Cake Trees

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Yep you did hear right, cake trees.

Well to put into perspective I got to tell a little story first. It involves family. Everyone loves a little family story on a Sunday night.

I have two daughters. My one daughter went back to China for her fourth year. She has been teaching English there but this year she is translating English with a nice pay raise. I am very proud of her. I only see her 5 weeks out of the year.

Now my second daughter who I am every bit as proud of, works nights at a bakery decorating cakes, donuts, and cupcakes. She also got a promotion. She now has two employees working under her as the decorating supervisor.

Well anyway she called me a while back and told me she has cake decorations she needs to get rid of. The bakery has small pine trees that are not a very common cake decoration. They need to free up space for more common decorations.

She has four big boxes of these things she brought home and put in her garage.

She knows I do model railroading so she sent me home with a bag of these things to see if I could do anything with them. They are really cheesy.

They sat around for a while and like I said they are really cheesy but I thought about it a few times and then all of a sudden, one day I saw potential.

So I cut the bottoms off of one or two trees depending on how tall I want to make a tree and then used a full Tree Top for the top and threaded them on bamboo skewers. Different sizes of course, all trees are not the same.

Then I took a little snip here a little snip there so they didn’t look so perfect. Then I took two different tones of flat spray paint and while the spray paint was still wet I sprinkled two different colors of flock on them. And finally painted the trunks burnt sienna.

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TF … Very interesting… Thanks for sharing…

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Not bad…not bad at all!! [tup][tup]

Wayne

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I like them. They certainly look good enough for backgounds and props for picture taking.

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I have used all kinds of weird things on my 30 by 30 board for picture taking. I have even gone as far as making use of aquarium decorations!

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-Kevin

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5

TF:

They look really good! Silk purse out of a sow’s ear as it were.

Dave

6

I just struggle along with tree kits from WS. Some look real good and some don’t. I’ve given up trying to have better looking trees, I guess that’s just not my thing.

My tall pines look worse than the ones in the picture.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

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[quote user=“RR_Mel”]

I just struggle along with tree kits from WS. Some look real good and some don’t. I’ve given up trying to have better looking trees, I guess that’s just not my thing.

My tall pines look worse than the ones in the picture.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

8

Thanks for the compliments and comments[:D]

I think your trees look decent Mel, those Kit trees are a lot of work. I know a guy at my MR Club that took an enhancing flat color from a rattle can and did a really light mist to create highlights on his trees. The results were good.

Good suggestion kasskaboose. I have been meaning to do that outdoor walk this fall to look for some good tree candidates. I remember an article in MR magazine where a couple went and harvested Goldenrod trimmings in the fall. They made some pretty good-looking trees out of them. I can’t remember what issue that was though.

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Steven I dug up this old thread to give you some ideas for making trees. I’ll try to remember to post another tree making example tomorrow.

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Those did turn out nice, TF. I was busy at out place in northern WI. all of Sept. and not on the forums much at all.

I learned that the “bottle brush” pine trees can be made acceptable by doing just what you did to the “cake” trees.

Mike.

11

Ineresting to see these cake trees. I think I had some of the same as a kid. Not sure where my parents got them. Like most affordable tree options, I think they just need a bit of attention and then to be displayed en-masse.

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And a good idea. Recall seeing some palm trees adorning a retirement luncheon cake and thinking how they might be useful in modeling temperate climates.

Regards, Peter

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Good Looking? Well, that’s subjective [:-^]

I read somewhere about using dried tree roots for making dead trees. I tried it and I like the results.

IMG_9430_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr

Look along any railroad right-of-way and you’re going to see several dead or fallen trees. Plus they add variety to a scene.

Here’s some of the raw material I work with.

IMG_9434_fix_web by Edmund, on Flickr

I have had pretty good luck with the sage-brush “Supertree” armatures from Scenic Express, too.

New 10-22mm Lens RR_0264 by Edmund, on Flickr

I’ll have to see if I can find a photo.

Thanks for starting the thread, TF! Your “Quickie” pine trees look great. I wonder if trying some kind of static grass on them would look like pine needles? Before I made my fly-swatter static grass apparatus I actually used an inflated baloon to make the charge. It worked but was a little awkward.

Regards, Ed

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Again thanks for the comments and compliments.

Hey Mike, Alrich told me how he gave his inexpensive trees a snip and a nip to make them look more real quite a while ago when I was complimenting him on his trees. They may have been bottle brush trees too I think.

Peter I think that’s funny you were sizing up the palm trees on the cake. Us crazy model railroaders. I was at the Fourth of July Carnival last year with my Daughter. I saw this very unique tree with bark that looked exactly like sedimentary rock, it was amazing. People must have thought I was crazy as I was picking the bark off and putting it in my pocket, I did get some very unique looks. A few hours later with a rash on my hands I found out it was allergic to it[:S]

Eilif If you have a single tree that’s a big wow like some of these expensive trees on eBay, you can put it off on its own. Kind of like that one Lone Tree you see out in the middle of a farmer’s field and you wonder why he left it. I agree some trees look better in groves or bunches.

Ed those tree roots sure make good dead trees, very realistic looking. I’m going to have to grab a shovel and head into the woods this spring. When the ground is still soft I’ll check that out myself. I may try to experiment and put some foliage of some kind on some of them. All I’ve been making is Evergreens, I have not attempted to make any coniferous trees yet.

I’ve really been meaning to get an applicator or make one from a video on YouTube for static grass, I haven’t tried one yet but looking forward to it. Thanks TF

15

So the question is, can we forum folks get those cake trees?

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I have used several fried floral items from Hobby Lobby for treesThe trees in this picture are made from mini Gypsophillia (baby’s breath) make sure to select one that the buds aren’t open. When closed they make great looking leaves. Wrap several stems tohether with masking or floral tape paint the trunk and beautiful little trees.

The pines were made by using some dried flowers that I found there- but I am not sure of the name. They were pressed into a balsa wood trunk. Another dried plant that is useful is German Statice. It makes good trunks for trees. You need to trim off the flower sections and you wind up with a nicely shaped trunk. Use either clump or net folige to make the top. I couple of hints on this one- look for browner looking trunks rather than the greener. Also do the trimming outside- the flowers stink [+o(] Jim

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You know I was trying to find the thread but the guys responsible for the Mear’s Madness Rio Grande Southern layout had a really funny post a while back on one of the discussion groups about finding brown toilet bowl brushes at a store really cheap to use as evergreen trees. He loaded up a cart and went to the register. Of course the question was asked what in the world are you going to use all these for? His quick answer…Christmas gifts…[:-^]… [(-D] guess making trees sounded too implausible. Jim

18

Those look great, but they might look even better if you sprinkle a little green ground foam on them.

19

Those cake trees look exactly like the trees that the European company Faller includes with in some of their kits.

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AHM made those frees back in the sixties. I might have a couple left somewhere.