Palm Trees for N scale?

[wazzou]

The first thing I'd do is to attack that mold seam with sandpaper or a file. 
Palm trunks can be pretty rough so no need to be particularly careful.
A liberal application of Dullcote wouldn't hurt.

[jmarley76]

Got some down time to "attack" some palm trees! Working on seams and playing with the color of the fronds. Here's a first run of painted frond, with non-painted in the picture for comparison.

[OldEastRR]

Plastruct is selling trees at 75% off

https://plastruct.com/page/1/?s=palm+tree&post_type=product

I bought some other trees and they are very well-made, apparently by hand.

 Also, Shipsure they have gum trees.

https://plastruct.com/?s=gum&post_type=product

The smaller size trees are going for as little as $1 apiece, which is a bargain considering the quality. You can put a few of these guys up front to distract from the grove of plastic ones behind them for good effect.

[jmarley76]

Most of the smaller sizes are already gone... 

[tom mann]

What you posted in your initial prototype photo and your modeling sample are examples of pretty small palms.  But that Washingtonia species grows quite tall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonia_robusta

[jmarley76]

What you posted in your initial prototype photo and your modeling sample are examples of pretty small palms.  But that Washingtonia species grows quite tall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonia_robusta

Some of those larger palm would work for that, anything in the 4" to 6" range (60' to 80' for you rivet counters).

I am shooting for a more scrub, undergrowth/overgrown appearance. Most of the palms around the industrial areas that I have seen (mostly from pictures) are small, usually a bush type, such as the saw palmetto or younger sabal palmetto types. Here's a couple street view shots for reference:

[tom mann]

Sorry, I had in my head that you were modeling California.

[jmarley76]

That's the next layout...  

[Philip H]

Most of the smaller sizes are already gone... 

true, but they do have 1/2 and 3/4 econo palm tree heads left - so you could roll your own . . .

https://plastruct.com/shop/landscaping/pth-19/

[Philip H]

If you have a LOT of time to invest, there's this:

[lajmdlr]

There are several Switch Leads on the Los Angeles Junction Ry that have palm tress growing on them. They aren't ornamental much less agricultural. They grow like weeds. The seeds are brought in on freight cars & deposited. Add some rain water & they grow.

[jmarley76]

That would make for an interesting abandoned spur!

[chuck geiger]

[peteski]

Wow!  Those are really super-detailed palms!  But very labor intensive and delicate.  I imagine that the building method could be modified slightly to use a computer-controlled craft cutter to do the tedious work of cutting out the leaf shapes.

[chuck geiger]