Sage Brush Trees

[simon1966]

Hi everyone!

During this weekends photo fun several people asked about sagebrush tree armatures that both Arthill and myself used in our models.  I had purchased mine from a chap off the web some months ago and was saddened to find that his web site had gone off-line.  Well it turns out he had not been very well and has transferred the sales aspect of his sage brush business to http://www.fsmtrees.com/  This looks like a neat web site and has some tree making tutorials on it as well.

[ARTHILL]

Simon,

Great site. If I would have found this sooner, I would not have made as many bad trees. The only addition I made this week was to use Noch leaves instead of foam.

Buying them here is sure cheaper than taking a motorhome to Arizona for a month, but if you are there, walking the hillsides looking for the stuff is fun.

Thanks for the reference.

[loathar]

Thanks Simon! Is this the same stuff Scenic Express uses for their Super Trees?

[simon1966]

No.  Supertrees are a different plant.  The trunks are much thiner and more brittle.  I happen to like Super Trees for more background effects, but I think the sage plant makes better foreground trees.  Scenic Express has somthing called Super Sage which I suspect is the same.

[simon1966]

There is also a Yahoo group on Tree making http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TreeMaking/  it is not a really active group but there are some fantastic artists on it, not all from MRR by the way.

[BRVRR]

Simon,

Thanks for the link. I'm going to try some sage brush. I am in desperate need of trees on the BRVRR. I just hate to make them.

 

[cwclark]

  Sage is hard to find in my neck of the woods without purchasing it from a vendor. I like to use the blooms from the crepte myrtle tree which makes for some real dandy oak trees once woodland scenics foilage is glued to the flower pod stripped branches. ...chuck

[Chuck Geiger]

Hold the fort - I can pick this stuff and ship it from Central California in the foothills and Mojave Desert - You pay for shipping and I'll send all the twisted, fat sage trunks you want.

[R. T. POTEET]

The actual plant/tree you are looking for there, ARTHILL is called "Big Sagebrush" and Arizona ain't the place to come looking for it; it does grow in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon but is just a little spare in them thar parts.  What they call "Sagebrush" up on the Navaho Res may be a species of Sagebrush but it doesn't have that gnarled structure which you are looking for.

You can find Big Sagebrush just a little closer to home, Eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming to be exact; the stuff is thick as thieves in those parts.  I cry when I think of the hundreds of tons of the stuff I cut and burned over the years; it takes a sinister delight in seeding along fence lines and subsequently tearing out barbed wire fence.

The borrow pit along the road just to the west of my grandpappy's old hardscrabble farm west of Roberts, Idaho was choked with the stuff; it grew so thick in some places as to be of almost thicket proportions and, if you didn't watch where you were riding it could reach out and grab you and you could easily join the birds - happened to me at least once.  (The horse ain't been sired what couldn't be rode and there ain't a cowboy alive what can't be throwed} I'm five foot eight and I have encountered plants/trees taller than I am - they are admittedly rare but one plant/tree of those proportions would probably render a good sized forest on most layouts.

Prior to my building a new layout in the next few years I am going to go back up there to the home-country with some boxes and green plastic grass bags and trim me some branches off of the trunks and ship them home UPS.  I'll take along a couple of cans of spray insecticide to make sure bugs don't hitch a ride on the foilage. 

[loathar]

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ARTR2

Just came across this. A lot more widespred than I thought.

[ARTHILL]

It was not plentiful in Mesa, but I did find some on the tops of the higher foothills, outside of Userey park.

[Anonymous]

Hello to all

Just for info, My name is Vance and I am the owner of fsmtrees (dot) com. I just joined this forum. I recieved the info about this form from a watch list through google for anyone entering the words fsmtree or sagebrush trees. I have some great armatures for your layouts. 

 Just so folks know, these are kiln dried to 210 F for 15-30 minutes. This kills not only any insects, but also seeds of noxious weeds, bacteria, fungus and virus. That takes care of the little ones that eat the tree and then eat the house.

 Thanks to all
Have a Great Day

 

[lvanhen]

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ARTR2

Just came across this. A lot more widespred than I thought.

Expected to see the stuff out west, but Massa2stuff?   Anybody have any idea how the stuff got there?  Just curious.

[RedGrey62]

I think a few us are planning a trip to western Kansas to pick up some sagebrush.  Then we can make some trees!  Of course, train chasing will be involved as well.

Rick