I need more palm trees!! I HATE those CHEAP ONES TOO!

[Anonymous]

Hey guys I am in search of good looking palm trees that cost under $10 a piece. I see and bought one good looking one by NOch but that shtuff was $12 for it and that was discounted. They are normally $15 a piece!! What the hell is wrong with these people? I can buy a pack of three regular trees for a mere $9 but a palm tree they are hard to find and a fortune. I need at least 10 more and I will never evern think of spending $120 for 10. Any cheaper but good looking ones out there?

I just got in four three pack of palm trees from Scenic Express for $5.49 a pack and tehy look kinda shotty. I am mad now because I wasted $28 for that order. I could have had two of the good looking ones.!! I hate palm trees!!!

[hminky]

There was an article about making palm trees using feathers for the frounds in Model Railroader awhile back. I have used them for ferns. In HO they could also represent Palmetto.

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/ferns/

Hope that helps
Harold

[jrbarney]

Unfortunately, sometimes if you want quality you have to pay for it. You might want to consider what Hart of the South has to offer. Alkem Scale Models used to offer these, but now refers you to Hart:
http://www.hartofthesouth.com/
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

Yo HArtsouth is freaking crazy!! How in the hell could I spend $12 for a tree that is akit? I can buy NOch ones that are nicely done and not a kit for $12 a piece. Thats crazy. BUt Bob I really appreciate very much you providing someone selling palm tress. Thank you. I may just have to suck it up as stated and buy those NOCH ones for that expensive money. AWWWW MAN

[Anonymous]

Find some suitable feathers. If the budgie is reluctant to invest, try the pet shop or farm or leave some crumbs out for the local pigeons . . .
Trim them to a simple palmfrond shape.
Paint or dye them an appropriate colour.
Use some multicore copper wire as the trunk stem and run a bead of solder along it as a filler. Leave a 1cm unsoldered portion at the top.
Solder a nail into the bottom for a support on your layout.
Spread out some of the single wire strands at the top as bases for the feathers to plug onto.
Leave a spike of a couple of wires out at the top - most palm trees have a spike of new growth there.
Rub some caulking compound along the 'trunk' and smooth it into a bark texture.
Paint it in appropriate colours.
Pu***he feather palm fronds onto the single wire strands with a dab of CA glue and you have a nice little VERY cheap palm tree!

[Anonymous]

I saw an article in MR from July 1996 about making model Palm Trees. It was on a layout that featured a Santa Fe passenger train running along the California coast. What the author used was the twist ties from the produce section at the market. Basically, he cut them into the shape of a palm frond and cut notches along the sides. He then painted them an appropriate shade of green. He took the pieces and twisted them together to form a trunk, then wrapped them with pieces of masking tape. When he finished this, he painted the tape brown to represent the trunk of the tree. The end result looked pretty good and turned out to be far less expensive than buying palm trees. They seemed to be pretty easy to make, too!

-Joe

[Jetrock]

If you want OK looking ones for cheap, go to a craft store that sells cake toppers--they tend to have really cheapo palm trees for 8-10 cents each. Rough up the trunks with sandpaper and paint them light gray. Paint the leaves medium green and give them a drybrush coat of light green. Assemble them--I found that re-arranging the leaves made them look better than a ten-cent cake topper, although not as good as a homemade palm tree or a $13 store-bought one...