Trees

Well, the first 2 flocking tests are done.  I mentioned a week or two ago I had started learning to make "caspia pine" trees.  These are a tried and true tree style for model railroaders, and a staple of any west coast sceniced layout.  I had been particularly interested in exploring a few properties about them:

• Trunk stain color
• Trunk dry brushing
• Trunk width
• Trunk height
• Branch length
• Flocking material

All in all there were some things which stood out as being far better and other properties that I'm still undecided on.  Here were my 3 trial trees:

Tree #1 has a trunk carved from 3/16 balsa; it stands about 10-11" tall; the trunk is stained with Builders in Scale Silverwood; no dry brushing on the trunk; flocking is 2mm static grass.

This tree showed promise until the flocking was added.  It came out looking "furry" instead of looking like pine needles.  Further, both trunk and flocking colors are much too light.  The height of the tree is probably about right for O scale, but too large for anything smaller.

Tree #2 has a trunk carved from 3/16 balsa; it stands about 9" tall; the trunk is also stained with Builders in Scale Silverwood; no dry brushing on the trunk; flocking is Woodland Scenics turf blend, which is a very fine ground foam product that is mostly green with small bits of browns and goldens mixed in.

This is the best flocking choice of the 3 so far.  I would be happy with it if it was just a tad bit darker.  The problem with going darker is that most scenic company's turf color for "dark green" has too much blue in it for my tastes.  I prefer the more yellow green over bluish green for trees.

And lastly Tree #3 was my "control" with no flocking material.  However, the trunk is stained with Builder in Scale's Blackwood stain and drybrushed with light gray acrylic.  This does bring out the bark texture more.  The dry brushing is almost so subtle though that I'm not sure it's worth the time.  As far as trunks go, I liked this stain color the best.  This tree is about 8" tall and is probably about right for HO scale.

I actually do like the look of it without the flocking a bit.  I can't quite put my finger on why, but if I had to guess, I think the lack of flocking keeps the branches looking a bit smaller which is more convincing.