An Inexpensive Forest Of Trees
Is Easy To Make.

Every layout needs trees. Lots of them.

It can be very costly to forest a model railroad. Fortunately, you can save those expensive kits and ready-builts for key foreground scenes. Leave the rest to weeds, wire and rope ends.

There are many excellent articles on making trees that you'll find in the magazines and on the Internet. Here are a few of my quickie cheapies.

Puffball forest

This forest scene was made
in a few hours from pillow stuffing

First, buy an inexpensive bag of pillow stuffing at Wal-Mart or similar type of store. Pull it apart into balls about one to two inches in size. Lay all the balls alongside one another on the sub-base that you've painted previously with brown latex matte house paint. Some foreground balls can be propped on toothpicks.

Spray all the pillow stuffing balls with black paint. While still wet, sprinkle on a few shades of green ground foam.

You now have a forest.

Evergreens

Evergreens can be made from picture wire, iron wire or copper wire. This simple method uses solid wire that has been stripped of its insulation. Take a length of wire about a foot long and bend it in the middle so that you can loop it over a hook that you insert in a piece of wood. The wood can be secured in a vise.

Trees made from twine
and painted evergreens on backdrop

Unravel a piece of rope or thick wool into individual strands. Cut into various lengths of 2" to 5". Lay the rope strands at right angles to the wires between the two ends.

Here's the trick.

This is my tree-making jig

Chuck the two ends of the wire into an electric drill (or hand drill). Slowly turn the drill. The wire will tighten around the strands because the other end is looped over the hook you installed. Then take scissors and snip the ends of the rope until you have a branch shape you like.

Making individual trees from twine

The tree trunks can be built up with florists' tape or putty and then painted. Spray black paint downwards over the branches while holding over a cardboard box. Then sprinkle on some ground foam. Rotate the armature assembly until you have the branches well covered.

Mixed twine trees of different heights and shapes
on a hillside.

Catch the extra foam in the box so you can use it again. Plant the assembly in a piece of extruded foam until it is dry. You can give it a spray of hair fixative if you like. Use a drill bit or other pointed tool to poke a hole in your scenery base. Plant in groups of three or more using some carpenter's glue.

Making trees from weeds

Trees from weeds

Weeds like spirea or yarrow can quickly be turned into trees with some ground foam and hair spray.

If you want to get picky, refer to the NMRA data sheet D2a.1 issued April, 1961 called Trees and Shrubs. These data sheets are now available on CD-ROM if you're a member of the NMRA.

Trees from weeds

Fellow Canadian Association of Railway Modellers (CARM) member, Bob Sparkes, gave me this picture of a tree he made for the Suncoast Model Railroad Club ON3 module in Clearwater, Florida.

There are more photos of the Suncoast club in the Photo Gallery.

Learn about building terrain.

Methods for modeling roads and streets.

Paint a scenery backdrop.

Catch attention with mini-scenes.

Return from "trees" to my Home Page.

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