Making trees

[dale8chevyss]

Hey guys

 

I need to figure out how to get a bunch of trees for my layout to make it look less than the giant plywood desert.  I know this has been beaten to death with various articles and such but I'm looking to see what you guys do for making a bunch quickly, affordably and easily.  I'm familar with the puffball method for a hillside, but I need some that have trunks.  I tried making some with the puffballs and natural local outside branches but that didn't pan out well.  I know of a club that makes them on the side as a fund raising project, but at the show I was at today they didn't have any. 

 

What do you suggest?

[RR_Mel]

I tried several things and gave up making my own.  I use WS tree armatures to make my trees.

 

About 15 years ago my LHS told me about a large distributor closing and we put a large order together.  The WS tree kits were under $9 for a package of 16 trees at the time and I picked up 600 trees for $75.

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[KEN MASON]

Don't give up making your own. My wife and I use twigs from our yard and WS foliage in different green colores stretched over the twig armature. We use Aleene's glue to hold the foliage on the twig. After that we spray the foliage with hairspray and then sprinkle on loose ground foam with mixed colors. They look good and are pretty cheap and quick to make.

Hope this helps.

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Hi Dale,

Maybe you have done this already, but go to you-tube and look up tree making for Model railroads and you will get enough videos to watch for a week.  It will give you different ideas to try. Some are good and some are so so. But you have to try them out and see which works best for you.  Good luck with that.   I have had good luck with the furnace filter trees.

I do have a box of Super trees that I haven't got into yet.

Johnboy out..........................

[HObbyguy]

Don't give up!

Even though I am not totally satisfied with the trees that I've made they are more realistic than what I can buy.  Try a Supertree kit.  And Supersage armatures look really good.  The hardest part for me is getting flock to stick well and fill out the branches nicely.  I just learned about using polyfiber to help with this and it even seems to work well with "natural" armatures that you can find in the yard.  Here is some good discussion and advice.

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/216691.aspx

[kasskaboose]

Have different types of trees on your layout is much more realistic.  Given that most people focus on the foreground, put the more expensive ones there.  The cheaper trees go in the back.  One method I use is flower wire and rope.  Google that method or watch youtube videos.  That is very cheap, fun, and fast.   I also do the furnace filter approach with painted BBQ skewers (for trunks) for background.

Besides making different types of trees, using various colors also more closely replicates nature.  Sometimes, I even have a bare tree in an area surrounded by fuller ones.  I avoid monochromatic scenery--mother nature does also.

[rrebell]

There is a company out there called Architree, they make and sell pine trees cheaper than I can make them. They look really good, just don't buy ones taller than 6" (as their taller ones don't look as real), for those I made my own.

[BroadwayLion]

LION goes out in the fall, and finds weeds, bramble bushes, twigs and other organic objects to use as trees on the layout of him. Woodland Scenic material finishes the project. (The buildings were designed on a comuter and printed on a laser printer.)

 

Now the LION wants to plant a Baobab Tree on the layout of him.

ROAR

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

I'm not sure what kind of bush it is but there was one in my old backyard that I use to make nice tree trunks with branches. Then I can leave it bare for fall and winter, or cover with woodland scenics foilage for spring and summer.

[ACY Tom]

Good results can be had with hydrangea blossoms. Let them dry and pick off what's left of the flowers, leaving a delicate woody armature. Then pickle them in glycerine to preserve them. Put several together for a fuller look. Paint the trunk and branches if you like. Add your choice of foam "vegetation" to fill it out.

Tom

[cowman]

As mentioned above, a variety of trees in natural.  I have used the WS armatures with either clump foliage or poly fiber sprinkled with ground foam.  Both look OK, but quite different.  Twigs can be used for the armatures.  Dried sudum flowers can be used, as well as other flowers.  Goldenrod and several other weeds can be dried and used.  I have put just ground foam on some of the smaller ones, for larger trees you may want to paint the armature before adding the foam.  For Christmas tree shaped trees, there are several tutorials on you tube.  I used a cup hook in my drill, floral wire and baling twine, spray painted and immediately sprinkled on a conifer green ground foam.  I've seen some nice looking furnace filter pines, but have yet to find the right type of filter.  Making puffball trees takes some pratice, I did make some and the covered hillsides look quite good.  I used different colors of ground foam to show different trees or species of tree.  Also, in my location, there is frequently a conifer or a group of connifers poking up out of the deciduous forrest.  I have a few and have had several favorable comments on the technique.

