Fall foliage?
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Yup, I'm here alright. I did most of my layout in autumn foliage, set in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York State in mid October of 1941. The trees armatures are Scenic Express SuperTrees, flocked with a combination of their autumn foliage colored ground foams. Below are some additional shots of the layout's rural scenes. Jason, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask how to go about replicating the trees.
NYW&B
No, Jason, I don't have my techniques written up anywhere. From experience I've found that relatively few hobbyists today are truly serious about doing a first class job on their scenery. Most seem now to want to expend nearly all their hobby funds on just buying the latest top-end locomotives and cars, then scrimping in every way possible on their scenery. Sadly, the Internet is overflowing with such examples. The reality of the situation is that sort of approach simply doesn't work if your goal is to have a really photogenic and believable layout.
Concerning sources of tree-like weeds or twigs, other than SuperTrees, in my experience commonly found weeds and crafts store flowers generally make rather poor armatures for realistic looking trees. Their branching structure and the way they carry ground foam is such that they look obviously fake. Mass plantings of these, as well as the use of so-called puff-ball trees (ugh!), may look OK from a considerable distance from the viewer, but close-up from where we usually view our layouts I'm afraid that they fail miserably.
So, it honestly comes down to a question of whether the hobbyist wishes to go for first class realism and having a pike that they can be really proud of, or they are really just interested in playing with miniature trains on a pike with scenery that won't convince or impress anyone. If you choose the former, I'm right here to offer hints and advice.
NYW&B
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IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
Here's one by a guy whose layout is based on rural New York state [I think he might even be a member of this forum?], the only thing 'photoshopped' is the smoke - everything else is real.
http://0.tqn.com/d/modeltrains/1/0/5/1/-/-/JBortle_Fall.jpg
http://0.tqn.com/d/modeltrains/1/0/5/1/-/-/JBortle_Fall.jpg
Yup, I'm here alright. I did most of my layout in autumn foliage, set in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York State in mid October of 1941. The trees armatures are Scenic Express SuperTrees, flocked with a combination of their autumn foliage colored ground foams. Below are some additional shots of the layout's rural scenes. Jason, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask how to go about replicating the trees.
NYW&B
Last edited by a moderator:
That is beautiful. That is what I shall try to accomplishthanks so much. Do you have a write up anywhere on how you made the trees? I'd rather make my own instead of spend hundreds on buying them.
No, Jason, I don't have my techniques written up anywhere. From experience I've found that relatively few hobbyists today are truly serious about doing a first class job on their scenery. Most seem now to want to expend nearly all their hobby funds on just buying the latest top-end locomotives and cars, then scrimping in every way possible on their scenery. Sadly, the Internet is overflowing with such examples. The reality of the situation is that sort of approach simply doesn't work if your goal is to have a really photogenic and believable layout.
Concerning sources of tree-like weeds or twigs, other than SuperTrees, in my experience commonly found weeds and crafts store flowers generally make rather poor armatures for realistic looking trees. Their branching structure and the way they carry ground foam is such that they look obviously fake. Mass plantings of these, as well as the use of so-called puff-ball trees (ugh!), may look OK from a considerable distance from the viewer, but close-up from where we usually view our layouts I'm afraid that they fail miserably.
So, it honestly comes down to a question of whether the hobbyist wishes to go for first class realism and having a pike that they can be really proud of, or they are really just interested in playing with miniature trains on a pike with scenery that won't convince or impress anyone. If you choose the former, I'm right here to offer hints and advice.
NYW&B
Last edited by a moderator:
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