I did some experementing with my tree color, I took some and added some shades of yellows. I have them numbered 1-4 (kinda of hard to see) please help me with these, do I need lighter or darker or just a different green. I am using Wally World $.44 craft paint. what should I do? I admit the colors are not right (to green). If anyone knows about these paints please specify which ones would look right. I have never seen another layout in person except for my own, and admit I do not know what I am doing. Forgive me for being such a bother but would like to get these right. Thanks so much. Mike
Ahaaaa!! Major progress. I’ll bet even you can see the difference. Now, get some mosses from arts and crafts stores and place tufts of it nearly at tree-top level between the trees to make a more natural, denser, forest.
Good job!!
Thanks selector, here are some more pics, I painted some yellows on 5 more trees and stuck them on the mountain. I do see the difference maybe it is finally comming around. I want your opinion, still need more yellows or just the mosses you talked about? What are these mosses, can I get them at Hobby Lobby or do I need to order them? What are they called?
That is MUCH better, however, I will recommend that you pay some more attention to the color of the town’s trees.
Much Better!,
Spit
The rest of the trees will come later when I finally figure what I am doing. One question about the trees in the town, do they need to be as yellow or lighter green as those on the mountain, being they are probley better taken care of in town. Thanks. Mike
If you can remove the trees from the layout, I suggest LIGHTLY spraying a light green or yellow paint UP into the tree (from the base, or roots, of the tree UP into the leaf structure). Follow that with a light spray of a darker green from the TOP of the tree. A very light spray is all you want from both colors. This gives an impression of depth to the foliage and gives the tree a more varied, natural-looking coloration.
A little experimentation will quickly teach you how much to spray and which colors work best. Use several different shades of yellow and green on different trees for an even more natural-looking effect.
Hope this helps. Your trees ARE looking much better!
Darrell, quiet…for now
I live in Canada, so Hobby Lobby is not a franchise with which I am familiar. I would guess that they would have it, but so would Michael’s, Wal-Mart (most likely), and other arts and crafts places. Sphagnum moss is relatively inexpensive.
-Crandell
Major progress. It is now up to you to develope your modeler’s eye. You can train your self to see things as they would look on the layout. Look at details. Look at a tree and see the three basic colors and how they fit together. Look at two trees beside each other and learn to see the differences and how the shadows work. When you are riding around bored, look at the rocks and see how you might stack colors to makes plaster look like that. It is an art that is learned by practice. My guess is you can learn to do that.
The same is true going to a florist or craft store, walk around looking at stuff. Most will look like flowers, but you will learn to see bushes and trees and all kinds of stuff. This is the fun part for me and you can do this. Keep us posted.
Thanks ART, I knew you would respond. I am slowly but surely learning about MRR. Maybe when I am old & gray I will be as good as…ARTHILL? Mike
here in s. c. we have a place called garden ridge i have found almost all my ground covers there really cheap. your scenery is looking really great. by the way your questions are never a bother thats what a forum is for. keep up the good work. dave
Another thing to do is to take some of the color you used on tree number 4 and lightly spray it on some of the single colored trees. This will give a mixture of colors and will look more realistic. You don’t want to cover the other color completely, just allow both colors to be seen.
.
Tom
I have painted some more trees on the hill below the Fillmore Estate. How do these look befor I glue them back down again? Need more or less of one color? Thank you all so very much for all the great help.
quick suggestion.
Try to make each tree a couple different colors, not just one.
Hope this helps,
dekruif
Want a hint? Go to an artist or an art store and tell them your problem about the color green, there are about 54,000 colors of green and 99% are NOT the color of trees. It took me about 5 years to come up with the proper color for trees in my watercolor paintings and this was with a lot of help from other painters, the key to a proper color of green is never use a direct color out of a tube or a can, green is mixture of colors, blues and yellows(and their derivitives make green) There is a book out on greens called Blue and Yellow DON"T Make Green ! meaning blue and yellow make 700,000 varients of green, different blues and different yellows make an infinite variety of green, an artist will be able to help you, but you will propbably never find the green you want from a tube. Also (like I"M an expert! ) try some different shapes and sizes to your trees, it sort of looks like a Christmas tree farm, but it’s monster job planting trees, try a logging pike. good luck
Mike,
You’re making some GREAT progress, but might I make a suggestion? You keep making changes based on OUR presumption of what looks good. YOU’RE the one who needs to be happy with it. While lots of the suggestions you’ve gotten here are good, and most are, you will be the ultimate judge of how you like it. If you like your trees striped like candy canes, it’s YOUR layout. You can run yourself ragged seeking everyone’s opinion and approval. Now, after all that, I’m going to make another suggestion. LOL. You seem to be using only one shape and kind of tree. Especially around the town, try using smaller trees…maybe representative of dogwoods, or something like that that a town would plant for decorative purposes.
Mike,
I do want to know what material you are using for your trees. I saw a thing on DPB about making trees out of poly-fibre and foam, but thought it would be cheaper to use paint, but I don’t know if it would look as good(Paint on Poly-fibre, rather than foam.)
Thanks,
Spit
P.S. I found out how to not skip a space when you hit enter(it does it automatically). When you hit enter, hold down shift.
Mike, let me offer up a suggestion. Take your camera and go out and photograph several different stands of real fir trees found locally, from several differing sun-angles and at different times of the day. From these, choose the one you like best as a representation and attempt to match your model tree colors to that to represent reality. I fear that 95% of hobbyist honestly have little or no idea what actual color real fir trees are (and they do vary significantly species to species) and asking for opinions is like asking opinions about if you’ve weathered a particular model too much or too little. Everyone has their own idea of what’s correrct (an most are wrong!). Typically, modeler railroaders are not serious artists as well and even the responding artists may not live in the same general region, with the same species of trees, that you do. So, it’s really up to you to do the homework if you want to get it right to your eyes.
CNJ831