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Those are nice looking trees. I purchased some conifers made by Grand Central Gems, (got them from Walthers) they are called pines but look more like Spruce to me:
This tree is 7" tall . My opinion is the trees do not have to be scale height to give the impression of mature trees.
I had lots of trees on my old layout and put the tallest ones out of the way where I would not snag them. I tried using some trees that would be like 70-80' tall but those would be 9"+ tall in HO scale and that did not look right to my eyes, maybe because buildings, roads, etc. are somewhat compressed.
I know there are lots of trees over 70' tall in Northern Wisconsin, even up to 115' tall.
Keep in mind you can purchase rather cheaply priced trees and fix them up using hairspray and green flock. Also if you have time you can make your own trees using furnace filters , skewers , some green paint , hair spray and some flock.
Hi all! Another plan change is in the works. As I am starting to buy material for the layout, I am starting to finalize the design. Reasons for this is the operating experience and overall price!
Here is another design I have done. The width of the layout has been taken from 1.5 ft wide to 1 ft wide, simply for cost saving measures. I can now use 1 piece of foam and 1 piece of plywood as opposed to 2 of each. The general top left area is pine forests with some nice grassy areas, and the bottom right area is a large plain/marsh with the Peshtigo River flowing through it. There are also 3 control points along the layout. I have a fascination for abandoned railroads so I had to include one because there actually is one in Oconto, WI, that used to go west to Ocono Falls (Hence the control point FALLS).
Here is a satellite photo of the area in Wisconsin I am modeling. The red is the active CN Mainline and the blue is the abandoned railroad, which connects to the Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad near Lena.
I read something about "trees"...
May be making them yourself?
You "only" need an electrostatic grasmaster .
Also a piece of a floristic wire ,some long - 12 mm, and shorter , 4 mm ,fibres and some fine turf from Woodland you can make some quite
realistic pine/fir/spruce tree. 4-5 inches. I was inspired by pictures on the net:
Also small ones from about 2 inches/5 cm these small trees don't have a large long trunk but is is easier to work with a long "groundpin" .
When ready just cut off most of the wire 1/2 an inch is enough as a groundpin....
You can easily make 20 trees /evening! So in one week 140 trees! ...still not many trees comparing the real nature! But still far more faster than in real.
Jos
They have some nice stuff now. I've have some older so so looking trees that I used the Scenic Express super leaf in a couple of different tones and they turned out nice.
The trees are too 4- 5 inches tall( 10 - 13 cm)
Taler is no problem. I made some of 8 inches( 20 cm)
They " got" 3 layers of the 12 mm fibres.
Before adding the fine turf the shape of the tree needs a litlle bit of correction= with sharp scissor cutting the base a litlle bit smaller.
I am from Europe, Netherlands, so I realy do not know where to buy these wires. Important is that it should be strong enough and not to thick!
Jos
These are small ones, scale N. The largest. is about 4 inches.
