Poly fiber for n scale foreground bushes and underbrush?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I like the looks of Scenic Express SuperTress for n-scale because of their finer, lacier appearance. The question then comes as what to use for foreground bushes/shrubs that will have the same kind of lite appearance.

In the past I’ve used WS clump-foliage or clusters for underbrush and bushes but they now seems very heavy and clunky to me when viewed next to the trees. I’ve been thinking about using poly fiber covered with various colors of ground foam.

I have a package of the WS poly fiber to start experimenting with. It’s green but I’m wondering if it would look maybe better dyed black first. Poly fiber is apparently available from a few stores, and my dog will even contribute some from the stuffed animals he rips up.

Any other helpful advice on the possible use of this stuff in n-sc

2

Although I model in HO, these should give you some idea what you can do with poly fiber and ground foam. I use mega hold hairspray to secure the foam to the poly fiber.


Here I put the poly fiber down first, then sprayed it, and blew the ground foam into it. A useful byproduct is that vine effect on the tree trucks.


For these, I teased out the poly fiber, dipped it in foam, then stuck them in place.

Nick

3

An additional hint to add some realism is to sprinkle yellow grass or mist the tops of the canopy with paint to simulate sunlight and add some depth.

I got this trick from Joe Fugate. The varying colors of foam and the light/ yellow highlights do help those forgroung trees.

These are some of the earlier trees done this way

The hairspray (unscented) does work great. This is true even to spruce up older dusty trees.

4

Thanks for the pictures Nick and Bob - they help. I’m trying some things on the workbench while the wife is out and my first attempt looks like a pile of green fog landed. I think I’m pulling it too thin for bushes. Back to the bench as they say. Jim

5

Hi i like your pics do you use dye or paint to get that nice green the rest i understand clearly… hobo jim

6

Polyfiber pulled thin is fine as long as it maintains a nice canopy shape and can hold the flocking. You actually want to see through portions of the tree. The armature, sprig or weed stem you select makes all the difference to a convinving model of a real tree. As far as background trees, balls of various sizes and colors placed on the hillside or distant rise work better. It depends on how “in your face” the forground trees are as to how well you need to model them.

7

Thanks Bob, but I’m not trying to do trees with it, just foreground bushes and underbrush. Jim