Good luck,

Richard 

[mlehman]

Some pics, links, and discussion starting here on how I made a bunch of the old stand-by, bumpy chenille trees: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/243702/2714178.aspx#2714178

[Santa Fe all the way!]

Or you could go to Ebay and buy a bunch of trees for cheap? Chinese seller have some pretty nice looking trees these days,, very cheap.

[hornblower]

I have been very pleased with the results I've achieved using SuperTrees.  However, I did find that using spray adhesive carefully sprayed at the ends of the branches just prior to adding flock not only held the flock better than the matte medium dip but kept the flock off of the trunk and larger branches, too.  A second spray of the spray adhesive held everything in place nicely.

As far as modeling a specific species of tree, I find that most layout visitors only see nice looking trees.  They don't really care whether they look like oaks, maples, pines, etc., as long as the trees look good and add to the scene.  Granted, if you're modeling a pine forest, you might want something more species specific.  However, for most other types of scenes, the SuperTrees look just fine, especially if you trim the armatures into different shapes and use different flock colors.

[SouthPenn]

Why are the majority of HO scale tree tunks brown? When I look at the woods behind my house, the tree trunks are all some shade of grey.

Same with power/telephone poles.

South Penn

[dale8chevyss]

Good thought!

[Guy Papillon]

SouthPenn

Why are the majority of HO scale tree tunks brown? When I look at the woods behind my house, the tree trunks are all some shade of grey.

Same with power/telephone poles.

South Penn

You are absolutely right. Most tree species in North America have bark that is some shade of grey. There are some exceptions for sure: ex. Aspens, birches, Cherry tree, Douglas Fir and some other. But most are some shade of grey and this not only behind your house.

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

mlehman

Some pics, links, and discussion starting here on how I made a bunch of the old stand-by, bumpy chenille trees: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/243702/2714178.aspx#2714178

 

 

Very nice, not just the trees, the whole scene including the background mountains.

[mlehman]

Thanks, I appreciate the kind comments.

Brings to mind another comment. It helps to look at trees, not so much as individual trees, but as one more scenic factor. It doesn't hurt to be able to produce a recognizable species of tree, but that only matters with foreground trees. The bulk of them can be simply produced, in both time and money. If building single trees isn't working for you, you can get better results by building them in masses.

Concentrate on how the forest looks, not the tree. Repeat a basic form over and over and any small issue with  the trees will get diluted into the pool of realism.

Here's another shot showing how the dinky trees add real character to big scenery.

If you click for the close-up, you can see the single trees aren't exactly fine modeling. It's the overall effect that makes them worthy.

[saronaterry]

I agree with Mike above. Go for overall look in the backgroud:

 

 

I model northern Wisconsin and need thousands of trees. These are goldenrod and furnace filter trees. Definetely not museum quality forground trees, but I veiw them like the ground cover ,etc. Backdrop for the trains.

 

Terry in NW Wisconsin

[cowman]

Mike,

Agree with the others, nice work.

Where do you get your bumpy chenille?  Any time I have asked for it, I get looked at like I had two heads.  At one time I did find some small ones in packages but they had been on the shelf forever.  I have seen that there are several sizes but when I ordered them (never cashed the check), no answer, called..., out of busisness?!??

Have fun,

Richard

[BroadwayLion]

cowman

Where do you get your bumpy chenille?

Try Hobby Lobby, or if there is not one of these near you, try a fabric store.

Wedding veil material also makes good chain link fences.

ROAR

[trainnut1250]

Part of the cost of making trees is your time and the other is the materials.  You can use cheaper materials up to a point, but most of us still will have to buy some leaf material. The biggest issue is finding armatures that are quick and cheap that look good. This is where most of the savings comes from in tree making. Most of these methods take time.  To get foreground trees generally takes lots of time.   

There are several time honored techniques for making your own trees:

Puff ball trees – no armature needed – cost is in the foliage

 

Branches or sticks from the forest or garden – sedum, nandina sagebrush, and a variety of other materials are used for this method

 

Furnace filter trees – these use a dowel or branch as the trunk and furnace fiber material for the braches

 

Wire armatures – either wire bundles are made by hand or spun in jig (pine trees) and then coated with flock

 

Rope trunks – rope is soaked in glue and then shaped into a tree trunk

 

All of these methods will require you to buy foliage material – so the savings is mostly in the trunks depending on the method.

