How do I make durable trees, lots of trees?

[fr8kar]

I am in need of several trees, what you might think of as foreground trees (not basic bottle brush or lichen puff ball trees), but so far nothing seems to hold up to the abuse a module takes. I have tried the Woodland Scenics trees and they don't look all that great (aside from the fact they all look the same) but they are indestructible. I have also tried Super Trees and they look great, but almost all of them have broken. So...

Is there anything with the durability of the Woodland Scenics injection molded trunks and the delicate look of Super Trees? Keep in mind I am in need of 75 to 100 3 to 6 inch tall trees, about a 50-50 mix of conifer and deciduous trees, so I would prefer not to break the bank, but even more important is not to have to replace the trees in four or five years.

[mlehman]

Ryan,
With conifers, best thing for realism on the cheap is to mix them up. I've used a lot of Busch, but also some Heki mixed in. Neither is fancy, but they are durable and dont look ultracheap, especially when you use different sizes. The Busch assortments give you 4 or 5 different heights.

I also have some Grand Central Gems spruce trees. These are a step up, but another really durable tree and reasonably priced.

Found a pic along the grade...



The trees on the slopes above on the right and center are bumpy chenille trees. Only about 1.5" tall, tyhey're very powerful in terms of giving a good depth of field when taller trees are in the foreground.

Sorry, I can't help much with deciduous trees.

[fr8kar]

Thanks for the information, Mike. Since my modules are viewed and operated from both sides, I really can't take advantage of a forced perspective situation where I use smaller trees to suggest depth. However, the Busch and Heki trees look like they would make excellent filler between some quality deciduous trees.

[oldmuley]

I've been playing around with using dried sedum flower stalks. With some cleaning up and creative relocation of the "branches" they make very nice tree armatures. I like to soak them in wood hardener to really stiffen them up.

[Christian]

Use the plastic trunks but get your foliage and leaf materials from Silflor, Noch, Heki and Scenic Express. A look through Scenic Express catalog will give you /lots/ of ideas for durable, but real looking trees. Including some you can simply buy. Although that can be big $$$.

[wp8thsub]

If you approach them right, bottle brush conifers can look reasonable even up close.



Pay attention to random branching, and keep them from being overly dense.  Once coarse foam is applied, and any gaps filled with finer material, the results can be fairly convincing.  I built these using floral wire, sisal twine fibers attached with Weldwood contact cement, dark gray spray primer, 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, and various brands of ground foam.   Some received carved basswood or balsa trunks with a few "dead" branches of caspia or whatever inserted into some holes I drilled.  Some viewers were fooled into thinking such trees were more detailed than they were

They're extremely durable.  After this layout was torn down for a move, I dropped one of the trees in the driveway and drove over it with a 4X4 pickup.  I rearranged the fiber branches back to shape and it's still around on a friend's layout with most of the rest of these.

For broadleaf trees, you may want to consider building some with wire armatures combined with aquarium fiber and static grass material.  Once those are painted and leaves added with Super 77 or equivalent they can look mighty nice.  Give this thread a look www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23011&whichpage=1 .

[Deleted]

Mar 28, 2015 14:11:14 GMT -8 wp8thsub said:

If you approach them right, bottle brush conifers can look reasonable even up close.



Pay attention to random branching, and keep them from being overly dense.  Once coarse foam is applied, and any gaps filled with finer material, the results can be fairly convincing.  I built these using floral wire, sisal twine fibers attached with Weldwood contact cement, dark gray spray primer, 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, and various brands of ground foam.   Some received carved basswood or balsa trunks with a few "dead" branches of caspia or whatever inserted into some holes I drilled.  Some viewers were fooled into thinking such trees were more detailed than they were

They're extremely durable.  After this layout was torn down for a move, I dropped one of the trees in the driveway and drove over it with a 4X4 pickup.  I rearranged the fiber branches back to shape and it's still around on a friend's layout with most of the rest of these.

For broadleaf trees, you may want to consider building some with wire armatures combined with aquarium fiber and static grass material.  Once those are painted and leaves added with Super 77 or equivalent they can look mighty nice.  Give this thread a look www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23011&whichpage=1 .

Your trees look good. Post a close-up?

I was just about to post the same link to that Railroad-line thread. Most of the trees and the tutorial is the work of Jos Geurt aka "scotchpine". Unfortunatley, most of his photos now show "bandwidth exceeded" instead of the photo. I hope they will be back up soon, they are the best model trees I've ever seen. Save the link!

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Peppergrass or Sandy Tuft makes good reasonable trees, Howard Zane, I believe uses it. I have and am quite satisfied with them. One of the model rr clubs in SE Michigan makes and sells them at train shows in the area.

At the right edge of this photo are two I did on my last layout.

[wp8thsub]

Mar 28, 2015 15:24:33 GMT -8 @sppepfe said:

Post a close-up?

I don't have many photos available of that layout.



This is as much of a close-up as I have.

[fr8kar]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check that thread out later. Sounds intriguing...

[wdw]

Mar 27, 2015 12:28:54 GMT -8 fr8kar said:

I am in need of several trees, what you might think of as foreground trees (not basic bottle brush or lichen puff ball trees), but so far nothing seems to hold up to the abuse a module takes. I have tried the Woodland Scenics trees and they don't look all that great (aside from the fact they all look the same) but they are indestructible. I have also tried Super Trees and they look great, but almost all of them have broken. So...

Is there anything with the durability of the Woodland Scenics injection molded trunks and the delicate look of Super Trees? Keep in mind I am in need of 75 to 100 3 to 6 inch tall trees, about a 50-50 mix of conifer and deciduous trees, so I would prefer not to break the bank, but even more important is not to have to replace the trees in four or five years.

Another option is to buy plastic Christmas cake-decoration pine trees - available cheaply by the hundred or so and in various heights at bakery supply houses and such.

You can use them as they come, stick them on top of a taller trunk or take them apart and use the "branch layers" on a taller core (e.g. barbecue sticks). Paint the trunk where visible, put on the branches, then spray with glue and dust with dark green flock (Busch and/or Heki make "scale pine needles", IIRC).  

When done correctly these can be very convincing, and being flexible plastic they stand quite some abuse.

WDW

[lvrr325]

I've always used dried, painted, gone to seed Goldenrod mixed with some other plants, picked in the fall.

They aren't the most durable, but given the only cost is spray paint (a couple bucks a can) and maybe dip then in some ground foam or other texture material, if you break one, it's no big deal to replace it.