Sunday, March 22, 2015

The ROCK 3.0: Happy Little Trees

Yesterday afternoon, I moved the operation outside since it was so comfortable.  I received in a new box of Scenic Express Super Trees.  I worked on trees for about an hour.

This morning, I continued the project outside.  I didn't think I had that many more trees, but I ended up working out there for about another hour.  I don't know for sure how many trees I made, but I feel comfortable in saying at least 250 or so.  It was a lot!

My method of making the trees.  By no means, a definitive way of creating them, but it works for me.
  1. Pull apart the Super Trees and shape into a good looking tree.
  2. Spray with an extra hold hairspray.
  3. Place flock (prefer Woodland Scenics) in a one quart container.
  4. Turn the container on its side and roll the tree gently in the flock until covered.
  5. Throw the tree in a collection box.
  6. Repeat.

It goes much faster when I have help from my daughters.  They helped some, but not near as much as I would have wanted on this batch.  Here are some photos of the progress.

I thought I was nearly done with trees, but found tons of little trees I could make.  This was only a quarter of what I ended up finding at the bottom of the box.

Super Tree

Spray the weed with the hairspray.

Normally, I wouldn't go with the expensive stuff, but we had an abundance of it from Triple Coupon day a while back.

Woodland Scenics flock in a one quart container (compliments of the local Chinese Restaurant).  I gently roll the weed in the container while on its side after spraying with hairspray.

A finished small tree.

Chuck the tree into the pile for planting later.

Leftover tree trunks from the box of Super Trees


This evening, I cleaned the layout room.  This week will be busy, so I doubt I will get much more done on the layout.  I will probably plant the trees created this weekend though.  Layout is staged.  I need to update the administrative paperwork with inbound car counts and such plus clean the track and test run the locos this week.



5 comments:

  1. Hi Steven. Nice job with those trees. We are not allowed to bring those into Australia but many of us did long before quarantine stopped them (bring in pests).
    Here's a tip I received from a mate the other day if you have trees that are bent. Use a small soldering iron and hold it close to the trunk on the side away from the bend and gently straighten the tree with your other hand. Once straight remove the iron and voila" a nice straight tree and if your quick no burnt fingers.
    Have fun on your ops session I'm having another this coming Friday night.
    Regards
    Rod.

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    2. Awesome tip Rod! I was wondering what to do with those bent trees. I will try that. Thank you!! Good luck with your Friday op session.

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    3. Hi Rod & Steven,
      Excellent looking trees!!
      I am looking to make some n scale cherry blossoms. These look like a great starting point, except i am in Australia!! Which means i can't get them. Is there a good substitute for us in AUS?
      I am new to n scale, and pretty new to model trains (a friend gave me a stack of HO stuff which i have been playing with :) so i am just getting my head around what is out there for modelling. I have the plastic woodlands scenic trees that you can bend to shape and apply foliage but i feel like they don't have enough detail for what i would like.

      any help would be greatly appreciated.
      thanks
      kle

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  2. Happy to help Steven. I have done several trees this way and it works very well in the past few weeks. I am surprised how good it works.
    Regards
    Rod.

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