 

Three suggestions for you:

 

Supertrees:  They are quick and easy.  They make great looking trees and can be subbed for many different species depending on leaf color and armature shape. Much cheaper than buying pre-made trees, but can be more expensive than other methods….Still the cheapest way to get foreground quality trees.

 

Furnace filter trees: These can be made in an assembly line and you can get lots of decent looking pine trees for very little cash – chop stick or skewers can be used for trunks (not foreground quality) and one bat of fiber material will yield lots of trees.  Downside is sore hands from cutting 100’s of stars out of furnace fiber.

 

Ebay sellers:  Buying bigger lots of trees on Ebay - either old WS trees or some of the newer sellers out of China – downside is small trees and you can still drop some coin if you can’t get the deals. I will often see a box of trees from an old layout for sale.  Things are all mixed together in a pile for very little money.  These can be a great deal especially for background trees.

 

I have spent lots of time building trees using most of the methods out there.  I now have about 14 boxes of trees in the layout room ready to put on the layout but yet I still need more pine trees…..Go figure.

 

Have fun,

 

Guy

 

[mlehman]

Richard,

The Lion is correct, lots of bumpy chenille at HL. Green is an obvious choice, but I've also used brown, tan, and black as the base color of BC. Mixing them up, as well as using different shades of green paint, suuplies the variety that makes your forest look great.

They have the giant BC stuff, too, IIRC although for some reason I decided against trying for larger trees (cost? size? not sure?)

For some reason, the local Michael's didn't carry it, but that may just be here. Others have told me they've found Sculptamold at both places, but neither carries it here Must be some regional or store-specific variations, so might want to talk to the manager if that's your only choice and they don't have it on the shelf.

[Guy Papillon]

ACY

Good results can be had with hydrangea blossoms. Let them dry and pick off what's left of the flowers, leaving a delicate woody armature. Then pickle them in glycerine to preserve them. 

Tom

I harvested a bunch of hydrangea blossoms this afternoon and I agree that the woody armature can yield to nice trees. As the stem is already dry and woody, I wonder why one should "prickle them in glycerine". 

 

[cowman]

Mike and Lion,

Thanks for the replies.  Tried the local fabric shop, JoAnn's a while back, no luck.  Have found that there is a HL about 60 miles away.  If I go that way, I'll try it, but it may be awhile.

Kind of stalled on building at the moment, so it's not a big mater.

Thanks again

Richard

[dale8chevyss]

Hi guys.

 

I found the air filter at Wallymarts today.  I'm going to try that method and see how much I hate my life. 

[smkid51]

I also like to use the goldenrod for fall trees - they are too thin to be summer vegetation, but make great autumn shapes.  I trim off the droopy ends of the flower then push the whole thing into a jar of diluted white glue.  Sometimes I bunch up several for thicker foliage.  I hang from the stem (upside down) until totally dry, the spray paint with any autumn color from pale green to orange, red, etc.  The natural coloration makes the paint look natural too.  They are VERY durable and there is no end to the free supply.  I am "S" guage so I time the harvest for the right size trees.  mer

[ss122]

If you live in the Northeast this is the time to pick all the goldenrod you'll ever need. Might be found in other locales as well, but I've only lived in the NE. Anyway, you can pick, trim, dip in white glue, find videos to your heart's content, the stuff is everywhere, and it's free. I seem to remember an article where someone dipped them in dilute white glue then before the glue dried completely, applied scale leaves (think small green confetti) to flesh them out. I'm told that if picked after the first frost they are not allergenic.

[trainman59]

KEN MASON

Don't give up making your own. My wife and I use twigs from our yard and WS foliage in different green colores stretched over the twig armature. We use Aleene's glue to hold the foliage on the twig. After that we spray the foliage with hairspray and then sprinkle on loose ground foam with mixed colors. They look good and are pretty cheap and quick to make.

Hope this helps.I did the same using 50/50 Elmers wood glue and water, I will be making more.

Tom Pica 

Wappingers Falls,NY