I have used Bumpy Chenelle and ground foam with florest tape to make firs for my layout I will post a picture when I figure out how to
Daniel
The furnace filter material is still available at my local Home Depot. It comes in a plastic bag and is a blue color. It has a (1/4") sqaure mesh on both sides and is about 1" thick.
A trick to good trees is also in carving trunks. Some of these I carved but most of them are from my friend Pete and Canyon Creek Scenics.
When I do trunks they’re mostly cedar shakes that I rough cut on a bandsaw then whittle down to size. Once at roughly the right size I scrape 'em with the grain to roughen things up a bit making a doug fir type trunk. Pete does a lot of extra carving for his cedar trunks. I like the shakes because a bunch of ‘em lasts a long time, they’re pre-tapered (at least on two sides, and they can make trees up to 24" tall (174’ in HO).
Sometimes I use bamboo skewers for trunks to hold furnace filter. With these I run the ‘foliage’ from top to bottom to leave the trunk ‘invisible’ (I paint the skewers gray first). Another trunk material is wooden chop sticks. The next time you eat at a restaurant the gives disposable wooden chop sticks take 'em home with you.
Be sure to paint the furnace filter to get rid of that horrid blue color. I paint mine with cheap black spray paint. For the trees with ‘real’ trunks I paint the furnace filter first. For the skewere trees I paint it after it’s glued to the skewer.
Dead branches can also be made by selecting certain
Holy crap!!! Those Deep Woods trees are crazy. $150-$350 for ONE tree!??!?! wow.
Personally, I never liked the furnace filter trees. They just look like green pinecones.
Haven’t read through the whole thread, but Grand Central Gems has always impressed me. However, I’ve always loved the regular old WS trees. Sure, the Canyon Creek and Grand Central Gem trees LOOK absolutely real, but to me its almost like they’re too real for a layout. I donno, just my own feeling.
I think Pete (owner of Canyon Creek) sells the DeepWords trees to the same folks that think $3000 for one locomotive is perfectly fine. The DeepWoods trees take a long time to make. I can attest that he’s not getting rich off of them (he still drives a 15 year old mini-pickup with camper shell).
The other canyon creek trees are a LOT less expensive (still not what I’d call cheap). I’ve used a number of his background trees in places in my new scenic area (mixed in with ones I’ve made - his are nicer). I know Joe Fugate has a few Canyon Creek Scenics trees in foreground areas.
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
I don’t have any northern trees on my layout, since I am modeling Southern California, but I have made a few trees myself using armatures made from twisted multi-strand electrical wires. Since tumbleweeds are easy to find in my local deserts, I found they can be broken into very realistic tree armatures. Sometimes I glue the flocking or ground-cover directly to the branches, and sometimes I use a little green polyfill to fill out the armature before flocking. I have also bought some expensive ready-made trees.
But my favorite source for lots of trees in lots of styles from palm trees to weeping willows to oak trees, is from an e-bay store:
http://stores.ebay.com/everydaygoodz_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsxQ3amesstQQtZkm
They are located in Hong Kong, but their prices are great, shipping is faster than some US suppliers, and I can get LOTS of good-looking trees for a few bucks. They also have good prices on figures, lamp posts, and other scenery items, with which I have been well satisfied.
What part of the columbia gorge are you talking about because I live over here.
(Just making the link clickable)Other techniques on the site too. Worth a look.