Rob’s sent in these pics and youtube on making trees for your model railroad.
Have a look at the results – impressve stuff:
“Hi Al,
I have decided to build a small remnant primordial forest for my layout Farland.
The tree I built for my holiday video was the first in the series. I have built two more since then and I am working on my first deciduous tree now which will be the subject of my next video, not this one.
This video is about building a Fir tree, an evergreen.
I experimented using sawdust to simulate bark in the video. I did not think of doing it until I had the first layer of foliage glued to the branches. It could have been a disaster adding the bark after the foliage but it worked out okay.
The tree I built next did get its sawdust/bark first and I also painted it before any foliage went on and it turned out really well. I have included photos of both the video subject tree and the one built subsequent to the video.
Rob”
A big thanks to Hall of Fame member Rob for his ‘making trees model railroad’ tutorial.
Over the years there have been quite a few on plants, trees and grass. Here are some of them:
That’s all for today folks.
And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to start your own layout.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
GREAT way to make these trees! Its basically the un-automated way they were once made commercially…. Just being done by hand! NIIIICE work!
Pretty neat.!!!!!! I hope mine turns out that good.
Your trees are beautiful, but too time consuming. What if you had to make hundreds of trees for a large layout. There has to be a quicker way.
Keep up the good work Rob , soon have a forest on the layout ..LOL …
Beautiful, an impressive example of dedication to the hobby.
I am switching from HO to O27, after rescuing my old Lionel trains from storage. I have 30 ft of HO cork roadbed, still in the box (es), that I am happy to give to anyone who wants it. Let me know and I will send it to you, no cost, or obligation.
Great looking trees. Fantastic
Yes, Rob’s method IS time-consuming. And yes, there is a faster way: just pay the outrageous prices and buy them commercially!! An artist cannot be rushed and the quality and realism of his work is superb!
I’ve never seen the “sawdust-for bark” on trees technique before and I think it is brilliant, especially or old growth trees, as I don’t think younger ones get that rough looking.
Very clever.
This one of those gems that I love to learn about.
You’re using sawdust which comes from trees to glue onto your wire trunks. That’s really brilliant yet seems so obvious.
To everyone else I want to say that I saw the comments on it being a time consuming process, but if you wanted simpler, straight trees and maybe a few with some branches you could still sprinkle the sawdust on the “trunks” which could be made of wire, wooden dowels or even natural sticks from your yard or the woods.
I personally like the personal attention to each tree such as the clay over wire tree from “HO Railroads That Grow” by Linn Westcott. Some trees just need to be trees, but a few masterpieces are nice as well.
Frank in Orlando
Hey Ron from Mississippi, I am sure you can do them quicker, but they would look like they were from Mississippi. Give the guy a break!
There are plenty of you tube videos on how to make trees fast and you can buy them by the hundreds online, but these look real.