No muss! No fuss! Just add the ingredients, mix thoroughly, and pour yourself a hillside full of trees. Believe it or not, it really can be just about that simple.
I came up with my scrambled-trees technique when I wanted to model deciduous forests on my N scale Midwestern layout. The thought of making all the trees I would need individually seemed like a lot of work. But when I noticed how real deciduous forests looked, I realized that during summer and early fall it’s mostly the leafy tree canopy that’s visible rather than the branches and trunks.
Many people have modeled this look effectively by making puffball trees, gluing poly-fiber balls to their scenery and covering them with ground foam. However, I wanted something that had more variety and was quicker to complete. While my finished method still uses a few fully modeled trees, the bulk of my forested areas are made with Woodland Scenics clump foliage.
My forest-making technique has just a handful of steps. As shown in step 1, I begin by determining the area to be covered with trees and creating a boundary for the forest using nails. These can be just about any type of 11/2″ to 2″ nail, but you’ll want to paint them a dark color to simulate tree trunks. Hardware stores and home centers sell painted paneling nails in a variety of colors and lengths that would work well for this application.
Space the nails about 1″ to 2″ apart. For flat areas, you’ll need to completely ring the space. On hillsides, however, as shown in step 1, you need to place the nails only at the bottom of the slope and on the sides where rock outcroppings or cliffs will show through. If you use foam scenery like I do, you can simply press the nails in place. Otherwise, you may need to glue them to get them to stand straight.
To make the numerous treetops needed to finish the project, I use foliage clusters, made by Woodland Scenics. The firm offers this material in three different shades of green (light, medium, and dark), and I use equal portions of each for my summer trees. The clusters tend to interlock in the package, forming a solid foam brick, so you need to break them into pieces.
After making some medium-size tree clusters, I press these clumps onto the tops of the nails along the outer border, as shown in step 4. I randomly choose the colors as I go, to avoid making any patterns. You shouldn’t need to glue the clusters to the nails.
Since the forest is a pliable mass, it’s easily modified. You could change your hillsides to reflect autumn by taking out the green clumps and replacing them with those in fall colors. You could do something similar for spring as well with the light- and medium-green clumps representing new leaves. And, should you eventually decide to replace the scrambled clumps with modeled trees, you can use the foliage clusters to make the new trees.
Now that my forests are done, I wish I could find some way to make my towns as easily!
Thanks for this article, I will need lots of trees for my Midwest layout!
I am building a small N scale layout. I will try this on a corner.
Since I'm modeling Bald Mtn. near Farner, Tn. I'll be needing a lot of trees. This technique will sure help a lot.
I'm new to the hobby and have spent lots of time and money fixing my layout after screwing it up with lousy scenery. This tip looks like something even I can do.
Great Article.I have a small "N"Layout and I thing I`m going to give a try Cover a small Hill.
I will try this
SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA- AS I AM A NOVICE TO TREE SCENERY, IT'S WELL WORTH A TRY, SEEING MY N SCALE LAYOUT IS QUITE LONG.. THANKS….
Wow; What a Great Way to save Time and Money. Thanks for the Great Tip.
Although I live in the UK I model America railroads and will give this idea a try , many thanks
Great idea, I have a large hill side with a tunnel running thru, this jus made a whole lot easier (cheaper) to do..
Im not a rich guy so this is an inexpensive way for a forest.Any more railroading on the cheep would be very helpful. thankx
Great short cut – Goodonya mate!
always a good series. i paint home interiors but clouds always seem difficult. might have it now. thx guys.
Gee mate this sounds like a great idea, my son and I have built a shed in the side yard insulated it.Gybrocked it and air conditioned it nearly finnished building the benchwork for a double deck layout. We have been looking for an easy (or should I say lazy) way of making lots and lots (i guess well into the thousands) of trees to cover large areas of scenery and boy does this ever sound like a winner, thanks for the article.
Thanks a bunch. This will really help get it done a lot quicker.
Will give this a try…… thanks
I have been dreading making up lots of trees, this will be a better way to make those hills green. Thanks for the tip.
I saw something like this on TV . The show was I' Like Toy Trains. It was a help too.
Great article ; and willing to try this tecnique.
Wow! This is amazing. I'm going to try that.
Great, I am starting over after a 15 year lapse in a hobby that haunts me daily on how am I going to approach my scenery plans. Thanks for the article
sounds like to much work.
Great idea – thank you.
Ryan the techniques discussed here in the article and in previous comments should work for o scale just as well. and if you guys that have questions of dust and such refer back on the trchinique i outlined here that we used ont the Crescent Lines. If you set up dowels right to contain the forest you dont have to glue each clump on. this allows you in later years to remove them easily for a touch up at the work bench and just replacing them on the layout. YOu can just collect the tired clumps and lightly blow them off or vacum the ol foam off and reaply fresh material then bring them back and replace them on the layout. over the span of years we found this method very durable and cost effective. even to the point of type of adhesive we used on the clumps to hold on the ground foam. we go and buy a case of the cheapest hairspray we can find and its more tha adequate for our purpose. you can usually get a good deal on hairspray at a local beauty supply. While there look around. I get makeup brushes for spreading balast and weathering, qtips that we all use and just so much other goodies. so.. check it out..
Appalachia rules! Nicely done. Busily finishing a hillside on the M&WV and this was a timely article as this particular hillside is toward the background.