Foliage Friday

Wow that’s some beautiful scenery...perhaps you can share how you make your trees?

Great pictures Frank, always enjoy your presentations.  I need to add more trees to my layout, I'll have to check with the Magooville town council for funding.

Rickpsp posted:

Wow that’s some beautiful scenery...perhaps you can share how you make your trees?

Thank you, Rickpsp.

I don't make trees, although I have cut some trees down to represent younger and/or shorter trees and some shrubbery. Most are available from Jim Elster's Scenic Express, as is most of the low  foliage individually.

Jim has a wonderful variety of foliage available, on-line and at his stand at shows and meets.

FrankM

Some of these trees have been found by happenstance at shows where I had gone to browse and buy.

OK Frank, even though it's only Thursday, I'll bite. I really like your pine trees, so realistic!

I just started scenery last year. This scene has over 100 Woodland Scenics trees. Still needs work. 

I couldn't just pick one season for my layout, so I'm going to do all four.

Mayor Magoo. That is a very handsome vista! Particularly enjoyable are the realistic bend in the roadway, the realistic emplacement of rural buildings and details, and especially the very realistic pylon for that elevated rail-line. The cement looks like, well, exactly like real cement, aged, stained, rough-hewn, a bit, and strong.

Very cool.

FrankM

This is going to be a good thread. Perhaps small "how to's" with the photos????????.

Joe

Hi Big Boy 4005 / Elliot, Good to hear from you here. Of course, I follow your ongoing thread as you continue to construct your fantastic layout. I am so glad you decided to share your plans, ruminations, and progress, all along the way with us here on OGR.

I recall seeing the wonderful steep hillside you are sharing with us here when you first began it. Seeing it now so fully fleshed-out is a real treat. It looks very appropriate and very realistic. Anybody who has driven along some of the Interstate highways in Pennsylvania or in the Northeast USA knows what you have modeled there is spot-on and real.

FrankM

Thanks Frank. Actually, both scenes are from right along the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities.

I agree Joe, this is going to be good.    Frank M, Mayor Magoo & Eliot,  great looking scenes.   I'll post some more as time goes on, here's what I have this AM. 

Photos 1,2,3 are my latest home made pine tree efforts after watching some videos on youtube and making some adjustments...    I posted some details about this in the following post:  

https://ogrforum.com/...04#83086529565722804

Photos 4 thru 7 are a combination of puff ball trees and Scenic Express Super Trees

I have also re-purposed some old school Lichen shrub scenery...  Had too many bags to discard it. So I sprayed it with adhesive and started coating it with the Super Leaf material as well as the really fine turf scenery material...   I'll take some photos close up and post them for anyone interested,  it definitely makes the Lichen look more like shrubs and scruff vegetation. 

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Moonson posted:

Mayor Magoo. That is a very handsome vista! Particularly enjoyable are the realistic bend in the roadway, the realistic emplacement of rural buildings and details, and especially the very realistic pylon for that elevated rail-line. The cement looks like, well, exactly like real cement, aged, stained, rough-hewn, a bit, and strong.

Very cool.

FrankM

Thank you Frank. The 'cement' pylon is a piece of 2x4 wrapped with a picture of a cement wall I found on the googles.  The only trick for me was in cutting it down to size and gluing carefully so that I could get rid of all the air bubbles.

Frank, 

Thank you for starting this thread. Your work is, well, top shelf. Steve, Eliot, and Chris, excellent work.

Andy

Some fantastic foliage spouting here on this thread!  Beautiful work all.  Here are some examples of wire trees I made many years ago.  I couldnt have done it without the help and advice of those who participated in the Wire Tree Build.  I find the process to be oddly relaxing and enjoyable with the result being some pretty realistic looking trees.  Please check out this thread in the hopes that it helps you as much as it helped me!

http://token3rail.blogspot.com...uild-wire-trees.html

Howdy Frank,  good topic at least of interest to me.Lately as I delve deeper into detailing my layout I have been thinking of replacing some of my original purchased trees that are rudimentary at best and bought specifically because they were on sale. Likewise ground covers have improved dramatically or my awareness of them has" grown"(no pun). So here are a few pics that maybe improved upon in the near future. 

