Tired of storing that old fake Christmas tree? Make hundreds of N scale trees.

[John]

With some ground foam and some selective shaping and thinning, they would make good filler and background trees. One thing that sticks out to me though is the upward angle of the branches. Dumb question, but how would they look turned upside down and trimmed to shape, then ground foam and such?

I have an extra tree in the basement .. one of those small ones with the fiber optic lights .. they seem to have finer needles .. I am going to try some of those ..

[Lemosteam]

What if you selectively thinned the "needles" and the applied short static grass to them, basically using them as inexpensive armatures?

[up1950s]

I don't know if this can be done but here goes . Thinking that the trees are to be in the distant and to make up a center mass and not the edge of a tree line , what if the finished tree was a combination of one half lower portion made of recycled xmas tree and the upper half a better quality tree . Would require splicing the trunks together . Would be less expensive than buying a large high quality tree , I think we get smaller trees than larger ones for the same amount of money .

Another thought , in a forest of evergreens are there any branches below the halfway mark or so . Isn't it trunk rich except for the canopy ?

[Scottl]

Depends on the tree species.  Pines tend to shed branches as they grow, while spruce and fir don't especially.   The white pines around here often have a lot of bare branches down low.

[alhoop]

Tree limbs grow pointing  up and down:
http://earthsky.org/earth/tree-branch-growth-direction

Al

[nkalanaga]

Richie:  It also depends on how thick the trees grow.  If they're crowded together little light gets through the canopy so there's no reason to keep the lower limbs.  In a more open forest, such as much of the inland west, sunlight reaches the ground, and trees often have branches all the way down. 

Another factor is fire.  If the forest is subject to relatively frequent ground fires, lower limbs are a hazard to the tree, as fire can climb them to the crown.  Shedding them cuts the risk of devastating "crown fires".  In wet forests, where fires are rare, that's not an issue.  Many western forests that used to be more open have filled with undergrowth, and trees have kept lower limbs, since humans have been fighting fires.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Honestly, looking at these, I really don't see them working as more than "green blobs".

[wm3798]

I wouldn't disparage green blobs like that, Ed.  Green blobs are pretty effective for nailing a distant background slope.



These things look more like those twirly brushes at a car wash than a tree.  And for that, they'd be way over-sized. 

But alas, as an inveterate cheapskate, I'll give credit where credit's due.  Probably the best way to use these would be to intersperse them with some (a majority, really) more expensive, better looking trees.

Lee

[x600]

Hey Cody,check your messages on the top of the page..We're neighbors,LOL!!

Hey Lou,
When you visit with Cody, ask him why he left Lackawanna off his signature Logos 

Greg O.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I wouldn't disparage green blobs like that, Ed.  Green blobs are pretty effective for nailing a distant background slope.

Oh, I disparage green blobs. All day long. It's what I do...

[peteski]

Oh, I disparage green blobs. All day long. It's what I do...

...but Christmas-tree lights are ok to use to illuminate the layout? 

[nkalanaga]

Green Blobs look quite at home in Appalachia.  One of the reasons I'd rather be back in Pasco, WA.  After 34 years green hills still don't look natural...

[wm3798]

Peteski FTW!

[davefoxx]

Oh, I disparage green blobs. All day long. It's what I do...

I'm in complete agreement with Ed when it comes to model trees.  Green blobs do not properly depict the height of trees, even when trying to represent only the canopy.  Green blobs look like just that . . . green blobs.

[up1950s]

I'm in complete agreement with Ed when it comes to model trees.  Green blobs do not properly depict the height of trees, even when trying to represent only the canopy.  Green blobs look like just that . . . green blobs.