Cypress Trees

[Nilmadic]

Has anyone tried and successfully modeled pacific coast cypress trees? I'm planning a cement plant that sits right on the pacific ocean. It is based off the Cemex Plant in Davenport, CA. The plant was recently closed. It used to be served by the Union Pacific. There is an abundance of windswept cypress trees. Just looking for ideas. I started using the twisted wire method and liquitex ceramic stucco for the trunks.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Hey, Nils!
Glad you finally made it to RW.
Get yr post count up so you can start sharing photos of all yr fab work!

Nils made the "Bridge O' Wonder" module for our Free-moN group, and is now working on a long, long module of the cement plant north of Santa Cruz. (see proto photos here: http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/quarry_photo/ca-santa_cruz_cemex_portland_photo_tour_1.html)

I thought your cypress looked pretty good and massive and wind-swept.
Would be cool to see how others did them, though.

[Philip H]

I'd love to see too - I need to do some bald cypress at some point later this year.  Of course, I also need to do some Spanish moss.

[Nilmadic]

That would be a cool tree. Windswept cypress trees with spanish moss! Hmmm. Gets me thinking...as sooon as i can get my post count up...I'll post some pics.

[GaryHinshaw]

I'm sure you're already familiar with MC's live oak tutorial.  I suspect this is your best bet since you can control the ever-important shape so well with this method.  Being a Bay Area native, I look forward to seeing this Davenport module!

-Gary

P.S. There is no minimum post count required to post pictures, you just need to have them hosted somewhere (else) on the web and link to them:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=26436.0

[Bob Bufkin]

Posting photos will get your posts up fast.

[C855B]

... in Davenport, CA.

Of course, the locals know Davenport for another landmark, also recently closed.

You going to model that, too?

[Mike C]

A few years back someone had a southern logging modular layout that was featured in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. I know it was large scale, but you may find something you can use......Mike

[railnerd]

Hey Nils,

Welcome to Railwire I'm here, too.

-Dave F (a.k.a. railnerd)

[Philip H]

A few years back someone had a southern logging modular layout that was featured in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. I know it was large scale, but you may find something you can use......Mike

I've seen several of those - the cypress trees were usually hand carved out of balsa.

[Nilmadic]

Ok, so I'll try to post some pics again.




Hey! It worked. (thanks gfh for editing my post on the log loader) These were made with M.C.'s Method of twisting wire. Now i just need to make them n scale.

[GaryHinshaw]

That looks promising.  A little smaller, like you say; I would also try to make the foliage a bit more contiguous, like this example.   Should be a great scene.

-gfh

[Philip H]

Those look really good, since I'm trying to reproduce this:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cclockwood.com/stockimages/14951.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cclockwood.com/stockimages/atchafalayalandscape.htm&usg=__CoLGu_0KqQHe4rzFzB8ETB9bYCw=&h=252&w=380&sz=117&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=h8y47M0yvQNOEM:&tbnh=180&tbnw=271&ei=hFEvUevtKe2Q0QGAl4DIAg&itbs=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:63&iact=rc&dur=5&sig=118434719714612267693&page=1&ndsp=1&tx=227&ty=43

[JoeD]

Thanks for the link to the Cement Plant.  I have been wanting to do this as an end module for a long time.  I saw a photo of an SP GP poking out of the row of trees beyond the road and was hooked.  I went on to Google earth and have worked out a track plan and the size of the buildings.

Cypress Trees are tough considering their unique sculpted trunks.  I would get as many shots as possible and a big spool of wire and start twisting and dipping.  Instead of chunks of foam, we used to drape very thin layers of fine steel wool over the branches and then using cheap hair spray, layered fine ground foam.  The trick is to keep the translucent qualties of these trees around the branches.  I might try a few of these this weekend while I noodle over how to do part of the plant.   

Cheers

Joe

Hey, Nils!
Glad you finally made it to RW.
Get yr post count up so you can start sharing photos of all yr fab work!

Nils made the "Bridge O' Wonder" module for our Free-moN group, and is now working on a long, long module of the cement plant north of Santa Cruz. (see proto photos here: http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/quarry_photo/ca-santa_cruz_cemex_portland_photo_tour_1.html)

I thought your cypress looked pretty good and massive and wind-swept.
Would be cool to see how others did them, though.

[JoeD]

nice shot...Liked it better with an SP Engine...but nice shot anyway.