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……………....--- Mountain and Mesa Trees ---=======================================

Need lots of trees to put in place when the scenery is being finished and I’ve got help. My new co-worker is Ed, a local native, who lives a couple blocks from me and was a trucker for I believe 30 years, worked in a local machine shop and is now retired. Model railroading is new to him but he is excited about finding a new hobby. This is going to be a big help to me and we are forming a good friendship.

I made a couple Aspens following the instructions in Grant Eastman’s great video ( HERE ). Then Ed came aboard and made over 60 more. Probably enough for the sawmill scene which is set higher in elevation at the base of the mountains.

The rest of the layout is a couple thousand feet lower with Junipers and Pinion Pine needed there for the mesa tops. I tried a couple different techniques using different peoples ideas on how to make trees and came up with some I can make in about 10 minutes each. I’m still perfecting it a little but the video on what I’m doing is above and ( HERE ).

Above is a breakdown on how to strip, solder and work the 14 gauge stranded wire. Most of the Juniper’s in this area are 20 feet or less, so only about 1 ½” tall in N scale. They are scrubby and usually have broken and dead branches.

I also need some Ponderosa Pines for the sawmill scene as you will find the Aspen groves in those usually. I’ve found some videos on Ponderosa but not many and while I’ve seen some good ones the good ones take a lot of time to make. For now at least I’ll use the method I’ve come up with shown above and below. Later maybe I’ll revisit this and possibly remove and replace trees. I don’t need near as many of these as I do Junipers.

I tried a couple different techniques, for now at least, settled on what is shown in the images here. These are slower to make than the Junipers but not real bad time wise. Probably will end up at about a half hour per tree, start to finish.

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Ponderosa are way more open between branches than most other pines. Also they don’t have that ‘cone’ shape. Straighter up and down on the sides of the tree with a rounded top. Also the branches appear to droop more, especially the lower ones. I’m still not real happy with what I’ve got here but will use it for at least a while and maybe come back in the future with another plan..

Going to continue building trees here and there but will move onto Spackling and painting the foam scenery to have a little variety work wise.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

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