Best Of Interactive Scenery Clinic Week1: Ground Cover: Trees: Shrubs

[ChrisNH]

Not to go against the super-tree love-fest but I am somewhat on the fence about them.

Don't get me wrong, they look great. However..

- The trunks tend to be thin.. lots of thin trees
- They tend to curl. I can't really get all the curl out with weights.

The guy doing demos at the Scenic Express "booth" at the Harford NMRA show showed one thing that might help with the first issue. He would mount a toothpick in the scenery. Over this he mounted a straw (he suggested coffee stirrer for N) over the toothpick. Into that is plopped the super tree "top". This gave a thicker trunk and also created a less breakable tree. The plastic straw/stirrer would bend preventing at least some King Kong incidents during operating sessions..

For the second issue.. I have read some people boil the trees. Does that work?

Chris

[Ed Kapuscinski]

One thought Dave, if you plant them on the mountain, the mountain will grow in height too.

[AlkemScaleModels]

Tale of three trees



I've been experimenting with different ways to make O scale trees.  N scale techniques don't carry through. You can see some N scale wire armatures on the left above the loco.

More description of construction at:
http://usmrr.blogspot.com/2009/06/three-trees.html

[MichaelWinicki]

Thanks to Ed K. for pointing this thread out to me.

I'm also in a quandary when it comes to trees...

I think Super Trees offer a nice alternative, the challenge I have with them is as Chris pointed out, the trunks just aren't thick enough IMO.  One can go with the straw or coffee stirrer trick but then you've got a tree that's probably too straight.  Or straighter than what I typically see mother nature create.

The other issue is tree coloring.  I'm in the north east, and I can see a row of 10 trees-- each is a different color from the other-- sometimes it's a slight color difference and sometimes it isn't.  And the trees themselves vary from top to bottom. 

I think the whole texture thing with trees has improved greatly over the last 10 years with the introduction of fine turf and leaf flakes by Noch but the color thing is a much more difficult to get a handle on. 

[Dave V]

One thought Dave, if you plant them on the mountain, the mountain will grow in height too.

Yes, however, the mountain height is dictated by the size of the transportation crate I'd built for my previous door layout.  Plus, the surfaces of the mountains are nearly vertical to conserve space.  Not trying to be a jerk, just pointing out why this will be more of a challenge than I'd anticipated.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That makes sense Dave, but you can always pull the trees out (I do it all the time for photography).

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

What is week 2?

[John]

What is week 2?

Designing a bigger shipping crate for Dave

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

lol, what about those new flat rate boxes that come in four different sizes? Like they can be shipped for a low flat rate if under 70 pounds.

[Guilford Guy]

Usually when you move to a new location you rent a moving van instead of boxing up your chairs and couches and have the Postal Service lose them...

[Dave V]

Background:  I'm active duty military.  I let government contract movers move it.  Two moves and no damage whatsoever.  Here they are moving the layout from my house in North Carolina during my move to Nebraska.

[DKS]

For the second issue.. I have read some people boil the trees. Does that work?

Usually they are boiled in glycerin as a method of preserving it. That's what's done to most lichen; untreated lichen is almost as dry and brittle as supertree weeds.

[ChrisNH]

Usually they are boiled in glycerin as a method of preserving it

I had never heard of that being done to super trees. I have been following what seems to be the common practice of soaking them in matte medium to preserve. Might be worth a try although I am not sure the goal is quite the same since lichen is a very different material.

Chris

[DKS]

Usually they are boiled in glycerin as a method of preserving it

I had never heard of that being done to super trees. I have been following what seems to be the common practice of soaking them in matte medium to preserve. Might be worth a try although I am not sure the goal is quite the same since lichen is a very different material.

Chris

I have a fair collection of preserved weeds from craft stores, some of which are very similar to the variety used for SuperTrees, and most of them are preserved with glycerin, which leads me to think that the technique would work.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Do you happen to have any names or sources for the similar to super trees ones?