09-13-2025, 09:58 AM
There are a few basic materials that I find useful in building trees, portions of trees, or the tops of trees - again modeling late summer when most of the trees still hold onto their leaves. That said, I always do try to add in dead trees - especially because I model 1976 when the gypsy moths were doing quite a bit of damage to our oak population.
Materials: (let me know if I should take pictures of some of this stuff)
1) Polyfil. There are a lot of varieties available, but the most economic way to buy polyfil is buying a bag from a craft supply store or even Walmart. The big drawback is that it will be WHITE. Unless you're modeling virgin snow, it's useless right out of the bag.
2) Spray paint. Believe it or not black spray paint is my essential. Look at any tree and once you get beyond the surface of the leaves, the interior of a tree is basically black. Different shades of green are also good - everything from a medium yellowish to a deep forest green and several shades in between.
3) Bagged moss in a variety of colors. I've used bags and bags of this stuff in combination with polyfil balls to cover 80% of my mountains. Light brownish to bright green and everything in between.
4) Scenic foam (smaller varieties) in a bunch of different colors from orange, red, yellow (fall colors) and as many different greens as you can find.
5) Matte medium
6) Spray adhesive
7) Leaf flock - as many colors as you can find.
8) Tree armatures - commerial varieties are either plastic or metal, but Woodland Scenics does offer some kits with sedum sprigs as their armature material. My go to is the seed head of a pyramidal hydrangea, and that's probably the secret (for ease of building and realism) to my foreground trees.
https://bigbluetrains.com/attachment.php?aid=39769
9) White and wood glue.
That's about it for materials. Again, for modeling trees in the distance on a hill, polyfil balls and moss are going to fill up 80% of that hill and are a great start to modeling a mass of trees. I began modeling my mountains back in 2015 after finishing my backdrops. Any mountain looks much more realistic in 3 dimensions and adding simple puff ball trees and moss to its surface is an instant improvement. As you can see in the photo below, after painting my Sculptamold brown, it was populated with a mix of moss and polyfil balls. I intentionally mixed the colors which also adds to the 3d effect. Each was dipped in some yellow wood glue, stuck up against the brown surface and secured with a single straight pin (ideally with a colored ball on the top to help you find them later after the glue has dried...
Details on making polyfill ball trees (this is pretty much straight from Dave Frary's fantastic book - the 3rd edition of "How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery":
1) Pull out a hunk of that white polyfil straight out of the bag and stretch it into a flat mat. Spray it liberally with black spray paint until it doesn't look white anymore. Let dry and hit it with some varieties of green spray paint. Let dry again. (Note: This green mat can become quite useful for other things. For example, (see the photo below) I needed a backdrop of trees for one section of White Haven and I had very little distance for trees. I spray glued the mat right to the backdrop - which was the secret to my flat mountain in my previous entry).
2) Pull clumps of the painted polyfill and roll them into balls with your two hands. Size isn't too important, but I generally like to keep them between an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Once it's in the round shape I dip each ball in matte medium (a little tray helps for this), and I drop the ball into a plastic bag that's been prepopulated with ground foam of a variety of colors. Shake the ball around in the bag and in about 10 seconds pull the colored ball out and stick it in a cardboard box while they dry.
https://bigbluetrains.com/attachment.php?aid=39667
I'll address detailed trees and other forest scenery in the next entry in this series. Let me know if I missed anything or something needs more explanation.
Materials: (let me know if I should take pictures of some of this stuff)
1) Polyfil. There are a lot of varieties available, but the most economic way to buy polyfil is buying a bag from a craft supply store or even Walmart. The big drawback is that it will be WHITE. Unless you're modeling virgin snow, it's useless right out of the bag.
2) Spray paint. Believe it or not black spray paint is my essential. Look at any tree and once you get beyond the surface of the leaves, the interior of a tree is basically black. Different shades of green are also good - everything from a medium yellowish to a deep forest green and several shades in between.
3) Bagged moss in a variety of colors. I've used bags and bags of this stuff in combination with polyfil balls to cover 80% of my mountains. Light brownish to bright green and everything in between.
4) Scenic foam (smaller varieties) in a bunch of different colors from orange, red, yellow (fall colors) and as many different greens as you can find.
5) Matte medium
6) Spray adhesive
7) Leaf flock - as many colors as you can find.
8) Tree armatures - commerial varieties are either plastic or metal, but Woodland Scenics does offer some kits with sedum sprigs as their armature material. My go to is the seed head of a pyramidal hydrangea, and that's probably the secret (for ease of building and realism) to my foreground trees.
https://bigbluetrains.com/attachment.php?aid=39769
9) White and wood glue.
That's about it for materials. Again, for modeling trees in the distance on a hill, polyfil balls and moss are going to fill up 80% of that hill and are a great start to modeling a mass of trees. I began modeling my mountains back in 2015 after finishing my backdrops. Any mountain looks much more realistic in 3 dimensions and adding simple puff ball trees and moss to its surface is an instant improvement. As you can see in the photo below, after painting my Sculptamold brown, it was populated with a mix of moss and polyfil balls. I intentionally mixed the colors which also adds to the 3d effect. Each was dipped in some yellow wood glue, stuck up against the brown surface and secured with a single straight pin (ideally with a colored ball on the top to help you find them later after the glue has dried...
Details on making polyfill ball trees (this is pretty much straight from Dave Frary's fantastic book - the 3rd edition of "How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery":
1) Pull out a hunk of that white polyfil straight out of the bag and stretch it into a flat mat. Spray it liberally with black spray paint until it doesn't look white anymore. Let dry and hit it with some varieties of green spray paint. Let dry again. (Note: This green mat can become quite useful for other things. For example, (see the photo below) I needed a backdrop of trees for one section of White Haven and I had very little distance for trees. I spray glued the mat right to the backdrop - which was the secret to my flat mountain in my previous entry).
2) Pull clumps of the painted polyfill and roll them into balls with your two hands. Size isn't too important, but I generally like to keep them between an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Once it's in the round shape I dip each ball in matte medium (a little tray helps for this), and I drop the ball into a plastic bag that's been prepopulated with ground foam of a variety of colors. Shake the ball around in the bag and in about 10 seconds pull the colored ball out and stick it in a cardboard box while they dry.
https://bigbluetrains.com/attachment.php?aid=39667
I'll address detailed trees and other forest scenery in the next entry in this series. Let me know if I missed anything or something needs more explanation.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows