base with pliers. 

This big old handsome house needs some pne trees.  Here we are ar beginning of project with no trees.

We have one tree planted.  The awl makes planting trees in my foamboard substrate easy and quick.

Now we have a nice stand of pine.

And we have this gazebo all lonesome on a small hilltop. 

And now we have a cozy stand of pines.

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Sunday, December 16, 2018 7:06 PM

Nice.  Depending on which conifers they are meant to represent, they look best as upright as possible, or curling over close to the top as a hemlock would.  But, you have them placed naturally.  I hope you enjoy them.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 2,360 posts
Posted by kasskaboose on Monday, December 17, 2018 8:30 AM

What awesome trees.  You made them appear in a perfect spot.  I'd prefer making them since I need more.  It's also more satsifying doing that.  To each their own I suppose.

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Southern California
  • 1,682 posts
Posted by Lone Wolf and Santa Fe on Monday, December 17, 2018 12:07 PM

Those are some nice looking trees. Much more realistic than the bottle brush type.

Modeling a fictional version of California set in the 1990s Lone Wolf and Santa Fe Railroad
  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Monday, December 17, 2018 4:26 PM

Lone Wolf and Santa Fe
...Much more realistic than the bottle brush type.

Actually, the bottle brush-type trees can be improved by some snip and hack work with scissors to make them a little less uniform-looking.  I then spritz them with non-scented hairspray from a pump-type applicator, then sprinkle on some ground foam - use different colours and particle size as desired...

I wish I could find a few bigger ones.

I use mostly natural twigs and flowers as armatures for building trees, adding black or green polyfibre and multiple applications of hairspray and ground foam...

Lichen is useful for infill, too, and also benefits from the addition of some ground foam (not all of mine, as you can see, got that treatment.)

I think that hydrangea flowers, fresh or dried, with the petals removed, will make very good armatures for trees in open spaces (parks, residential streets, etc.), and may also be useful for creating a tree canopy where one needs to cover a larger area with forest.  That could allow you to model full-trees only at the perimeter, with the majority of the coverage being simply tree-tops....perhaps almost as quick and easy as puffball background trees.  These flowers have a very full array of small branchlets, providing lots of support for polyfibre and ground foam.

I tried to represent cedars planted as a hedgerow, using the flowers from a butterfly bush, covered with ground foam.  They've been in place for a while now....

...close maybe, but not quite what I had envisioned.

Wayne

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: west coast
  • 7,667 posts
Posted by rrebell on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 10:49 AM

I get my pine trees from the Philppines though e-bay, used to be sold by Tree-Dad but he is no more, still others sell the same trees. Very inexpencive and natural out of the box for the pine ones.

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