This will probably be the first of many questions over the next few days so please bear with me.
I just finished building my new trestle to go over the water scene and am now adding details to the water scene below. I have made a bunch of cattails to go in the scene but I am uncertain as to how tall these plants grow in relation to a person.
Are they shoulder height, waist height or taller? The ones I have made are between 0.5" and 0.75" tall, between 4-6’ in HO I think. How deep should I ‘plant’ these and how much plant should be above ground/water level.
I did a search and couldnt find any threads relevant, I dont think my search is working properly.
I’ve got some in my yard about 4’ tall. (shoulder hight) The stalks are about .5" to .75" in diameter and the corn dog thing on top is just about the size of a corn dog. 6-7". That creek and tresle look great!
Karl, they are generally between 5-6’, with another 15" in the water and below the muck as roots. The stalks are green, until the late fall, and the billy-club end is a chocolate brown, almost dark chocolate, or maybe brown shoe-polish (dark). If you are going to paint them for fall, then the stalks turn straw yellow, not ‘yellow’ yellow.
I don’t know about anybody else, but I am tickled pink that you are back in the groove!!
Out here in the swamps of California (yah, right!) they grow to about 6’ tall, and tend to clump toward the shoreline of the pond or lake. Seriously, we DO have them here in California, especially in the ponds of the Central Valley and Sierra foothills. And they’re tall critters, with heads about the size of a good German Bratwurst. I’d plant them about as tall as one of your HO-scale full-grown males, you should be pretty safe that way. They make a very nifty and unusual detail on the layout–can’t wait to see a pic of them when you’ve got them installed.
Tom [:P]
Thanks guys its great to be back, and even better to be welcomed [:)]. I was definately going cold turkey even though it wasnt long, hence my little projects I popped in with[:D].
Anyways… [#offtopic] kinda, but I think I’ve solved one of Chips other problems, ie. making ferns. I just did about 40 in 15mins, I’ll keep you posted (no pun intended)[swg]
Gotta run, much catchin up to do, back in about an hour. I feel an all nighter comin on[:-^]
Have fun & be safe,
Karl
PS: Crandell , you cant see in the pic but mine are green with chocolate coloured tops, my layout seems to have grown with the lush green of summer, but thats just the Brit in me, I’m not used to all this desert y’all have over here[:)] besides it’s very green down here in MS.
ereimer : thanks for that, I’m sure it will come in handy at some point in my modelling… smarta** [:D]
Heres a few pics of the progress, thanks for all the help and info, fantastic as usual.
They’re not quite as good as I had hoped, but they look OK when you’re not stood in the creek [:D] which is where the camera shot is from. Maybe I’ll redo them at some point in the future. Or maybe its just that the area looks bare without the trestle& bait shop, I’ll see how it looks when I fini***he scene later today.
And a couple of ‘sneakpeeks’ of my new HO ferns, ignor the shoddy looking tall grass in the background that will be removed and redone, it was my first learning attempt when I originally did the area…[:I]
Off to a great start. Here in the sultry midwest, our cattails tend to grow in clumps, closer together in a string and in or closer to the water. Keep planting! If you need more of the four pawed variety, I can ship you six!!!
Bill
