Show us your trees

[Rico]

I’ve been wanting (needing) to add more trees and have been scouting around for suitable material while out walking the dogs. The other day as I was at the front door it occurred to me that the answer was here all along! The wife’s flower garden is full of Sedum, similar to Golden Rod but with a much “barkier” looking stem.
I cut off a few pieces, plucked a few leaves, then sprayed them with tacky glue before a dunk into some ground foam.
I was so pleased with the results I went out and cut down a forest worth!
Going to have to blame it on the deer come spring… lol

Sedum in the garden:


A cut off piece in the ground foam box, I apply light green on top and a darker green under to create a shaded look:


On the layout disguising the dead end interchange:


Hiding the end of track at the mill:

 

[migalyto]

They look really good, and very convincing! The price seems right too!

Isn't that all Supertrees from Scenic express are? Just some plant that they collect and throw it in a box, and re-sell for tree armatures.

How many can you harvest off of a plant?

 

[logandsawman]

Here are my favorite, old growth White Pines. Will have a grove of these on the new layout:

Dave LASM

 

[TLOC]

Rico excellent trees off a really great source. It really is amazing what in nature we can find a use for on our layouts.

I build my trees from wire! I started only because I could not find trees tall enough

In process

Layout scenes

 

[migalyto]

I build my trees from wire! I started only because I could not find trees tall enough

Tom-Those look fantastic!

How much time do you have in a tree?

 

[Rico]

They look really good, and very convincing! The price seems right too!

Isn't that all Supertrees from Scenic express are? Just some plant that they collect and throw it in a box, and re-sell for tree armatures.

How many can you harvest off of a plant?

Yes supertrees are just another type of plant, Seafoam maybe?
I get five to six trees per stem and the plants have about a dozen stems in a cluster.

 

[TLOC]

Tom-Those look fantastic!

How much time do you have in a tree?

Thank you! At most 1/2 hour into making each of the trees. I make the armatures in batches during the Spring between periods of the NHL Stanley Cup playoff games. Anywhere from 500 to 1000 armatures is what I used to get twisted. I build them following youtube content provider Luke Towan‘s method. They are simple to build

 

[Gary B]

Those do look good. I make my evergreens starting with the cheap Christmas village trees, then spraying them with green paint. While still wet cover with ground foam. Aft that dries spray with clear matt (or hair spray) and add scenic grass for needles and a little orange or yellow Woodland Scenics flowers for some color.

Gary B.

 

[Billslake]

I've used sedum for a number of years. I hot glue a couple of stems together to make larger trees. All of them are spray painted with cheap grey primer. I also attach a thin piece of wire into the bottom, and then put that wire into a hole in the layout.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

With the sun still low in the sky, its rays are still scattered by the haze that embraces the high elevation trees on the D&J Railroad.

 

[NWP Dave]

Here are my versions of redwoods. This was my first forest mockup for the Sonoma Mountain RR.

Redwoods on the SMRR. My first attempt to do "Big" redwoods trees on the right past the bridge.

Redwoods and "Big" trees at McQuire Creek trestle corner on the 5 mile RR.

 

[Selector]

I don't know if my media host is still having problems with their certification...it makes my images appear as an icon with an X through them. I had it licked a month ago, but now it's back.

This is a sage armature that is obviously bare due to the season:

And the large fir depicted in this image is homemade with scraped and painted dowel and natural fiber furnace filter:

 

[Marlin39]

These took way more time than they should have. I modified the "Boomer Diorama" method.

I threw the new Genesis GP9E in for scale.

 

[TLOC]

These took way more time than they should have. I modified the "Boomer Diorama" method.

I threw the new Genesis PG9E in for scale.

Those look great

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

I made mine from the branches of an old Christmas tree.

 

[grove den]

Ok ...some trees from the other side of the great pond.
Larch

Birch

larch spring

pinus pinea

old oak

small autumn diorama H0 15 x 5 inches

trees are all ( mostly!)made out of floristic wires , sawdust ( fine and /or coarse, whiteglue, acrylpaint , flock/fibres of several lengths, woodland fine turf and coarse, spray adhesive and finaly sealed with matte vernis( spraycan). And yes I use a stattic grasapl. from RTS( 55kv) to shoot the different fibres on the frames of the tree.

 

[NWP Dave]

Grove Den, I have admired your trees for a long time!

 

[Marlin39]

Big thumbs up Grove Den! What are you using for the oak trunks?

 

[grove den]

Thank you NWP Dave.
Oops ...I didn't read carefully the first/openings message in this thread. I think it is about to make fast , cheap and still good looking trees. Well it sounds like a contradiction to me ... if we are talking about trees in the foreground. For background trees : no problem at all I use too these materials/tricks/ and , as a gardener, the "products of mother nature"
Still with some cheap materials you can still make very nice pine/firtrees. A kind of "Botlle brush trees" but more realistic in the top...

the picture shows a frame of the tree just before adding the "needles" Helas ..the use of a static grass apl. is a must.
the core is a floristic wire max. ø 1,2 mm. I adde first the 12 mm fibres and after an hour I cut the fibres conical to the top. Again adding 12 mm fibres but this time mostly at the bottom/midlle of the tree...let the glue set and againe litlle bit shapping with a sciccor( sharp!) Let dry/set....colouring with a spray-can - I use mostly a dark olive colour- again let dry ...
Almost finaly adding some 2 mm (dark green ) fibres with a sieve...and - gently - blow the fibres down with a hairdryer and finaly add the fine turf from Woodland.
I use a glue-sprycan to add the fibres and fine turf. The nozlle has to produce a fine "mist" so not a "beam"of glue!!
The trees below are about 8 inches/20 cm

and small ones: about 2-3 inches

and some large ones....

per tree about 4 minutes when producing 10 or more trees at a time. Kind of assembly line. Costs /tree= US $ : 0, 80 - $ 1.20 max. I have to say that. again, the static grasaplicator is a must.... and that piece of device is not cheap

Jos

 

[grove den]

Marlin 39:

Big thumbs up Grove Den! What are you using for the oak trunks?

The trunks are made of dead branches of a boxtree/shrub( as a gardener no problem for me to collect....)and the right and left broken trunks are made of cardboard cylinders shaped and modelled with haevy acrylpaste, litlle bit of sawdust and the "bark"is shaped/modelled with the pasta by using an old ragged small brush . With this tool you can make nice fissures/grooves(??) on/in the paste/trunk.

Jos