Since I’ve been putting a lot my time lately with the rail yard, I haven’t had a chance to work on the mountain much. But I did some more tree work this week.
With Ken’s (cudaken) suggestion, I got some deadwood, making it look really good.
I’m pickup up some Aspen trees this weekend, they are really expensive, so I might just do a patch of them.
Let me know how it looks…
Remember that aspens are a colony tree, or they grow in a group of trees from one root ball. (like cane) A mistake I see with some modelers make is they one have one aspen tree in an area, you should have many, with several sizes, representing young sprouts to mature trees.
From Wiki
“All of the aspens (including the White Poplar) typically grow in large clonal colonies derived from a single seedling, and spreading by means of root suckers; new stems in the colony may appear at up to 30–40 metres from the parent tree. Each individual tree can live for 40–150 years above ground, but the root system of the colony is long-lived.”
Looking good! You’ve come a long way in a hurry.
Two questions:
Did you use the real thing for your deadwood? If so, did you treat it with something or just place it on the layout? It certainly does add realism to the scene.
Where your hill meets your backdrop did you round the top of the hill or just come right up to the backdrop?
Keep up the good work.
Have fun,
Impressive~
Thanks guys!
Yes I do notice that the Aspens grow together in groups. I will keep that in mind when I get them planted.
Should I get gold Aspens, or green? I’m thinking the gold ones look a lot better.
I used the Woodland Scenics deadwood. And the mountain goes all the way up to the wall/backdrop. I used that spay insulation foam to give it a hilly/rocky surface, and painted it dark green.
Micheal
Looks good what did you use for the earth color very natural looking. Have you ever made any bottle brush tress? I know commercial trees in my o/p look the best. Some guys make their own tress that are hard to tell which ones are theirs and which ones are the store bought tree but I’m not that good yet. So I used my bottle brush conifers as fillers or back round trees and put the good looking stuff in the foreground
Layout looks like it’s progressing nicely.
i stared at your photos for a short while and then i went upstairs and got a sweater. very realistic, nice work.
grizlump
LOL at grizlump. Ya the mountains get a little chili.
I used good ole real dirt for the ground. It’s free, and there’s a lot of it. The trees are store bought, I can’t make trees just yet. I wish I could make the Aspen trees. I think they are like $36 for 10 of them, but they are really well done. Caboose Hobbies has them. I believe they are made by some local guys.
Looks fantastic!!! One suggestion…how about a momma bear and her cub? They would fit nicely into your open area next to some of the “deadwood”…
Just a thought…
Mark
Ah… you know I was thinking that today. We have lots of bears in the mountains.
Where do I get some black bears from? Can somebody get me a link please?
Edit: Nevermind, I didn’t know Woodland Scenics had bears.
Yes you can Micheal, you have not just done it yet! Try a key word search for Furnace Filters Trees and see what you find. You use bamboo BBQ skewers for the truck’s, cut the filters into round sections, hot glue the filters to the trunks then use static grass for the needles. Spray the tree with hair spray, then shake the static grass on while it is still wet.
Wal Mart sales a dark blue green furnace filter. I made some where around 60 trees and total cost was around $35.00.
What I don’t like is most store bought trees are about 6 inches tall or shorter. That is only a 43 foot tall tree, I have a 60 foot pine tree in my back yard! I have made some that are 10 inches tall and use them in the background.
The dead wood works great for the needed details to bring the trees to life. I am impressed with what you have done to that section.
Ken
Overall, Michael, your scene looks quite nice and reasonably realistic…except for the recently added dead trees and deadfall, which are dramatically out of scale relative to the other scenery elements, I’m afraid. The size of the standing and fallen trunks and branches you have recently placed in the scene would represent those of deciduous trees perhaps 100’ or more tall. Such would be uncommon, I would think, in the region you appear to be modeling (the Rockies, perhaps?), especially when all of them appearing to be of about the same very large physical size. Likewise, very tall deciduous trees would seem unlikely to be found in what would seem to be the higher elevation, or up-lands, pine forest seen in your photos.
In the name of realism, I would suggest removing all these new additions dead trunks, etc. and replacing them with mostly much thinner and more delicate examples, which would be more in scale with the “live” Aspen deciduous trees you say you intend to place in the scene shortly.
CNJ831
I came to the same conclusion that John mentions…the deadwood seems to be from very old and much larger trees. Still, I like the effect, and had not considered it myself. It is quite important as a detail, and I think it really sets off your scene, making it look so much more natural.
As John suggests, would you consider removing the largest ones? If you have thinner scraps you can pile them the same way as before, almost mimicking logging that took place maybe 10 years earlier.
With some looking around, you can find local twigs that are sun-bleached and look quite natural and in scale.
I like the way you have formed the terrain, too, and added the trees. All nicely random, and not an error that many people make by arranging trees almost in rows.
I think this was an important step for you. [8D]
-Crandell
I have all so used a lot of twigs that are a little smaller. Bigger live trees would off set the biggest of the dead trunks. Your dead wood all so looks bigger than what I got.
But, anyway you want to look at it, still looks darn good! Regardless of what the leaf counters think! [:D]
Ken
Thanks, I appeciate the feedback. I didn’t really notice how big the deadwood pieces are, I do have some that are smaller, and I’ll fix that up.
With the Aspens, and the Bears, it should look pretty good.
In Minnesota, Aspen, like White Birch, grow as individual trees. They grow in tight forests. For my Birch forest I used “Queen of the Praire” flowers from our garden. I think they look good. There are some pics somewhere in my sig. I cut them and dried them for a month. Once dried, I painted them all in one night. The planted in the foam mountain quickly. They also make fast, cheap and good looking Aspen.
The thing about Confirs is they’re not all the same. A good mix of furnace filter trees, bottle brush and twine and floral wire trees will make for different types of trees, all but the most expensive commercial conifir trees just don’t look right.
Here are a couple of photos I took on a recent camping trip in the rocky mountain national forest. About 3hrs away from Denver.
As you can see, there was a mix of Aspens and Rocky Mountain Pines.
It depends on the season you are planning to model. Aspens turn early, maybe even late August in places, definitely by mid September. Elevation also makes a difference, the higher up the sooner they turn.
Keep up the goodwork,
motley:
I like what you’re doing, it looks very good.
NOW—about the deadwood: I don’t know how it is in the Rockies, but in the Sierra Nevada, especially the area in which I was born and raised, very tall first-growth timber, especially Ponderosa pine and Fir–are like magnets for frequent summer Sierra thunderstorms. Ergo, lightning strikes, and ergo, ‘snags’ after the trees have either been knocked over by the lightning or burned standing up.
The high Sierra country that I’m INTIMATELY familiar with (living about forty miles from it and having grown up there) is full of second-growth evergreen timber, and the occasional taller first-growth (pre 1900) timber, and a lot of very big, tall, dead snags.
So, frankly, when I saw your deadwood, I assumed, as would most of us out here in the West, that what I was looking at was the result of years of summer thunderstorms. So it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I LIKE it! And no, they do NOT look like out-of-scale deciduous trees. Western forests and Eastern forests have VERY little in common.
Just my thoughts. Nice work.
Tom [:)]