Hello,
Trees are everywhere around us. Even in the middle of towns and cities, you can always find a small park or a tree in a back garden. And industrial yards are usually surrounded by trees. Now that we have established your layout could probably benefits from having trees, we need to cover a couple more subjects.
First, there are more trees than you think. And trees are usually accompanied by some other vegetation: bushes, grass, ...
Second trees are bigger than you think. Next time you see a tree, compare its size to the building next to it. You will realise that the tree is usually taller than a 2 storey house. How does it translate to your layout? Say a house is about 10m tall (30ft), this is 13 cm (5") in OO gauge, and 6cm (2.5") in N gauge. And we are just talking about a small tree...
Trees are available ready made and they are really nice, however as a nice side project, have you thought about making your own?
You can do it the traditional way using electric wire that you twist and cover with plaster or similar. However, there are now better (and safer!) ways to do them. First you get some armatures. They come in various types to simulate several shapes of trees. They are wire coated in plastic that simulates the bark (and protects your fingers!). A pack containing everything needed to make trees is also available. Click on the pictures below for more details and to see videos on how to make trees.
You then apply a coat of glue and put the foliage of your choice. They come in several grades of coarseness and numerous colours. The colour you chose will depend on the season you are trying to portray. While nothing replaces looking at pictures to get the right shades, as a rule of thumb you can go for : bright green for spring, darker green for summer (getting even darker towards autumn), yellow for early autumn and browns for late autumn.
Underneath the tree, especially in forests, you will find lots of bushes and undergrowth. Once again, colours will vary but you can safely assume the less light the bushes are getting, the darker they will be.
And the floor can be grass or most of the time, earth with small vegetation.
Techniques on how to build trees and a lot more aspects of the scenery is covered in the excellent Woodland Scenics scenery manual that we mentioned in the past.
Send us an email or give us a call to check availability or to reserve anything, whatever scale you model in. As usual, if we do not have in stock what you are looking for, we will order it for you and you will get it fast (usually within a week if the manufacturer has it in stock). We place weekly orders with most suppliers.
Remember, you can park for free for one hour on the High Street. So no excuse not to come and visit us!
Upstairs Downstairs is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am till 4.30pm, Sunday from 1pm till 4pm. We are closed only on Monday.
Carole & Max
--
Upstairs Downstairs
3 Pier Street
Sandown, PO36 8JR
Isle of Wight
Tel: 01983 406 616
http://www.trainshop.co.uk or find us on Facebook
Please forward this newsletter to your friends! They will thank you for it! Simply click here.
If for some reason you do not want to receive this newsletter anymore, click this link to unsubscribe.