.Excellent

Excellent little trick, Charlie. Well done.

Roy

One evening projects

First, this article ("Enhancing bottlebrush trees") is great because it is short, easy to read, and easy to do.

I also love the concept of "One evening projects".

I'd like to see it become a regular feature in every issue.

(Oops. I just found that there have been LOTS of ""One evening projects". So my suggestion is to have the "One evening projects" listed separately in the Table of Contents page, under the Other Features section- that way I can find them faster and go right to them.)

Thanks,

Al

Regular feature

Al,

 We'd like it to become a regular feature as well - and one way that will happen is for us to get a steady supply of articles we can use for it.

Charlie, there's one thing

Charlie, there's one thing you didn't mention - if you're working with a pack of commercial trees, they're probbaly all the same height - so sometimes it mght be valuable to snip them to a new length, be it 3/4th or 1/2 or even, vary rarely though, 1/8th the original tree size.  There's also working int he opposite direction, somthign I haven't ever done, but it is doable: dead and dying trees.  The dying trees would be simple enough, only use a light brown or tan foam covering - I don't know of anyone who has one, off hand.  

Dead trees might be a little more difficult, though, particularly if you're using a commerical product.  If you're making the trees from scratch with a vice and a powerdriver [literally, it can be done for something like between 5 and 25 cents a tree!!! it involves floral wire and I believe it was flax rope that had been unraveled and then boiled long enough to seperate the fibers] then this operation would be much simpler - simply insert half or a quarter of the fibers you'd normally insert, twist the tree, and then paint it a dary brown followed by a whitish gray, leaving some of the dark brown exposed to appear like pieces of bark that haven't fallen off yet.

Burn areas would have to involve starting with either one of these trees to get the desired results - depending on how long it has been since the burn, the trees may be green with black, light brown/tan with black, or silvery brown with black.  In each case, it depends on how the tree appearedbefore the fire, the extent of how badly that individual tree burned, and how that tree has weathered over time.  Typically speaking, if a tree is tan with burnmarkes, it's because the fire killed it; most trees appearing tan before the fire would have become roman candles during the actual event!  I wish I had more pictures of the Rodeo-Chideski fire area in Arizona here, as it really well illustrated this progresion over time.

There's one last really cool tree to cnsider - the lightning rod!  This is a tree that has effectively been struck by lightning.  the most fasinating feature of these trees are the colors - the scar generally appears yellow, while the rest of the tree retains the bark.  And this scar runs the length of the tree where the bolt travelled.  They are very eerie trees to look at - kind of make me a bit queasy.

I bring these points up because here in Arizona, in some places we have nearly 50% of all the trees dead or dying.  So if you're modeling some of these areas, the variety will be a nice touch.

I guess that's more than ONE thing..haha!!  I haven't tried any of this yet, but someday, I promise, I will!!!  If you beat me to it and have the "Tree roundup Part two" article done by next month, it's ALL YOURS!!!

One evening project - Enhancing bottlebrush trees

 Great stuff. After Christmas sales at your local home improvement store are a great source of inexpensive bottle brush trees. I picked up almost 50 trees ranging in size from 2' to 9" for twenty bucks.

Upgrading trees

Great tip and do they ever look good.

Ian Kennedy

Another great One Evening

Another great One Evening Project.  I am in the process of planting a forest area and almost discounted the bottlebrush trees as cheap looking.  I appreciate the reminder that kitbashing is not isolated to our structures and rolling stock.  Also an additional plus of the One Evening Projects is reading the feedback comments for even more ideas.  Benny your ideas  are great and reminded me of the forests just off the highway driving from Phoenix to Flagstaff.  Now I know that my forest will be a unique creation with some dying and lightening struck trees in the midst of the mighty pines.   

 We'd like it to become a

Jeff, consider me "busted".  But thanks for your reply!

-Al

Hobo Al

Believe me - the comment wasn't intended to "bust you" - but to encourage you and all of our readers. With 30,000-40,000 people checking out the magazine, I'm positive we've got some incredibly talented people out there who have projects that will fill the bill, as it were.

Great article! Now I only

Great article!

I have never been a fan of the bottle brush tree because of how unrealistic they look. This article shows that those inexpensive trees can be made to look great!!

LOVE one evening projects!

Question

First off, Charlie's "One Evening Projects" is something I look forward to in every MRH.  His projects are useful, very "doable" and sprinkled here and there with subtle Charlie Comstock humor (overdose on Christmas cookies--Ha!)

Anway, I was wondering about why you chose coarse foam.  I seem to remember from one of Joe's videos where he said to use fine foam in order to accurately replicate the needles on conifers.  Maybe I have it backwards. Or maybe Joe was talking about fine foam for foreground conifers.  Whatever the case may be, your trees look really great!  Any idea how much time it took you to upgrade that box of pines?

