Thanks, guys. Yes, that fake fur stuff is at Hobby Lobby in the fabric section. It's kept on the bolt and sold by the yard. I forgot its actual name but it's a low pile synthetic fuzzy material and it's sort of a honey color, like wheat at harvest time. I love this stuff! I'll try to find out the actual product name.
When I was at Hobby Lobby looking for the stuff a while back, I found some material that I thought might be was Jim is talking about but I wasn't 100% sure. I definitely remember the word "Honey" on the label on the end of the rectangular shaped spool.
I ran by Hobby Lobby at lunch and here is what I've been using. The clerk called to felt fleece. I wrongly call it fake fur. Sorry for any confusion.
Using a hairbrush is a great idea. I didn't think of that because I haven't needed a hairbrush for many years
For those who may not live near a Hobby Lobby and don't want to drive... http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/flt-45-wide-honey-plush-felt-644526/ I looked at their shipping scale. At $5.99/yd., I could have up to 2 square yards shipped to me for only $5.95. That's about $14.00 less than the $20 in gas that it would cost me to pick it up myself.
I have not seen better looking trees on any layout here in the KC area, or anywhere else I have been. They are very impressive.
Thank you very much. If I had any time and business sense I would try to sell custom trees but alas, just too lazy and I couldn't charge enough to make it worthwhile. In reality they aren't too hard to make so I can't see much demand. JTT makes nice trees as far as factory made trees go but they are costly. Thanks again, Keith.
I am sooo tired of making trees... I know these are no where as good a Jim's work, but for myself it more of a quantity thing I took Jim and some others advise and went out and got some more Sagebrush and started making some trees again, finally (mercifully) ran out of poly fiber for the trees. There are five different batches of trees, still have lots of Sagebrush though. Bad thing is they just disappeared on the MRR and hardly even look like they were added. I am gonna take a break from making trees for a bit. A question. What is the best thing to use for attaching the Poly Fiber to the armatures? Been using Hob-E-Tac from Woodland Scenics, but when I let it dry overnight, attach the fiber. When using the hair spray for gluing the turf on, the fiber sometimes comes loose from the armature. Is there a better glue for this I should be using? I need to get a craft class to make these Anyway here are the trees.
Tom, Sagebrush is about as good as it gets. Unfortunately you can't get it in Florida. I used to collect it when I lived in Wyoming and for the foreground the detail is the best I have seen. I use the Woodlands foam and shred it as fine as I can. Then I use a Crape Myrtle armature, spray with the Elmer's in the photo, using your hand lift the loose foam and it sticks right to it. Then leave to dry. The Fern in the photo, I found growing on the FEC ROW. I collected seed and now have it growing in my garden. I paint it with forrest green and other shades, spray it with Elmer's and stick it to the background. It looks fairly good. Bill Jackson
Tom, Bill, you guys are cranking out some super nice trees! Tom, don't sell yourself short. You're trees are as good as any I've seen. I'm glad this thread has floated back to surface because tree making is very rewarding and allows creative freedom not found in modeling structures or detailing /bashing locos. And by the way, I don't use anything to attach the fiber to the branches. I pull and stretch the stuff as much as I can and just wrap it around the tree and maybe in and out of a branch or two. It just seems to cling well. I then sometimes dip it into the big Zip Loc bag of ground foam before applying the hairspray and other times I spray it first for a denser leaf coverage. This method is fine for home layouts but a traveling module would probably require a stronger fixative. Bill, I like the fern material and your backdrop.
Thanks Jim, Thats interesting that you wrap the poly fiber to attach it I gotta try that, Thanks for the input and ideas. William I think those are great looking trees. I like those Ferns look to be a interesting tree in the making. I am gonna try your idea for glue as well.
Jim, You began this thread during mid-January. Is late November too early to scout around and harvest potential trees? On a side note, my daughter jokingly said, "Daddy, I think your addicted to that Frisco website." I jokingly replied, "And your point is...?" - Brandon
I think it's prime time right now. Just plan a hike out into the great outdoors (or your backyard) and take some bags along to carry any materials you may find. Dried weeds and flowers are potential tree materials along with whatever else you deem usable. Being creative and seeing potential in otherwise useless stuff is the key to success so you should be able to harvest plenty of scenery material. Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving. And yes, I also have the addiction
I been fevered up try to make some Aspen trees too much work for each tree but hope it will be worth it.
Those will look cool. Paint 'em white with black splotches? Please post pics of the finished product. You make nice trees and Aspens are seldom modeled.
I really made a mess trying to do those splotches. Took me an hour to clean up the splatter everywhere, gotta find a better way to do that. Here we go, a few Autumn Aspens.
Are you kidding me?! Those are absolutely the very best model aspen trees I've ever seen. Spot on (get it). The tree trunks convey the look perfectly. My hat's off to you.
Very nice Aspen's. I was thinking their was a article in MR, several years back, I didn't try any, they looked too labor intensive. They really add to, the layout. Reminds me a little of the Custer Line (South Dakota) and I got to go up a couple of times on the Leadville Branch. Nothing like the Aspen's color change, I got to see them in peak color. Everyone should see that at lease once.
