Weekend Update 12/18/11

[Scottl]

Well, my comments were with respect to Woodland Scenic products.  Each to their means and preferences- it's a hobby after all.

[John]

I beg to differ. Puffballs are inexpensive and I think they do a great job portraying dense covering on steep hill edges such as along the Schuylkill River. Particularly if they are fronted by trees with trunks.

I agree

[wm3798]

Puff ball haters gonna hate...


Any questions?

Lee

[MichaelWinicki]

Hey, I can understand wanting to save some money by going the puffball route, but if you can somehow squeeze out a few more dollars for your background trees I think you would be very pleased with the results that Woodland Scenics Clump Foliage and Foliage Clusters can give...



The image was taken about two years ago, after I put Clump Foliage and Foliage Custers behind a couple rows of SuperTrees (and a couple other brands).

What the Clump Foliage/Foliage Clusters can give you, that puffballs can't is an "angular" look to your tops of your background trees (or whatever you want to call them).   By going this route you avoid the "eggs in a carton" look.

[chuck geiger]

A couple of choices:

My friend Lou's home layout (I built the junk yard) WS foliage clusters


My HO layout in Kansas - The backdrop is a stamp made of foliage clusters
and a mix of three green craft paints


Lehigh and Keystone Valley MRRC foliage clusters
http://www.webspawner.com/users/lvlou04/imageGallery/DCP_1566.JPG
http://www.webspawner.com/users/lvlou04/imageGallery/DCP_1528.JPG

and (finally) Puffy
http://www.dansresincasting.com/Puffball%20trees.htm
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?134483-Puffball-Trees

[DKS]

Background trees in these shots were made by applying small clumps of WS clump foliage to carefully-chosen, spray-painted natural twig armatures. However, I used this technique for the sake of expediency--the magazine photography deadline was looming! If I had to do it over, I'd have gone with something along the lines of supertrees.

[davidgray1974]

Wow David, still very impressive looking if you ask me!   

[davidgray1974]

Puff ball haters gonna hate...


Any questions?

Lee

Nice Caboose!   

[davidgray1974]

I agree the Super Trees look amazing.  After looking at pictures of Eds layout and seeing the results you can achieve, I believe I'm gonna give them a go.  Are building Super Trees pretty straight forward?  Does anyone have any advice to give, that only experience with the product can yield?  (ie. learned mistakes)

[pwnj]

FCSME has a pretty decent tutorial on how to make Super Trees, with pictures and step-by-step instructions.

[Ian MacMillan]

Puffballs unite! The ballz along the tracks were supposed to be replaced with trees with armatures, but the layout never got to that point. If I was to do it again I would do all SuperTrees, yeah a lot of em..but its worth it.

[wm3798]

Puffball haters are missing the point.  They work extremely well in forcing perspective as a background material.


Next to the engine, supertrees.  Behind the train, use clump foliage.  On the distant slope, puffballs work just fine.

Save your money for things that have wheels, that's my philosophy.

Lee

[davidgray1974]

FCSME has a pretty decent tutorial on how to make Super Trees, with pictures and step-by-step instructions.

Great  tutorial and thanks for sharing!  I noticed that he recommended boiling the trees before hanging them up to dry to make them straighter.  Is this necessary?  Has anyone else done it a different way with the same result?  Also, is it better to purchase the Scenic Express Kit or just buy everything seperately?

[MichaelWinicki]

Great  tutorial and thanks for sharing!  I noticed that he recommended boiling the trees before hanging them up to dry to make them straighter.  Is this necessary?  Has anyone else done it a different way with the same result?  Also, is it better to purchase the Scenic Express Kit or just buy everything seperately?

I didn't buy the kits.  Just the packages of SuperTrees... The smaller ones, not the large package.  I bought everything else separately or already had it.

I removed as many of the straight or nearly straight pieces that I could.  Those were painted with gray primer, received a matte medium bath and were hung upside down to dry.  Later I would hairspray them and apply a variety of turfs to finish them off.  Sometimes they would need a couple applications of turf in order to make them full enough.

For the ones that weren't very straight, but weren't the worst of the lot, the got treated the same way as the straighter trees, except as they dried after the matte medium bath, I would hang one of my many pairs of tweezers off the bottom to give the tree a little pull downwards, to help straighten it out.

For the ones that were extremely bent, they either became background foliage, where the straightness of the armature did not matter or I simply threw them out. 

I did the boiling thing once and found it to be more of a pain than what it was worth.  I mean you can get a decent sized box of tree making material for about $25.

[Puddington]

Ok..I surrender.....what the hell is a "Super Tree"........? Clearly this life altering invention has not yet made it on the 5:15 dog sled north..................