Northwest Industrial Park Engineering Report

[SSW7771]

Nice! That's exactly what I've had in mind for at least one of the warehouses on my layout, thanks for blazing a new trail 

Multicolortextured spray? Any specific brand/color? The color and texture is spot on for what I've had in mind, and hopefully the local Home Despot can provide.

I spent a moment and went through the whole thread again. Gained some inspiration and a good kick in the rear to work on mine. Well done all around!

Thanks! I am glad my work on the this layout is helpful. I used rustoleum textured spray paint color desert bisque 223524.

[SSW7771]

While the kids were napping and the wife was out, I tried to make a few pine trees. I was inspired from the video below and followed a similar process but painted the tree trucks/branches flat camo black with a dusting of brown. I also used the fine ground foam to better represent the look in n scale. Overall they look good, I am trying to represent pine trees in east Texas. I still need to do some pruning and might try to build up the foliage some more. I will need to do hundreds of these for the new layout so I wanted something that looked good and very quick/easy to build.

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Prototype Trees


Model Trees

[Philip H]

Marshal,
You are headed it the right direction but your trees are not full enough up top to match your photos.

[SSW7771]

Phillip, I agree.

I had some time this afternoon to take another stab at the trees. This time I did a couple of layers of course ground foam and the topped with the fine ground foam. Much better than the first try. I still need to make a few more in a different species which I have some super trees for, then I will have enough for the wooded corner on this little layout.

[milw12]

I do think you are heading in the right direction and they do look very nice, and the armatures/shape looks good. However, the foam is still throwing me off, I'm seeing it more as deciduous foliage than pine. The foam might not scale from HO like the video to N scale? Then again, might just have my head up my a$$:

http://forestry.sfasu.edu/faculty/stovall/silviculture/images/textbook/resizedimages/defer6.jpg

I've been thinking on and off as to the best way to get the needle-ly look needed for a pine, and the real challenge is how to approximate the needles on a pine without resorting to bottle brush Christmas trees. I thought I saw someone recently here use static grass on a tree then foliage, but then how does one only static grass the branches, otherwise the tree would end up as some funky homebrew pipe cleaner looking thing.

The last thing I want to do is offer a critique with no substantial suggestions, but I'm puzzled just as well. Like I said, I've been mulling it over the past few days: how does one capture the essence of a pine tree in N Scale 

How about a distant shot of a clump in the background, if you don't mind? Perhaps I'm seeing things that aren't there.

-Lucas

[coldriver]

Marshall - like the way those turned out in your most recent set of photos - the first ones were a bit sparse.  Expect they'll look great in a dense "piney woods" forest! 

[squirrelhunter]

I grew up in west Houston, and those pines are all over in the areas around Spring Branch and Buffalo Bayou out to about Highway 6.

I think you have nailed the overall shape, but I'm with milw12 that the foliage looks more like a deciduous tree. I've never worked with stain grass, but is there a way to perhaps get adhesive just on the foliage and then stick the foliage in the grass to get the pine needle look?

[Rossford Yard]

Marshall, you could always model a period after a forest fire, perhaps started by burning some brush along the ROW......of perhaps let some of those Houston/E Tex bayous come right up to the ROW as they do in so many places.  Or, an adjacent black gumbo/clay farm right up to the edge of the industrial park.

Agree that the last frontier of modeling is getting mass quantities of trees accurate, without spending $5-$10 per tree.  Like your efforts so far.

[SSW7771]

I do think you are heading in the right direction and they do look very nice, and the armatures/shape looks good. However, the foam is still throwing me off, I'm seeing it more as deciduous foliage than pine. The foam might not scale from HO like the video to N scale? Then again, might just have my head up my a$$:

http://forestry.sfasu.edu/faculty/stovall/silviculture/images/textbook/resizedimages/defer6.jpg

I've been thinking on and off as to the best way to get the needle-ly look needed for a pine, and the real challenge is how to approximate the needles on a pine without resorting to bottle brush Christmas trees. I thought I saw someone recently here use static grass on a tree then foliage, but then how does one only static grass the branches, otherwise the tree would end up as some funky homebrew pipe cleaner looking thing.

The last thing I want to do is offer a critique with no substantial suggestions, but I'm puzzled just as well. Like I said, I've been mulling it over the past few days: how does one capture the essence of a pine tree in N Scale 

How about a distant shot of a clump in the background, if you don't mind? Perhaps I'm seeing things that aren't there.

-Lucas

Thanks Lucas! Here is more distant shot in the corner where these are planned to be planted. I have seen others use static grass, but to my eye it does not scale well for n scale. 2mm static grass makes for some long needles. I might try it on a couple, but I am afraid that it will make the process less convenient to mass produce for the next layout. Maybe a project for next weekend.

Marshall - like the way those turned out in your most recent set of photos - the first ones were a bit sparse.  Expect they'll look great in a dense "piney woods" forest! 

Thanks Dean! That's the end goal.

Marshall, you could always model a period after a forest fire, perhaps started by burning some brush along the ROW......of perhaps let some of those Houston/E Tex bayous come right up to the ROW as they do in so many places.  Or, an adjacent black gumbo/clay farm right up to the edge of the industrial park.

Agree that the last frontier of modeling is getting mass quantities of trees accurate, without spending $5-$10 per tree.  Like your efforts so far.

Thanks Jeff! Forest fire might not be a bad idea. These trees I am making are very cheap, all I had to buy was some spray paint and foliage materials. The armatures I grow in my backyard.

So far process to make the trees, if done in batches, is just a few minutes each. The next layout will need hundreds and I wanted something that looked good and was cheaper than what is current available. I think I should do an oak or two with my supertrees kit that I have for comparison. Even in real life the at distance the needles are not readily definable to the eye. Let the experiment continue! 

[milw12]

I dig it, the results for this method look great, the grouping came out nice! If you do choose to do an oak or two the contrast will really sell it.

I know I've said this before but I may borrow this idea, as I can see a few pines mixed in with a grove of supertrees being very effective.

-Lucas

[SSW7771]

I made some more progress and got static grass down on roughly half the layout. Still have 1 more warehouse to finish building so I can get scenery down on the other half. I also created a Facebook page for my layout and other railroad related activities. For those who are interested in following along the page can be found at @EspeeNScale. I will continue to update here as well.

[squirrelhunter]

That's a very good patch job- very nice modeling!

[SSW7771]

That's a very good patch job- very nice modeling!

Thanks, but I bought that boxcar patched. 

[SSW7771]

I have been making some progress over the last several weeks on the layout. I have gotten some more scenery down and also did some weathering on the Clampitt Paper warehouse. Slow and steady wins the race right?

[LIRR]

I've built some pines with static grass & foliage....









not to difficult....