Here is a modest tip for you fans of "old school" scenicking materials:
I had an old bag of peat moss sitting around, so I did some experimenting. Not only is it a nice, rich, woodsy material on its own, but it turns out that you can dye it various colors by shaking it up in a container of alcohol mixed with hobby acrylic paints. It comes out sort of half-way between ground foam and lichen. You can get some very nice and unusual effects.

Here is a little area where the primary ground cover is green-dyed peat moss:

Very interested thread and a beautiful trees & scenes. One of mine old tree project. 

Avanti posted:

Here is a modest tip for you fans of "old school" scenicking materials:
I had an old bag of peat moss sitting around, so I did some experimenting. Not only is it a nice, rich, woodsy material on its own, but it turns out that you can dye it various colors by shaking it up in a container of alcohol mixed with hobby acrylic paints. It comes out sort of half-way between ground foam and lichen. You can get some very nice and unusual effects.

Here is a little area where the primary ground cover is green-dyed peat moss:

Avanti looks good. You sure that didn't come from a bag of medicinal herb?

jackiejr posted:

 

Avanti looks good. You sure that didn't come from a bag of medicinal herb?

I knew it reminded me of something. 

I think all of the foliage depicted in the above photos is excellent, and will be adding to the trees on my layout in the near future. When I do, I will post photos on this thread. Arnold

Great topic, Frank. So far the title could be changed to The Best of the Best. Just superb work everyone.

My theory is that when a modeler decides not to skimp on the foliage, the scenes and the entire layout benefit, in my opinion. Foliage imbues unity, when emplaced carefully, reinforced by going out into the world on little excursions and looking carefully.

Driving along Interstate highways (nearly drifting off roadways onto shoulders in the process, a couple of times!) I observed areas about which I thought  I knew the details present, but looking carefully taught me, for example, about all the low foliage and the visible ground that populates the edges of a woods/forest, and how it actually does present itself.

The effect on me of such scrutinizing and re-working many of my scenes has paid-off with a further sense of believability, at least in my viewpoint, for scenes I have chosen to very carefully craft and re-do, more than once.

The many products available from Scenic Express further inspire me because once I have them in my hands, their appearances give me new ideas I did not have previous to first imagining a particular scene, so I just "go-with-the-flow" and let my imagination and memories of actual scenes, like these along Brake Hill Rd. near Homer, NY direct my hands.

FrankM

Great thread going here.  I can contribute:

Wow John! Those scenes look real to me, especially the last one, with what looks like a 55 Chevy and the street lights! Great work by you!

Rusty

JackieJr, I really like the scenes you shared from your layout, very inspirational to me! 

Rusty

Wonderful thread Frank!  I love it!  I'm really enjoying everyone's photos and information.  Foliage brings a delightful dimension to our layouts for sure.  I tend to like fall, so that is the season I model. 

Here are a few photos of a country lane, Mt. Randolph, and a trackside foliage photo. I also included a real life photo of summer foliage as it surrounds the B&O Bollman truss bridge, a couple blocks from my home.  These photos were taken back in the summer of 2016 as part of the photo shoot for the OGR Magazine feature of my layout in run 290. Since then I've added more foliage to the layout.  Actually, Mt. Randolph is still not completed ... more trees are to be planted on Arbor Day.  I'll be contributing more photos of my layout's foliage as time unfolds.  

Diverging Clear posted:

Wow John! Those scenes look real to me, especially the last one, with what looks like a 55 Chevy and the street lights! Great work by you!

Rusty

Aren't they real ?! You mean, they are not real-life?!!!!!!

Fabulous work = artwork, John!

Diverging Clear is right! I really had to study the photos carefully to be sure they were modeled. You are a gifted man!

FrankM

Wow....John those scenes on your layout are outstanding!

Thank you Rusty, FrankM and RickSP.  Considering your respective talents, I am humbled by your kind words!

Joe Fauty posted:

This is going to be a good thread. Perhaps small "how to's" with the photos????????.

Joe

OK, Joe. Here is my "How to."

