Has anyone ever used pine cones to make pine trees out of for their layout? I was in the backyard today and saw about 50 of the things and they looked like they could be made into pine trees.
Thanks!!!
NB,
Go to http://www.coilcouplers.com/hirail/hirail00.shtml and click on the www.coilcouplers.com/coilpix link and watch the movie. This is Neil Young’s layout (also featured in CTT years ago) and he uses pine cones for trees. Looks pretty good!
This falls under the topic - why didn’t I think of that? My backyard is littered with O scale pine cone trees. The video shows how well they can fit into a layout!
A caveat with cones. I’d let them set a year because over time they tend to open up and change.
I’m not a big fan of pine cones as there are more relaistic natural materials to use that I’ve spoken about before like juniper clippings. But for basic green-table top toy train layouts, pine cones are probably best to keep the toy effect consistent.
So Dave do they dry out or do seeds pop out of 'em - should I just fill a bag 'o them - I’m looking for a toy trainey effect that says - here be a forested area - rather than realistic trees per se - and there’s no nice tree-looking weeds around these subdivisions…
Doug, the ones we collect for Christmas decorating just tend to open up more with time. Paint some green and you will have a nice addition to your style of layout. You could even frost the tips white for a light “snow” effect.
Doug,
As an experiment, you might want to spray the cone with lacquer and spinkle on some green sawdust or groundfoam.
I’ve never done this but I’m surmising that the lacquer will “freeze” the cone’s “growth” stage as well as provide a sticky base for the green, which sort of simulate pine needles. Alternately, you could sprinkle on some dry plaster for the snow effects.
I picked up a few dozen while in Florida. All different sizes but mostly nice big ones. I guess mine must have already all been dry because after 10 years or so they never changed form.
I used them on my Christmas layout unaltered for years. Because I wasn’t much into scenery and stuff they were “better than nothing” and I liked them. Especially when I clustered them. But, really, while they give them semblance of a pine tree because of their shape, well, they look like pine cones. The littler ones were a bit nicer because they were less opened up. They had more of a pine tree look than the big ones which were all opened up.
Then, as my interest in ‘nicer’ things started to materialize, I painted them green. YUCK. Maybe had I used some of the suggestions above they may have looked better. But now instead of looking like pine cones they took on the appearance of “those green things from Mars”! I pitched them.
- walt
Pine cones can also be baked in an oven to “set” them or dry them out. They can then be painted.
Jim
Thanks for the ideas. I have a big bag of small-ground foam I’d like to sprinkle on the cones - I’d use them as a sort of armature to get the tree shape. I figure it might work better than cardboard.
Doug, I think your idea is a good one. I intend to do the same.
Jim