Some asked for “how-to” info on the scratch-built pine trees. My first attempt was an epic fail. I tapered a dowel and drilled holes for individual caspia branches. I figured drilling holes in the trunk would be the tedious part, but that’s not the case. I have a drill press and a V-block, so I can drill the holes in the trunk in under 10 minutes. I takes me about 5 minutes to taper the trunk, using the drill press & sand paper. The time consuming part was the branches. Not attaching them, that only took about 20 to 30 minutes. The caspia turned out to be more trouble than its worth. Selecting an appropriate looking piece, cutting and trimming the buds off the tips, shaping it, etc., and trimming to length. And once it’s on the trunk, you really can’t trim the length of the branches and shape the tree without ruining the appearance of the branch.  It became apparent right away that the branches were wrong....not enough secondary and tertiary shoots off the main branches. The result looked like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I put it out of its misery and tossed it. I (and photobucket, thanks you) have deleted all photographic evidence of it.

Then I saw a thread on therailwire Scenery Techniques forum (since killed by photobucket) with awesome trees. This lead me to a youtube video (with English & German graphics), which I believe is by the same author from therailwire forum. He wrapped a wire around a tapered trunk forming branches by extending loops outward from the trunk, clipping the end of the loop and spreading the branches. I tried this method, but I couldn’t wrap it around the trunk tight enough, it would always uncoil. So, I had a little brainstorm and decided to combine the 2 methods. Sort of.

I tapered and drilled the trunk as before, drilling 0.040” thru holes. I use floral wire, insert 2 thru each hole for branches. Some holes need to be opened a bit more with a drill in a pin vise and I need to add a drop of CA glue at the trunk to keep some of the loose ones from spinning. Then spread the branches, trim the wires and shape the tree. Much more flexibility and margin for error than the caspia branches. Spray with adhesive and cover the trunk with fine-sifted sawdust. Then I spray-paint it a brownish gray (or a grayish brown?), let it dry of course, then spray with adhesive and applied long (1/4”) static grass to form the secondary and smaller branch structure. (The first few trees I spray painted after the first static grass application, but the paint didn’t get thru to the trunk in some areas and there were bare sawdust in some spots.) Apply static grass only from above or below, this keeps it off the trunk. Next was another coat of brown/gray spray paint. Then I applied shorter static grass in the same manner for the needles.  

I work in steps.....taper some dowels, drill holes, cut/insert wires, etc. All of this can be done a few minutes at a time, when I can only get to the train room for a few minutes. Being able to make such incremental progress, 10 or 20 minutes at a time, keeps it from becoming tedious.  I estimate if I worked on a single tree from start to finish, it would take 45 to 60 minutes, excluding glue/paint dry time of course.