First: I array all the ingredients around me in a semi-circle before I start any craftwork on scenes. I absolutely will not go scurrying around looking for this-or-that ingredient, nor glues, for a scene once I am in-the-groove.

Second: If there are to be trees in the vignette , I glue them down first, with Gorilla Glue paste-type (in a tube), and let them set-up until thoroughly dry/hardened into place. I DO NOT attempt to put the lower foliage into the scene until that fixing of the trees has taken place; otherwise, I get trees falling over, their having been undercut by the next layer of glues, which are water-based glue(s) atop and surrounding their bases.

Third comes a veritable puddle. I liberally apply a layer of water-based glue over the entire portion of the landscape I am about to further flesh-in with lower foliage and groundcovers.

Then, I use a long-handled spoon to sprinkle in soils, a mixture of N, HO, and O scales, and the foliage available in bottles and packets, sprinkling them gradually and with purpose.

Next, comes the small bushes and all other lower foliage, some of it applied in-place with tweezers and/or a dentist's pick.

Lastly, I let everything set-up until totally dry and firm. If some areas can use a bit more of foliage and/or groundcover(s), I apply them bit-by-bit, according to my creative inspiration. Then, that layer gets an application of water-based glue via an eyedropper, fraction-of-an-inch by fraction-of-an-inch.

Let dry again. Totally.

Next scene!

FrankM

John Sethian       May I ask where you purchase your trees? Are they premade or do you create them? Excellent modelling.....jaw dropping realism!

                                             Thanks Jackiejr

Like this thread. Great pics of fantastic modeling. I have bunch of experiments on my "not quite a complete redo" thread. I enjoyed making pine trees. Desiduous trees are too tough for me unless I model a dead tree with a small branch or twig from a back yard tree.

Jackiejr

They are home made, using Scenic Express armatures, wood sticks, Scenic Express Super Trees and Noch Leaves, hairspray, spray paints and Pro Stick 65 spray glue. I wrote an article in OGR run 273, pages 54 to 58.

Thanks for the kind words!

The talent of these modelers is beyond museum quality. I’m taken back by their skills. When I showed the photo’s to the wife she thought a lot were actual photos of real life! Just a small testament to the quality of the work presented here.

From Frank M (above):   My theory is that when a modeler decides not to skimp on the foliage, the scenes and the entire layout benefit, in my opinion. Foliage imbues unity, when emplaced carefully, reinforced by going out into the world on little excursions and looking carefully.

Driving along Interstate highways (nearly drifting off roadways onto shoulders in the process, a couple of times!) I observed areas about which I thought  I knew the details present, but looking carefully taught me, for example, about all the low foliage and the visible ground that populates the edges of a woods/forest, and how it actually does present itself.

Frank:   Great thoughts and photos in the narrative above.   The scenes on my layout I am most pleased with are the ones where I applied the principles and methods you described in this thread.   Thanks for reminding me how important it is to the quality of the final result, and thanks for creating this thread !    

John Sethian:   Thanks for the photos, outstanding attention to detail, blending of colors, textures and gentle rolling land forms.   As another member commented, those photos look like REAL life scenes from the mid - 1950's !!! 

Wonderful work everyone ... continued to be amazed and inspired by the imagination on display here.  

I hope this isn’t “illegal” or inappropriate, but here are screen shots of John Sethian’s “How To” in issue 273 of OGR Magazine.  We may all benefit from his expertise.

I have previously posted photos of this scene, but this photo shows the foliage better.

John Sethian posted:

Great thread going here.  I can contribute:

I can only think of a few key words to try and describe this fabulous modeling'..

OUTSTANDING, EXCELLENT, PHENOMENAL, and  EXTRAORDINARY '.

  These words barely explain the essence of realistic modeling at it's best as exhibited in this presentation'..  

Certainly not for everyone, but to promote topic diversity, I give you the ubiquitous sedum plant.  To be used in a variety of ways from low undergrowth, shrub, to tree; only limited by your imagination...   Harvest time is right now, from your yard or your neighbor’s.  They will thank you for saving them from having to cut it down.  

I'm going to have to plant some sedum so I can harvest.

This thread is great, inspired me to do some more work on one end of my mountain.