Test placing of trees?

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wombat457

wombat457

I'm the one
Hi Guys,

I have a rather large hill to cover with tree's; however, before fixing them in place (permanently) I want to just place them so I can arrange them and get them looking remotely realistic.

The problem I have is the hill side has a "very" steep" slope to it, not steep enough to eliminate tress growing there BUT steep enough that a tree (or anything) could just be placed there without it falling off.

So, how do you guys "place" your tree's to see what things will look like prior to gluing them in place? Basically, what do you use to hold the trees in place temporarily?

PS: I do not have any of the little "base plates" on any of my tree's. I bought them without the bases.
 
I generally don't trial and error so much. I just make sure they go in as odd numbers.
 
I have a fairly good mix of trees so I will probably have to do what you do, find a place, put in a tree and go from there.
 


wombat457 said:
Hi Guys,


So, how do you guys "place" your tree's to see what things will look like prior to gluing them in place? Basically, what do you use to hold the trees in place temporarily?

.
Click to expand...

Hi Tony,
I moved my trees around a lot until I got the look I liked. That was on foam and I could just poke them in. I think yours is plaster and wonder if it is possible to drill a neat hole?

You could try staging them on a piece of foam at the proper angle to see how that looks.

lasm
 
How about making soft putty bases for the trees and stick them on? I guess it depends on the hill slope if it would work.
 
If the trees are going to be densely packed enough that you won't see the trunks except for what's up front, MR had a piece some years ago on how to more quickly create that look -- for a while they had it on their website as a downloadable PDF (free) but that might have been a limited time only. If you're interested I can see if I can hunt up my copy to at least give you a month and year...
 
logandsawman said:
Hi Tony,
I moved my trees around a lot until I got the look I liked. That was on foam and I could just poke them in. I think yours is plaster and wonder if it is possible to drill a neat hole?

You could try staging them on a piece of foam at the proper angle to see how that looks.

lasm
Click to expand...

Your correct lasm, my hill is plaster so I do need to drill holes all over it sooner or later to set them in their permanent home, so to speak. Drilling holes isn't an issue as I was "thinking about" dividing the hill up into grids and drilling holes equi distant within each of the grids then sticking the trees in at random. Any "holes" I didn't use would just be filled with ground cover or whatever. I then thought about how many little holes I'd have to drill and, well, not such a good idea.

Honestly, I am about as creative as a spastic crab when it comes to this part of doing scenery, and probably why I never had tress on previous layouts. I just can't picture the end result.

I think I also scruwed myself by putting down the base ground cover in so far as using putty etc to temporarily position the trees to see how they will look. Not sure how putty (or similar) would react with the ground cover.

Didn't think this one through all that well huh :(

marriedshades said:
Is the ground cover panted and solid if it is i would use the putty they use to put posters up with should hold them and be removable.
Click to expand...

Gary B said:
How about making soft putty bases for the trees and stick them on? I guess it depends on the hill slope if it would work.
Click to expand...

Gary, as said above, good idea but think I have scruwed myself out of that option.

DairyStateDad said:
If the trees are going to be densely packed enough that you won't see the trunks except for what's up front, MR had a piece some years ago on how to more quickly create that look -- for a while they had it on their website as a downloadable PDF (free) but that might have been a limited time only. If you're interested I can see if I can hunt up my copy to at least give you a month and year...
Click to expand...

My instinct is to have a fairly dense tree population on the hill, similar to what I see out my front door. Basically, you see the tree trunks of the first row of trees then nothing but foliage there after. As the trees get closer to the lake, they will thin out a lot though, and it is there that the slopes are greatest.

If you could dig up that mag, month and year, that would be great, thank you.

Might end up being on of those hit and miss things. If it doesn't turn out right, I'll say it is being logged or something - the beauty of a non prototype layout, anything goes! :)
 
Clothes pins to hold them up? Maybe another clothes pin to hold them in place?
 


Lots of options guys, thanks for the input. Will be trying some over the next few days and, hopefully, getting some of the furthest parts of the hill fixed in place.

I'm sure Brad will like to see his tree's finally on the layout :)
 
Just a thought but. Four tree trunks to act as posts. Suspend a large mesh piece of wire or some such material from the four trunk/posts at a height appropriate for the foliage canopy you want. Trial place tree foliage pieces to your liking then glue them on to the mesh. Surround the trunk/posts with fully modeled trees to hide the under canopy area.
Cheers from the Heart of the Continent
Will
 
I've usually found it better to not try to plant a large area with trees all at once. I plant a few, and then look at it for a few days. then plant some more, and look some more, ect.
 
Dave,

That is what I have more or less done for the smaller areas. Put in two or three then hand placed another one and if it looks right, it stays. The physical area I am looking at 'treeing' is about 40" long by about 10" on average in an 'L' shape with a fair amount of slope. The other two areas are small by comparison with one having structures and (possibly) objects to break the area up.
 


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