I was messing around some WS trees yesterday and tried spraying them with glue/water mixture and while still wet sprinkle them with WS medium turf of various colors of green. Makes them look a whole lot better. I assume you that are old timers at MRR already know this, but it is a new trick for me. Just thought I would share with you. Have fun. Mike
well this “old timer” likes to use hair spray instead because it dries faster and makes less mess. I dont buy WS trees because theyre so darn expensive and I dont think they look all that great, but the same technique applies.
I tried them as well, but they look like *#@! compared to other methods, and as JPM said they are EXPENSIVE!!!
My 2 cents…
Brian
I have had good results with the bamboo bar-b-que skewers and the turquoise natural fiber furnace filter from Wal-Mart. You can cut the disks out of the filter and stack them close or set well apart and pulled apart. Then, using the glue that works best for you, add two or three layers of ground foam. When the disks are close-set, the result is a reasonably good deciduous tree. When teased apart and few are on the skewer, you get an older Douglas fir, or whatever. Probably about 30 cents a copy…or less!
Thanks for bringing your discovery to our attention. We all benefit from shared information, so…ya done good. [tup]
Love those trees but those filters havent been seen around here for the last 2 years. For deciduous I use branches from bushes I have in my front yard. I think they are called yopans but i cant remember anymore. Anyway, I dont water them and they die leaving great armatures for a couple hundred trees each bush.
Crandell, while we both agree that these furnace filter trees do a good job… I have also discovered (and I use the word “discovered” broardly as I know some one has already invented this wheel before I did)… Yourself (from your previous posts) and I need to cover an expanse with trees, … in oposition to the “Christmas tree” thread I think I have another solution, it is based on the “economic value”(cheapness) of the furnace filter trees but provides goood 'filller" trees for a forrest much quicker… (if I correctly understand from your posts thats what you are loooking for) I will add the post into this thread in the next day or two… I am working “out of town” currently and have only made 5 of these trees… as soon as I have the method “down” I will post it
Have fun & be safe
Karl.
I keep looking for something suitable around where I live, Joe, but have yet to find anything. I have found lots of tree floral residue that would be great for filler between rows of trees, but no good armatures au-naturel.
I may find it yet. I like the idea (can’t remember who to give credit to) of grinding up recently fallen leaves to spread on the forest floor as a natural looking covering. I’ll have to try that.
-Crandell
Crandell,
If you ever get down to the Seattle area, there is a store (McClendon’s) that sells the blue filter stuff by the foot (I have a 3x3 section of it in my basement right now!). Anyway, there are in Pullayup, a small town about 40min south of Seattle… nice lil’ hardware shop. I use there filter for my trees… I also love that method (learned it at a train show last year!) Dunno if they ship… try googling them… they are a family owned (but large) business, so it may be worth calling them… the stuff is pretty light 
Brian
Brian, thanks for the tip. I have one and a-half filters still, and am pretty sure the local Wal-Mart carries them. At least, I saw them there a few months back, last winter I guess it was. One of those filters (two per package) can make about 50 trees.
-Crandell
The furnice filter trees work well, I have almost 500 of them on my HO layout. Although I haven’t tried the ground cover on them, I feel as though I needed some different trees, and I have a hundred or so of the WS trees that I am not using I thought I would try some experminting on some of them. Mike
Mike, thin out the filter material on some of your skewer trees, spray them with that 3M product 77, or formula 77 , whatever it is called, and then sprinkle one colour of medium ground foam. Over spray that with hair spray and let it dry. Then, add some lighter ground foam, maybe a finer grind this time, and overspray to keep it in place. You will undoubtedly be pleased with the results, not to mention the natural-looking variation when they are added to the others.
Joe Fugate suggests a very, very light spritz of yellow acrylic paint over your last layer of ground foam to add sunlight highlights to the tops and tips of the “branches” and leaves. I haven’t done this yet, but I intend to.
I like the firnice filter trees, but add various sixe dowles to the lower trunk, the filter hides the joint, gives in my openion a varitabe aged forrest. Also grind Oak leaves for forest floor …John.
I use the WS deciduous trees. I like them. Yes they are expensive, but I always get them on sale. In addition to spinkling some ground foam over the tops, painting the trunks, make a huge improvement in thier appearance.
I stay away from the WS conifers. They just look to hokey. I use the furnance filter method instead.
Nick
I have mentioned this before about WS trees, but I dip the tree branches in counter top contact cement, make sure you are in an area with good ventilation, comes in pint, quart and gallon cans from any hardware store. After I dip the tree trunk and branches I then sprinkle the green stuff on and it sticks intantly. You can fix them up with other foliage products, spray hair spray or glue/water on the foliage and sprinkle the fine stuff on top, makes a nice tree.
If you have a Hobby Lobby or any type of floral shop, go and check out the bags of green stuff and branches, just all kinds of decorating products from which you can make trees, for hardly nothing.
Example: dip the branches in a water and glue mixture, let the branches soak for about 30 seconds to a minute, then sprinkle chopped up greens and other colors on the tree structure soaked in the glue/water mixture. Then hang them upside down with a clothes pin and let them dry over night. You will have a good tree, cheap, easy to make, and straight. You can also order direct from Express Tress/Trees Express, they advertise in MR, they really have great foliage to sprinkle on your trees.
Yard Master
WTRR