Need help with a Pine forest undergrowth!!!???

[siberianmo]

Appreciate the question, for my rather large HO layout is still in the process of being landscaped. At last count, my trees (mainly evergreen) exceeded 4,000 - so undergrowth comes next. In my mountainous area - there's snow - lots of it - that takes care of undergrowth! But elsewhere ....... some good tips - thanx!

See ya![tup]

[AggroJones]

Materials you may use on the forest floor:

-Poly fiber
-WS coarse ground foam
-WS fine ground foam
-SE supertree cuttings
-Real dirt
-Shreaded real brown leaves
-WS tree strumps
-Small real twigs

My [2c]

[Anonymous]

If possible, meander down to your local forest, assuming you live near the forest you are modeling. Take pictures & note heights and types of undergrowth.

I'll be hiking out to one of my favorite spots near here soon, a 10 acre or so patch of forest with the largest stand of Eastern White Pines, giants up to 175' tall & over 300 years old. Not quite research for the layout, but just a place where I like to be.

Wayne

[SpaceMouse]

Do a search for pictures of your type of forest on the Internet. Forests are full of dead-falls shade plants and needles not leaves. The color will be the color of the dried needles, red for redwoods, tan to brown for douglas fir. Many forests have ferns--lots of ferns, and patches of moss and lichens. Most pine forests are located in mountains so there would be many exposed boulders and rocky areas.

Meander down to you local library and get a coffee table book on a national park that shows your type of forest.

[Anonymous]

I've seen too many models of forested areas that look like manicured lawns. Cover the area with a grass product and stick in a bunch of trees. Great if you are modeling a park area, but not overly realistic if the intent is to model an actual living forest.

Observation is the key - real forests have lots of undergrowth, fallen trees, shrubs, new trees growing, etc. The previous suggestion to mulch up some real plant material in a blender is an excellent one that I've heard of before. Don't forget some stumps too!

Bob Boudreau

[davekelly]

One of Kalmbach's scenery books (I forget which one - I'll look tonight) as a section on modeling a forest floor. It pretty much follows what philnrunt had in the beginning of his post. Looks really realistic.

[philnrunt]

The best method I've heard of involves gathering dead leaves and twigs and , well real undergrowth, and running it through a blender. Just the leaves, not so much the twigs. I would assume you could get some pine needles and do the same, I don't know how much sap is in them, but if they look good, it would also give you the smell of a pine forest. Be sure to get all of the critters out.
You could also get some Woodland Scenics tall dead grass, and trim it to tiny pieces with scissors, but it would take awhile to get enough to cover a large area.
I'm going to check back with this post, to see if anyone comes up with a really good answer. Thanks for posting it.
Also, make sure its an old blender, not one you use for food anymore.

[Anonymous]

I am currently modeling a Pine forest, rather large one, for my HO scale Logging run. My problem is, I cant seem to invision how I am going to to do the undergrowth! I know its not just grass, Its leaves and dirt and leaves and bark and bugs and leaves. How does one properly landscape this undergrowth??
I dont want just great Trees, I want my GREAT trees to stand on Great ground.