Hi Ron, I watch all your vidios. I am so happy that finally someone has done one in o-scale,especially the trees. Its hard when most vidios are in a smaller scale. Once again,keep up the good work. Look forward to your next new ones.
I model on the cheap. I make all my own ground scatter (flocking) out of either sawdust that gets coloured in the electric coffee grinder my wife gave me for modeling, or foam rubber done same way in the coffee grinder. That way you can control the colours and the granularity of your finished product. I also make my own iron oxide (rust) by soaking about 4 pieces of 0000 steel wool in a quart jar with white vinegar. After about a month sitting in the window, I pour the mixture into a large pan (I use my old 11" x 14" stainless steel photo fixer trays when I had a darkroom) or baking dish and wait for the mixture to completely dry (usually about 2 to 3 weeks). Then I take a single edge razor blade and pulverize the contents into a fine powder and store it in little tins. Each batch I've done comes out a little different in colour. Then you use the rust as you would any weathering powder or chalk. It looks real, 'cause it IS real rust! I also colour my own chalk with acrylic paint and food colouring. I never buy weathering powders. Instead, I go to the dollar store and buy women's makeup in the little plastic containers. For $1.00 you can get quite a collection of different colours and they adhere better than weathering powders. For trees, I use the Nandena bush after the little red berries fall off, it leaves a perfect tree trunk (armature). I also have a TON of lichen growing out back on the hill behind my house. When using the Nandena bush tree armatures, you can paint them whatever colour you want--even grey for aspen trees. Cover the armatures with lichen, seafoam or whatever you want, then add your own home-made flocking and you're done. For pine trees, I use florist wire (wrapped) doubled and bits of jute cut in1 to 1 1/2" laid in the wire, then using a drill, twist the wire while holding the other end in a pair of pliers.. I also use barbeque bamboo skewers with pig hair (horse hair) furnace filters (they're already green); have to paint the skewers first. And I never use spray paint since I use my airbrush for all my painting. I can use either acrylic or oil base paints; I usually use one airbrush for acrylic and the other one for oil base paints. Cheers from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
Fantastic video! As an O scaler I'd been looking for a way to make realistic trees that wasn't incredibly time consuming and I think this is what I needed. Might do a couple super detailed ones, but overall I think this is a great balance of detail and ease. Thanks Ron!
Wow, that tree looks fantastic! I had planned on doing a micro layout in On30 a while back, then abandoned the idea, but may have to revive it just so I can do some trees like that. Looks like a fun project! Though I suppose it probably isn't as fun after doing a few dozen...but for a little layout that wouldn't be an issue.
SWEETA!!!! great job Ron, great tip about NOT to trim the tree to much as all trees are NOT perfect in nature, variety of groomed trees & non-groomed trees ,,, (I think) Look more real in & throughout the layout, as they would be in the real world / all raggedy looking. great video Ron,,, keep up the great work man,, Tom B.
Nice tree there Ron . But the truck is out of scale . for small tree's that would work .But pine tree trucks start out larger at the base get smaller to the top.So using dowel and put it in a drill and sanding it down to the size you want. I think would look more like the areal pine tree ,that large. But then there is cost if you are going to do a lot of trees . I like ever thing else you did.The rasp is a good idea. But the rest of the tree look's very good. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Yes, I mentioned this fact at the end of the video. Cut down to about 80' scale these would make good Lodgepole pines at this size, and you could use these in the rear of a forested area with some better trunks up front. Still, with a 30" skewer available I couldn't resist. Thanks for your comment.
I've been a historical wargamer since 1978, I now do most of my wargaming using 54mm figures. This looks like a good way to make pine trees, however, I'll probably only make the trees 12" to 15" in height because any taller and it wouldn't be practical for wargaming.
Good looking tree, I'm not sure the would fit in with my desert scene, 😄 , just kidding, we do get people planting the here, and the cell phone companies seem to like them too, like I said good looking trees, thanks for sharing....😄
Many people do. I use sage brush for disciduous trees. I'll provide a link below. Many time in N scale, however, real branches are either too big or too knobby to look right as tree trunks. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tvH3HEvsP7M.html
