How To Make A Tree
In HO, I use mostly flowers/weeds whose blossoms consist of bunches of 'flowerettes'; sedum, phlox, ragweed, etc. Collected in the fall and allowed to dry, I then carefully pinch off the seed pods.
Selecting 3 or 4 of slightly differing lenghts, I glue the large parts of the stems together with white glue. [recommend a finishing nail in the center for strength and as a way to attach to layout]
While the glue is still wet, wrap the trunk in tissue paper and roll between your fingers. Messy, but gives a rough bark-like surface while making the trunk appear to be one piece. Let dry. This is
the 'basic armature.'
A Variety of Trees
If, as I did on the first couple dozen armatures, you have broken off the majority of the fine tips, cut some irregular pieces of 'bridal veil' and glue these over the armatures in an irregular
pattern. Spray paint [cheap flat] dark grey, and glue your ground foam over this. Some types of trees have leaves in a 'hollow ball' shape, anyway.
To Kill a Tree
Doing a winter scene, or just want to have a couple dead trees scattered here and there? Take the basic armature described above and paint it LIGHT grey. [Flat auto primer works great] Then do a wash
of dilute india ink. A second wash on just the tops of the branch joint areas will really set off the detail.
A Patch of Grass/Weeds
Got a small area that could use a slightly different ground treatment? I had such a place and what I did was to glue down a piece of worn green facecloth; it followed the 'lay of the land' reasonably
well, but needed something more. I added a small clump of Spanish Moss, brushed white glue over that, and sprinkled on the ground foam. Voila! An uneven patch of grass complete with shaggy-looking
bushes on it. The Spanish
Diffuse and Debug Simultaneously
This works best for those reduced depth buildings with the apartments upstairs that you have hiding the joint between layout and backdrop/wall. Get some used dryer sheets and put them between your
light source and the windows. Looks like lace type curtains [at a range of 200+ HO feet] and has the added benefit that most household bugs are repelled by the smell and will desert your layout room.
['Bounce"(tm) seems to work best] Unfortunately, this does not help with the electrical/electronic type bugs.
Making Good looking Cheap Trees!
The key to making a good looking tree is finding cheap materials that replicate the expensive ones in hobby shops. For example Poly Fiber buy it colored green about .5 ounces $10. Buy Poly fiber for
pillows 12oz. $1.99, then just spray paint it green or mix and match.
1.)First you must shape the twig, you don't need to worry about the twig shape because you can make the ball of poly fiber make the shape.
2.)You now need to shape the tree a little bit not to round because you don't want it to look to un-realistic.
3.)Now you can spray paint the tree mix and match with colors and intermingle these to get a more realistic look.
Using the directions above and the same materials you should be able to easily make 100-1000 trees depending on size thinkness and so on.
I don't get my weeds from "the wild" unless you count Michaels Craft Store and Wal-Mart as wilderness. :o) So the dried plants I use SHOULD be universally available. Any good craft store with a
decent dried flower section ought to have a wide variety of useable plants. The secret is to plant them fairly close together. This creates a dense, tangled mass of branches. If I want any really big
trees I toss in some wire armature trees with either clump or net foliage.
Matt
Just the sort of observation that will make you into a scenery expert; learn the effects of the micro-climate: trees that are [more or less] straight till they get to the height of that hill on
their upwind side, then bend downwind, or the trees near the top of a hill that have flat tops because of the wind. Model those things and the casual observer of your layout will get the impression,
if only subconsciously, that you really know your stuff.
Little Jack
I like having many different types of trees on my layout. After all, there are very many different type of trees in a real forest, so why not. Anyway, I had been looking at some artificial Christmas garland (the fake fir boughs) for some time thinking it could probably make a decent tree with some work, so here's what I did.
These are the supplies that I use to make this tree. The garland can be purchased almost anywhere, but probably only during the prelude to Christmas. Some type of wire cutter is required to cut the branches off the garland. I use cheap hairspray to attach ground foam in the small dish (made into a sprinkler) and a second dish to catch the overflow of foam. Scissors are required to trim the garland branch. I have a board with many holes drilled in it to temporarily store completed trees. Since my workbenches are so untidy, I cover the floor with newspaper and work there.
First, cut off a branch of the garland.
Because the "needles" of the garland can flatten over time, I tried warming the branch in front of the ceramic heater I use in the layout room. Don't hold it too close to the heater for too long or you'll end up with a curled up ball of plastic! Then I brushed the "needles" with my fingers until the branch was relatively symmetrical.
Next, trim a bit off one end to form a trunk and trim the rest to create a conical tree shape
Use hairsparay to attach ground foam, et voila a pine or fir tree!
Deciduous (hardwood) trees can be some of the easiest trees to make if you can find a good source of stems. You can quickly forest a large area with these trees.
You will need suitable tree-like stems, some poly-filber, cheap hairspray (the cheapest hairsray contains the most lacquer), and various shades and textures of green ground foam.
For tree trunks and branches I usually use spirea (a common shrub) tips collected in the late fall or early spring. Their branching structure toward the tips provides convincing looking tree branches. I use whatever else I can find that looks like a small tree. Unfortunately I'm not a botanist, so I don't know the names of some of the other weeds I've used.
First, clean any loose bits like leaves and flowers off the "trunk". Then pull out a small bit of poly-fiber and tease it out (pull it apart) with your fingers until it is very wispy.
Spray some hairspray on a "branch" and position the poly-fiber on it. I find I get a more convincing tree by attaching a small piece (or two) of poly-fiber to each "branch" rather than one large one over the whole tree.
I repeat this process for each branch until the tree is covered. Sometimes I leave a few of the lower branches to look like dead braches. Dead branches can be left full length, cut off, or broken off and either left hanging or placed on the ground beside the tree.
Once all the poly-fiber is in place I spray the whole tree (poly fiber) with hairspray and sprinke on some ground foam (sprinkle the foam over a newspaper or container so the bits that fall off can be recycled). You can mix colors and textures to get different tree effects.
Next all you have to do is to prepare a "planting" spot (drill a hole for the "trunk") and plant the tree!
I've been experimenting with using the textrued spray paint sold in hardware stores. Brand names are things like Fleck Stone, etc.--they're used for reating fake-stone textures on household objects.
This stuff makes nice looking tree bark--mottled light and dark gray or mottled light/dark brown, it also builds up nicely on the trunks to make them a little closer to scale diameter. Once dry, I overspray lightly with Krylon camouflage brown from the top, and a light overspray of flat black from beneath. I a few seconds, the painting is done, and it dries quickly so you can apply flock and foam right away.
Gardiner Cross