I’m a produce manager (fruits and veggis) in a grocery store and always looked at the tomato vines that come in as - waste that should be used for something. Well I relized that tomato vines make great tree trunks. I model in N scale so I have to find very thin vines but the average size tomato vine would be great for HO maybe even O sacle. Just cut off the part that attaches to the tomato (Icall them Spider legs) scape off some of the green-hairy skin that is on the vine If you wish, though I’ve found it adds texture to the ‘bark’ and let the vines dry for a day or two and glue layers of foliage foam to the ends. Maybe I’ll send some pics so you guys can hae a look. I’ve had great results and it’s super fast and cheap. Just don’t let Woodland Scenics find out. [:D][:)][:D]
I would send a picture along so you could see, but I can’t figure out how to insert a picture. Sorry[:(]
Mark:
You need to upload your picture to a photo album or web site somewhere, then take note of the link. For example, this link brings up only a photo:
http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/groups/g_12752110/Yahoo!+Photo+Album/Photo_20x.jpg?grpcdsCBbqmsh4CY
(You can click on the link to see that)
Generally if you right click on a photo, one of the options you can pick is “copy image location”.
Once you have the image location copied, then paste it, and enclose it in image open [ img ] and image close [ /img ] tags. Here’s the link above, put between image tags:
And as you see, we get the image!
I would love to see this! I have two tomato plants coming along in my back yard and my brother in law has about 20 of them. Pretty soon I’ve got to start making tons of trees. Does it have enough ‘branches’ to hold the ‘leaf’ material?
Jarrell
How do you keep them from rotting?
Jeff,
The vines are hollow, so when you cut the tomatoes off and trim the base a bit it exposes the inside of the vine to air, thus drying them out completely just like dried flowers etc. They dry within a few days after their trimmed. The vines get stronger when their dried and because they lose their moisture they shrink alittle bit but thats good because they take on the appearance of older growth trees plus they seem to become more to scale. They hold glue and foam well. When you trim the bottom you get a hole that I use to insert glue and a track nail. My scenery base is foam so I can ‘plant’ the trees anywhere to see what looks the best. Or for photo ops. JOE and JARREL - I’m still trying to get pictures you can see. The vines hold material very well. Sometimes you have to be selective about how may branches you want but just like trees, every vine is different. I’ve found that if the vines that don’t have enough ‘branches’ they make great dead trees, stumps, logs and fallen trees. I also use them as filler in the forest. I still make trees out of the ‘branchless’ vines but I’ll stick them in the middle of a heavily wooded area. More to come
Here is a photo of I tree I just started. I only did the back half so you can see the inside. Next I’ll keep adding more foam untill the tree is filled out to my liking.
Arggh… it didn’t work let me try this.http://photos.yahoo.com/mlspooner
Mark, I’ve been told that not all web sites permit the type posting you’re trying, i.e. embedding photos within a message.
Try just copying the address of the page itself and posting it, we’ll navigate to it.
Jarrell