Looking forward to next month!
Thanks,
Bill

Thanx!

Charlie, you didn't tell us much but it was just the thing for helping out getting more trees on the layout quickly.  Like that note to hack 'em up a little!  Mother Nature is soooo random.

Improving Bottle-Brush Trees

Once again, thank you for articles that are relevant, practical and, pleasant reading.  Your scenery feature continues to provide info that is enabling progress on my micro railroad (1' x 4') switching layout. 

Appreciate your magazine and your advertisers.

Roy Simpkins

Raleigh, NC

Fine vs Coarse

I tried extra coarse foam, but it made the trees look like a rag-nymph.

I don't think I had any fine foam on hand, but I did have a bottle of Woodland Scenics coarse foam in Conifer color. I tried it and it worked. Originally I didn't paint the trees black, but this left them a color that didn't match my full size trees as well. So the foam texture decision wasn't really as much by design as by accident. And accidents cause what sometimes might appear to be innovation.

Someone else commented on chopping random amounts off the bottom of the trees so they're not all the same height. Yes, I do that too but somehow forgot to mention that in the article.

As with all scenery techniques I'd advise not being a slave to the specifics of the method. Go ahead and try other things - different paint colors, multiple colors of foam, different ways of attaching trees to the layout (hot glue makes it easy to model Shelob's lair - Shelob was the 12' spider in Lord of the Rings). Perhaps coarse foam in conifer green underneath, then a light dose of hair spray on the edges of the 'branches' then very lightly sprinkle on a lighter color so simulate new growth or just the effects of the light interacting with branch structure.

Try using a static grass gun to add some extra 'branches' before adding the foam.

Someone mentioned using brownish colored foam to model dieing and diseased trees.

Don't be satisfied with the status quo. If you have an idea, go ahead and try it.

I've found the hardest thing about scenery is being willing to actually get started. Once you get started, who knows where you'll end up.

And if it works well, perhaps you'd be willing to share it with the other readers (and earn a bit of hobby money in the process - hint hint)

Charlie

Charlie Primo Article

In all my 59 years I have always looked at Bottle brush trees as the Decorations My Mom put up on the mantel and on the end tables and coffee tables around the living room at Christmas time with those little glittery paper houses.

I really like what you have done with these cheap little trees. Building my RGS RR I was actually dreading building another few hundred back ground trees and this process you have explained Is nothing more than Stupendous. Who says you can't teach an old trick new Dogs.

A BIG 5 Stars and a moon.

Dan

Trees and more trees.

We NEVER have enough trees for our layouts.  I intend to try this idea A.S.A.P..  It fits my budget.

Good Tip

I had made hundreds of my one bottle brush trees way back when I was a teenager, and actually still have them in a large box. But they too were looking too "perfect" in shape and texture. Starting with black paint is an obvious first step that I never thought of. Maybe some of these trees will end up on the layout using this technique. Another good article Charlie!

... and other trees

Charlie, I like your piece.  Good advice from someone who can't handle the thin appearance of cheap trees, and it is helpful on good ones, too!  It's very much what I've been doing. and well documented.

From my experience, Things to try:

Try Charlie's technique on seasonal "Christmas" displays... even truly abused or 'snow' colored ones (or even those you just repacked)  can be rejuvinated using his technique.

If your forest is large, use full-size trees around its most visible border and 'fill' the background with shorter treetops on a bed of (dark) green foam foliage... shorter trees generally cost less, and the foliage will cover bare ground.  Also, distant trees will appear a bit misty blue... as blue spruce, so try some suitable misty blue paint on trees in the back of your layout.

Shop for artificial flowers in treelike shapes... some "pussywillow" stuff can be used as juniper or cedar. Just repaint to suit.  (Gee, the spring flowers are coming into season now.)  Lilac flowers can be doctored to resemble evergreesn... but they can be lots of work.  Here's where I consider the cost vs. appearance.

If you have deciduous trees, the base coat of paint (in Charlie's project, black) can be a dark green... but deciduous trees are Not evenly colored... they are generally darker on one side.  I 'plant' mine in a block of foam and spray 2 colors  - dark green from one side and mossy green from the other.  When positioning them on the layout, I rotate the tree to suit the best look.

Oh- take note that nature almost Never (!) puts things evenly spaced or in straight lines!

It's back to my spring planting... regards!

Peter

Improving Bottlebrush Trees

I realy like Charlies article on improving trees with a few simple steps. It will help me when I

start to do the ground work on my model railroad.

Larry B.