MRH
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: What’s an easy way to make some realistically tall and goodlooking Douglas fir trees for my HO railroad? A: I have a number of 24” Douglas firs on my layout. The easiest way I know to make trees like them is to call Pete Vassler, owner of Canyon Creek Scenics.com and order some. He’s a good friend and after 15 years of practice he’s gotten darned good at making incredibly realistic model conifer trees. However if your budget is limited, you’ll probably need to make them yourself. Here’s a quick method. Start with a cedar shake (roof shingle) and slice it lengthwise to make 24” Page 16 • Issue 11-12• Dec 2011
tall trunk forms, each of which will be approximately 3/4” square at the base. I use a small hand-plane to round the trunk cross sections, then scrape them vigorously with a coarse-bladed saw to enhance “bark detail”. Sometimes I cut the trunks shorter to vary the heights. Drill a hole in the base of the tree and epoxy a finishing nail into it for use as a planting spike. The size of the hole and the nail depend of the diameter of the trunk at its base. Small base, small hole, small nail. Cut the head off the nail before gluing it in the hole. Spray paint (or airbrush) the trunks a color like Grimy Black. When that dries, drybrush highlights onto the trunk using a much lighter gray color. If desired, get some very pale light green and dab it on, here and there, to simulate lichen.
Questions, Answers, and Tips, page 1
I use the same kind of furnace filter for big trees that I used in the May 2011 Scenery Scene: Bamboo Skewer Trees (model-railroad-hobbyist. com/magazine/mrh-2011-05-May/ ss-bamboo_skewer_trees). Take the batts of furnace filter outdoors and spray them liberally with flat black (or other dark-colored) paint to kill the unrealistic blue color. Shred the filter material and spear the pieces with the tree trunks. You’ll need to use bigger pieces of filter than those I used in the Bamboo Skewer Tree article because the tree diameter will be much bigger – at least at the base. Be patient, it will take some work to get them slide down where the trunk gets thicker. Glue the pieces of furnace filter in place (white glue, yellow glue, or ACC all work). Once the filter is in place and the glue dries, get out the black spray paint and go over the “branches” whereever any blue color remains. Even a blue spruce isn’t as blue as that! Try to avoid spraying paint on the trunk. If your foliage doesn’t start at the base of the tree (and it usually doesn’t with tall trees), shred some furnace filter to the point of almost individual strands. Pick out the ones that most resemble branches. Drill a number of small holes in the lower portion of the trunk using a bit slightly larger than the furnace filter branches. Dip the branches in glue and stick them in the holes. Keep going until the dead branches look about right. I recommend using unscented, extrahold, hairspray – Aqua Net works
well and is fairly inexpensive. Use it to spray the main part of the foliage liberally. Don’t spray directly at the trunk, you don’t want “needles” growing directly from it. Instead, hold the spray can a little off-center and spray across the edges. Sprinkle-on ground foam. Woodland Scenics coarse Conifer Green foam looks fairly good. Be liberal with the foam. Let it sit for few seconds, then shake off the excess. Repeat if there are undesired bare areas. Now hold the tree upright and spray downward with hairspray. Lightly sprinkle with a lighter color of green to represent highlights from the sun hitting the up side of the foliage. Don’t overdo the lighter foam. For an extra touch, try lightly painting one side (presumably north) of the trunk with 50/50 mix of white glue and water then sprinkle some fine ground foam on it to simulate moss. Now find a suitable spot and “plug” your tree into your scenery. After making 100 they’ll probably start looking almost as good as Pete Vassler’s (Pete actually goes out in the forest taking pictures of interesting trees – a prototype tree modeler!) — Charlie Comstock Q: I’ve heard that the diverging route of a turnout has an easement built into it. Is this true? A: Turnouts (at least North American prototype) don’t have “easements”
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