Time to Harvest Your Own Trees

I like Woodland Scenic ground foams and sometimes use poly fiber. My winter trees have some ground up leaves from my yard on them. All kinds of stuff.

 

I never really thought about it but you could use that stuff called Sticky Tack maybe. Cover the base with ground foam. Or......drill toothpick sized holes in the plywood. I use the tips of round toothpicks glued up into the base of my homemade trees for poking into my foam layout base so that would mean only a very small hole would need to be drilled. Is it too late to glue a sheet of 1" blue insulation board on top of the plywood? That would be much more fun to create scenery on and make trains quieter. Just a thought.

 

Update:

Decided that I'd better try to get some yardwork done today before the next snowstorm. I keep waiting for it to warm up and/or for all the snow to melt.

At any rate, I think I found a good tree trunk material: mums.

We planted several last year in our front flower bed. When I saw new growth starting to poke up through the mulch, I decided it was time to trim back the dead growth. That's when I accidentally knocked some of the dried, dead leaves off of the stems, and had the "aha" moment.

As Jim already noted, with some polly fiber, ground foam and hair spray, they just might turn out to be acceptable.

If the snow is as significant as they're forecasting, I'll have plenty of time at home tomorrow to experiment.

Best Regards,

 

Mums the word. Post pics of your creations when you get around to it.

 

Let me share some past experience with you. Clump foliage does not look as realistic for tree leaves as compared to the course or fine turf. I'm not saying it won't look OK but I didn't like my results very much. The method I use for adding leaves depends on my trunk material. Trunks with lots of natural airy branches like the JTT Super Tree kits I just spray paint the trunk, spray the branches with cheap hairspray and shake it in a big plastic bag with the course or fine turf. For the trunks made from harvested twigs and weeds and such I add some fluffed and pulled poly fiber to the branch area first and then do the shake in the bag method. Experimenting is fun and you may develop your own style as you go. Wear some vinyl gloves when holding the trunk and spraying the hairspray. I think your glue will work but I prefer cheap hairspray. You'll find your groove. Enjoy.

 

Here's a few examples of what I was talking about.

 

Oh Dear!!

 

Good aim with that tree. Yikes! I prefer to harvest them in the winter.

 

I spent the last few evenings making some trees for a friend and here's some results using natural trunk and branch materials. I sculpted each trunk's detail using modeling putty. I made a base from foam board covered with fake fur scenery as a way to transport them and display them. I took them outside this afternoon for photo fun. Here's the pics.

 

Jim, first I have to figure out why I cannot see your attachments on a kindle.

For what it's worth, I'm liking the results I'm getting with mums, poly fiber and ground foam. It does take some experimentation; trying to fill out the full canopy is one challenge.

Best Regards,

 

Funny you mention that. I just started a run on some "background" trees this evening using the technique you just mentioned. I'm using something other than mums for the trunk though but not sure what it's called. I do love the poly fiber method.

 

Jim,

Did you say you got the fake fur at Hobby Lobby? Could you tell me what section it is in and what the brand name is?

Roger