We are modeling a N scale Californian coastal layout and want to make a large number of palm trees, commercially bought ones are to expensive so does anyone have ideas as to make them
Thanks
Phil
I can think of a couple of ways that might work.
First, you might be able to use feathers for the palm leaves.
or
Maybe try your hand at photoetching your own leaves? You could do some real cool stuff that way, and you’d have a skill that you can use for other stuff too. I found this on the web about how to do photoetching. Looks easy enough that I might give it a shot myself! http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/fh_pe.htm
A few years ago I bought hundreds of plastic palm trees for a project. I got them from a cake decoration wholesaler. The smaller ones, close to N scale, were something like 144 to a package, for something under $10. You had to order $40 worth of stuff at the time. I can’t remember the company now. You could easily paint them to improve their appearance.
It is amazing what the markup on the decorations is at the stores. If you can find a wholesaler, you can get them relatively cheap.
Hey, thats not bad!
Too bad I don’t need any for myself. They don’t have a lot of palm trees in Maine where I model…go figure.
My little boys get stuff from the dollar store. Often they are collections of dinosaurs or soldiers that include a far number of palm trees.
I imagine painting them and rolling the leaves around in ground foam might make a nice tree. Not bad for a buck.
If I were modelling that part of the country, that’s what I would try.
I think you could use real or artificial ferns as palm fronds and get away with it. You might have to trim them a bit to get the right overall shape, but they should be quite inexpensive if you can use real ones and treat them somehow to hold their shape.
Craft stores like Michaels or A.C. Moore should have artificial ones.
What about the mark ups on train stuff???
There is a company named Pegasus Hobbies, out of California, that makes war gaming supplies. They make 3 types of palm trees as well as banana trees. Horizon Hobbies sells their products.
I purchased 1 box of each tree type. The 7 and 8 inch tall trees come 3 to a box, and are the right size for an O scale layout. They are extremely tall for HO (at least when used to represent Florida scenery). The frond clusters measure about 30 feet across in HO…thats a mighty big tree, but a few on a layout are believable. They come 3 to a box.
The 5" trees are just right for HO, so they would be extremely tall for N. They come 5 to a box.
The banana trees come 15 to a box, and are 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches tall. These are about right for HO, and they could pass for N scale palms. Leave the banana clusters off for palms.
These are kits, you have to paint and assemble them yourself. They are made of a vinyl plastic, snap together and take craft paints well.
This guy has a clinic on them:
http://www.paintingclinic.com/operations/pegasuspalmtrees.htm
I didnt mess with the bases for my layout, just glued them down and added soil and turf around them.
IIRC I paid about $9 a box for mine.
Modelrailroader had a step by step artical on making palm trees a while back. I model HO and made some similar trees. They were really cheap to make. All you need is some floral wire, floral tape, and masking tape. Cut the wire into pieces that are a little taller than the trees. Next take a piece of masking tape and fold it over the end of the wire so the tape sticks to itself. Now cut the tape into a leaf of desired shape and scale. After you do that about 9 to 12 times, take the leaves and twist them around each other. Now take the floral tape and wrap it around the wire until you get a trunk the size you want. The last step is to bend the wire with the tape down and paint the trunk a shade of brownish grey and the leaves shades of green.
Five inches in N-Scale may be a bit taller than average but I stepped outside my door and looked around and I can see over a dozen palms that scale out to 5 inches in N-Scale/67 scale feet. I have no need of palm trees in my Appalachian environment but I am wondering if the trunks of these trees could not be trimmed to scale them down to a more average heighth.
For the life of me his name escapes me and since I do not remember having seen his name on an article in a long time I will make a presumption - which can, by the way, be disasterous - that he is deceased, but there was a modeler back in the sixties and seventies who was modeling the Sufferin’ California scene and who did an article on constructing palm trees. His process was, if I remember right, rather simple. You could probably Master Index this and find it. I recall having encountered this article while stationed in Germany with the Air Force from 1969 to 1973 - I took all of my model magazines from 1967 on so if I did, in reality, see it while in Germany then it has to have been published after January of 1967.
The poster of this topic may not have been in the hobby long enough to possess this particular issue but his post indicated that this was being done for a club project; clubs are notorious for acquiring through donation back issues dating to when Custer was a cadet.
The trunks of the Pegasus 5" trees measure 2 1/2’ in N scale. The frond cluster measures @ 25’, and the largest fans themselves measure about 10’…in N scale.
From the Trains Index:
" Making Palm Trees"
John Lukesh Dec. 1968
“Mr. Lukesh Revisited, Palm Trees With Feather Fronds”
Ron Kuykendall Aug. 1975
“Modeling Palm Trees And Orange Groves”
Charles Nickle Sept. 1999
“Making Realistic Palm Trees”
Alden Armstrong Oct 2002
Both Betty Frazier and Jackie Hole did articles on palms but neither one looked very realistic to me.