Just a friendly reminder for those interested in making your own trees. This is the best time of year to harvest natural materials to produce some very realistic tree trunks and branches. Just go out into the woods, along weedy roads or even your back yard. Look for dead flowering plants like those on the right side of the photo and the cool looking tree trunks on the left side were harvested tonight and the seed pods trimmed off. I don't know what these plants are called but there are many different types out there. Just walk about and use your imagination. These make top quality trees with very little effort and even less money. By the way, the row of trees on the bottom right are Woodland Scenics trees. I like what I harvested even better. All that's left to do is to add leaves!
Jim - Excellent reminder. I've always enjoyed using stonecrop after it goes from red to brown. It works qutie well for background trees, especially, using the basic techniques you've described. Best Regards,
I strongly recommend goldenrod tops. They have a tree-like shape and are about the right size for mature, HO-scaled trees. There are many varieties of goldenrod, but they are quite common, at least in this part of the world (northern Illinois). Shake off the loose material, trim to the desired shape, spray with aerosol adhesive and shake the bare "tree" around in a container (a coffee can will do nicely) filled with Woodland Scenics coarse foam. They will not be quite as nice as those "Super Trees," but they look very convincing and best of all they are cheap. GS
Trees are a good subject. Anyone live out west, I would like to get some sage brush. I would buy some, if anyone is where they can get it. Contact me. Bill Jackson macon249@yahoo.com
Heck yes, me too! My 5 best trees in the Zalma scene are sagebrush tips that I picked in Arizona on our vacation last year. They are the best in my humble opinion.
Jim, didn't I see a photo once where you used the root end of a basil plant to represent a tree hanging on for dear life alongside a muddy river bank? Best Regards,
Yes indeed. I always save my summer plants and herbs and use their dried out roots for such things. Waste not want not. I try to detail my scenery with the same amount that I detail a model. I just like that. Another advantage of a small layout.
Jim: Your ''Trees'' sort of look like "Achillea millefolium" or yarrow weeds. These have been used to model trees for the 50 years that I have been interested in modeling. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achillea_millefolium Next warm day we have - I will go and look for some tree material for U guys. Give me a max height to look for in real inches.
Looks familiar. I've got all kinds of stuff I'm using for trees I just don't know what they're called. I walk around the woods with a sack and a wire cutter and shop for free goodies. I'm cheap like that.
That's the one! One of the best looking homemade trees I'd ever seen, until you broke out the cypress trees. Best Regards,
Just saw an old blog post on Marty McGuirk's site about using Crape Myrtle for foreground trees. Anyone have one in their yard? I can bring my own pruners. http://www.centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2011/08/foreground-trees.html Best Regards,
Chris, I have surplus supplies. PM me your address. You'll be making museum quality trees in no time!
Trees step by step. All kinds of dead winter plants have potential for model scenery use. I've been seeing these clusters of seed bunches along the road at times and never paid them any attention until I got close to them while jeeping. I picked some to try. This is step one in free (almost) tree making. Back at home I removed all the seeds and what remained was a nice tree starter with realistic bark texture and life like color. Free. I drill a hole into the base and insert a piece of toothpick with glue for later mounting. You can trim the top to make a shorter, fuller shaped tree and the branches can be fluffed out for a fuller look. Cracked branches can be re-enforced with C/A. Then I use cheap hairsprayI to add blended turf or ground foam. Pick the right color for your season and give a final shot of hairspray. Left in its naked state it makes a dandy barren winter tree or a dead tree in summer. Broken off branches make fine undergrowth or brush. This is just an example of how to get your own forest started and every tree could be a foreground model.
Chris , you're right. Crape Myrtle yields great tree trunk material. I have two in my backyard and I grabbed some pieces off of one and here's one of the resulting trees I made from it. I have lots of it. Let me know if you're still wanting some. Crape Myrtle, poly fiber, ground foam and hairspray.
The crape myrtle tree looks pretty good, doc. I'll let you know if if I need supplies - my employer has a large public garden about 150 yards from my office window where there may be lots o' dried items, and I think they may have crape myrtle (there's usually a few here and there in our garden and on the MU campus). As nice as the weather's been, I just need to see if the garden/grounds supervisor minds if I help remove some of the dead growth! I need to do something in terms of scenery. A good portion of Olathe (nearly all SL-SF trackage is done) looks like the Plywood Central, and we're going to have company on February 18 that may want to see the "progress." It'd be nice for things to be a little more verdant. Best Regards,
Ok folks, it's prime time to go out and harvest natural weed and shrub material for scenery supplies. Not just for model trees but also dead fall material for ground cover, fine dried plant roots for making brush and river root wads and crushed/sifted dried leaves for forest floor cover and winter scenery. I encourage everyone to go out and give scratchbuilding some scenery a try. I gets dark early so ya'll got some extra basement time to spare.
