There have been many articles published over the years on how to make model pine trees and invariably they all end up looking like Christmas trees. What I’ve been looking for is something that looks more like a Southern Long leaf, Loblolly Pine, or Northern White pine tree. Many years ago, an article was published in Model Railroader about using Goldenrod for pine trees. There were no photos, no description of how the plant was prepared, colored, or when and where to find Goldenrod. My friend Robert Carr and I decided to investigate the potential of this plant as scenery material and we think we found something worth trying. Goldenrod grows just about everywhere in the U.S. and comes in two varieties: mountain and coastal. The mountain variety has a shape that works well for eastern-type pine trees that don’t look like Christmas trees. The coastal variety is less useful, unless you are building your trees from the trunk up, and that is what I will show here.

Goldenrod blooms in the late summer and early fall but we don’t want harvest it until it goes to seed. 

Most of the yellow flowering plants seen above are Goldenrod.

Since it prefers full sun, power line easements and pipeline easements are great places to find Goldenrod. You can find it growing along roads and railroads also but those locations are not optimum because the seeds of the plant are designed to be scattered by wind or the breeze created by the passing vehicles. 

Here is a close-up of a thick patch of Goldenrod.

Here is a better view of our subject. Most of the plants in this view are of the coastal variety. The branch structure is wide and the blooms are on long parallel branches. The yellow blooms will turn white and fuzzy with seeds and the seeds are what we are interested in.

Here is the mountain variety, the blooms are more compact and are not as long. With some trimming, this type works well in groups for making a stand of pine trees.

I have shown you what to look for, because you want to locate these plants before they go to seed. I suggest finding a location that you can observe every couple of days or so. You will want to harvest the Goldenrod as soon as possible after the plant has completely gone to seed. Stop by your chosen location every couple of days after you see the first plant turn white with seeds and harvest the ones that are thick and fuzzy. Last year in North Carolina we had four weeks to harvest Goldenrod beginning about the 3^rd week of October. If you live farther north, these plants will likely go to seed earlier in the season.

Above, is what Goldenrod looks like when it goes to seed. They turn white and fuzzy. This particular plant went to seed late for around here. As you can see by the date stamp, I got trees for Christmas. On some areas of this plant the seeds are to thin from the seeds being lost to wind and rain. The loss of seeds leaves the texture of the structures more coarse then you will want so you have to be choosey about what you pick.  

Here we have some potential model trees harvested from the previously seen plant.

This ‘color tool’ paint is very thin, so it penetrates the dense fibers of the seeds  It is intended for coloring floral arrangements, so it has some preservative in it. Regular rattle can spray paint doesn’t penetrate the fine fibers of the seeds and leaves a clumpy mess.

This is one area where you, the reader can help improve on what has been started here. My hope is that other people can come up with a superior alternative to the Design Master Color Tool spray. We need good color, and a preservative to hold the seeds on the plant, and prevent it from becoming brittle. I’m looking forward to hearing what you readers come up with.

An important note: when you harvest the plant, you should apply a preservative as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more seeds will fall off, making your harvest less desirable. I always plan to spray the plant the same day I harvest. Also, if you use the color tool spray pictured above, you will need to allow the treated plants to air out for several days in a garage or shed, away from flame and animals. The chemicals in the spray take a while to completely evaporate in cool weather, so plan accordingly. 

Now we have our trees after painting. The Moss Green color from Design Master can be found at craft supply stores. The other color I like is Basil Green, but at the time I had none. Note the word “Danger” on the can. This is very nasty stuff, DO NOT use this indoors, and stay up wind when using outside.

Here is what I am trying to replicate; a fairly typical pine tree. I’m sure there is someone reading this who can tell us what kind pine trees these are. 

Some of the same trees in winter. The branch structure is much easier to see in this view.

This is what a finished Goldenrod tree looks like. After painting the foliage green, I reinforced the trunk by inserting a fine wire from the bottom. The core of the plant stem is soft and the stem will break easily if not reinforced. Next, I built up the width of the tree trunk with hot glue, and scraped it vertically with a razor saw to add texture. Then I painted the trunk a brownish gray and maybe dry-brush with a very light gray to bring out the texture. I don’t consider this tree to be good in the foreground, or as a stand alone tree. I would use this one in groups of pine trees, and/or mixed in with deciduous trees. 

This is a decent group of trees before trimming. The droopy tops need to be trimmed off, as well as the little leaves that can be seen on the lower part of the stems. These small leaves are also in the area with the seeds, but can be pulled off with tweezers. 

Now for foreground trees. This is the first one I constructed using seed branches I trimmed off a prepared plant, and a twig I sanded to shape for use as the trunk. 

Here is the trunk of the second tree after sanding to shape with a gentle taper that narrows towards the top. I cut this from a tree, rather than picking up a fallen twig, because I didn’t want a piece of wood that was weakened from rot. Once cut to length, (about 9 inches,) I striped off the bark and let it dry about a week because green wood sometimes frays into a mess when sanded. The last step before sanding to shape was to drill a small vertical hole into what will be the top of the tree trunk. Using the hole in the top as a guide prevented me from creating a top that was too narrow and weak to hold the crown of the tree.

Above are the three colors I used for painting the tree trunk. 

I started with the Espresso for the base coat, then lightly misted on the Fossil and Primer to change the overall color and give texture.

Here are some of the branches and the crown I used on this tree. You can see that the green color didn’t cover some areas of the branches so I applied some additional Basil color to these branches before gluing them in place. 

We now have the crown in place and some branches. No glue yet I am only test fitting the branches to determine which ones work best near the top. Using a pin vise, I drilled numerous holes in the trunk.  Notice the upward angle of the upper branches. This helps to create a more rounded profile at the top than what I had for the first tree. As I worked my way down drilling holes, I flattened the angle of the holes.

Here I have some more branches test fit into holes. The upper branches have had additional color applied while the lower ones have not. 

This is a close up of a completed tree. I painted the branches brownish gray, then applied a small dab of white glue at the tip of the branch to hold them in the holes. If I had all the materials ready at one time, I could probably assemble 5 or 6 of these trees in an hour.

I added a few dead branches to this one. Looks like there is one hole in the trunk; must be those darn HO woodpeckers again.

I hope someone can use this information, and even discover some new and better techniques for using Goldenrod. If you do, please share.

Mark Gugliotta