Tell us about your backdrop.

Tell us about your backdrop.

Healthy Trees don't lean left and right they stand straight up!

I have one suggestion for you and that is:

Now that you have those very nice healthy looking trees you need to straighten them up. Look at some real forest scenes and you'll notice that 99.9% of all trees Grow pretty much straight up and square even when they grow on the sides of Hills they still grow straight up and don't lean left and right except when they're sick or dyeing.

The rest of your scene is very nice But the trees look wrong at the strange angles that they are all leaning. Even Grass will grow straight up and doesn't lean until it has someone or something walk across or fall on it.

Now Brush and Bushes are what grow every which way but even when they are just sprouts they grow straight up.

This will help make your scenes look a lot more realistic.

Dan

A little scenery...

Hey Geg,

it can only go uphill from here  ,although I have to second Dan's comment, I am sure you would have noticed that detail yourself in the long.

Myself, I am still going back and forward between Lane County Or. and Douglas County Or.. Although every time I come near Eugene (lane County).  Judkins (Judkins point)and Downtown Eugene are waving to me " Pick Me, Pick, Me!!!!.  With this, giving a little update on my "setting the layout".   

But things are slow here, Belgium beeing snowed in, the cold and my sinuses giving me "sh%#t " again. ARRRGHHHHH (my last resort is "essence oils" from pine, eucalyptus and thyme, my house smells like a pine forest now,lol) but this has nothing to do with the above, so back to model railroading.

Keep up the excellent work Greg

Whoops....

Dan

I guess when I moved it from the workbench to the layout I forgot to straighten the trees, good thing they are just held in with pins right now. I still need to add a bunch of ground cover, fallen branches and other debris before I glue this section of scenery down.  I will take some photos later today with my progress as I add static grass and fix the trees.

As for the backdrop you can see the rest of the story here:

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/backdrop-for-the-cop-shelf-layout-12186681

Jappe

As someone who has lived in lane and worked in douglas I think both are great places to model. Eugene is a great railroad town and use to be a huge hub for the SP. My favorite railroad, the SP&S, operated only a few blocks from the SP mainline and terminated at Eugene. This was then the BN and is now the Portland & Western. The SP also had a pretty good sized industrial area in eugene with many of the industries being served by both the SP & SP&S.

Ok...back to modeling!!!

A little bailing wire and

A little bailing wire and duct tape and we straightened out the trees. I also added a little static grass debris and other stuff.

Greg, Very nice scene. 

Greg,

Very nice scene.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the trees might look more realistic if you taper the trunks more so they are smaller in diameter as you get towards the top.

I'd also like to hear about how you did the backdrop since I'll also be modeling the Pacific Northwest.

Very nice work,

Bob

Trees....

Bob,

Thanks for the kind words...

These trees are from Grand Central Gems so I can not take credit for how they look. I think I am  going to try my hand at making more accurate Eastern Oregon pine trees using dowels and furnace filter. So for now these trees are just holding the place of the trees yet to be built.

As for the backdrop, if you check my answer above I have a link to the thread that discuses the backdrop. If you still have questions I have some more information and pictures on my website. 

Very Pretty now that the Trees got their Vitimans

Those are some great looking Ponderosa Pines. You can find that the Ponderosa Pines can grow to over 200 feet tall and can be found from Mid northern California to about a third of western Canada and next to the Sequoia Red Woods they are maybe the second largest type tree. They are still harvested as long as they are under 100 foot tall anything larger is protected by the US Department of Forestry and the Department of the interior. They take 22-28 years to grow to 100 ft tall and then 2000 years to grow every foot over that 100 - 200 ft mark instead of growing up they bulk out in width.

To get back on topic You don't need to remove the trees you have just add some Cedars and some Douglas Furs to the scene all about the same height. The tops on those trees are actually proto typical because the Forest service demands the companies that harvest trees in the areas where the Ponderosa grow to top them. Other wise when they are young and 20 foot taller than the trees around them and a heavy wind comes through the wind caused these taller trees to catch the wind and  fall or be blown over and make many of the trees they fall against fall also. In fact in the late 1920's some 40,000 trees in the pacific northwest fell do to heavy winds. The taller trees will catch the wind directing it down into the forested areas and cause great distruction to the forest.  So the Fat tops on larger trees is 100% proto typical from having the top 20 feet or so topped off.

Anyway keep up the great modeling we will be waiting and watching for future photos

Dan

Trees....

Dan,

Interesting information on the ponderosa pines....did you really mean 2000 years for each additional foot?

I still plan on using the trees but I need to place them around the layout. Most trees in Eastern Oregon don't get overly wide due to the lack of moisture. I will be making a bunch of much small pine trees to fill in the scene and make it look more like Eastern Oregon.

Now I need to go to the Home Depot and buy some furnace filter and pink foam!!!!

By the way GO OREGON !!!!!

Greg, I assume you're aware

Greg,

I assume you're aware of the furnace filter conifer tree tutorial by Pete Vassler of Canyon Creek Scenics in the Special Feature section of Joe Fugates Vol. 5: Scenery and Bridges Part 2.  This is an excellent step-by-step explanation of how he builds his extremely realistic conifer trees.  You can see some of his work at his website for Canyon Creek Scenics which is one of the MRH sponsors.  I'm checking the information on your backdrop in the reference above that you mentioned.  Thanks for the information.

Bob

Dan,

Interesting explanation for why the Ponderosa Pines are thicker at the top.  It never occurred to me that they would top these trees in a forest. 

Bob

Enough with the Scenery. When Is the Box Car Going to Paint Shop

Just getting everyones attention.

What's the old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees"   Enough of that.

That boxcar is in great shape....

It is clearly to busy hauling the "Norwests Own" freight to be bothered with paint. I know a bunch of these cars had there doors removed after the merger and were placed in veneer service. See that i what I will do with the trees...cut them all down and make veneer sheets...ok maybe not.

Now I wonder how hard it is to find camoflauge paint in a store...you know...since it is camoflauge

Agai My writing got ahead of my thought,2000 years to grow 1 ft

Sorry about that I ment it may take upwards of 2000 years for them to reach 200 feet and the worlds tallest is said to be 311 feet tall and grows at the 6000 foot level in Northern California. The oldes Known is said to be about 3500 years old. I found a photo of it notice no taper to a point at the top. it is 57 feet wide at the base thats wider than the length of 80% of the box cars built before 1950.

They Call it the "muir snag"

it is still living but has no branches or needles. All the trees in this grove are said to be the childern of this tree. Yeah were just a little off topic here.

 I found the photo of the worlds tallest tree 311 ft tall photo was taken from over 500 feet away notice people at the bottom.

Dan

Tree Story....

As "they" would say in Toy Story........

                         "THE TREEEEEEEEEEEEE..."

And now back to regular programing...

Well with all this talk of trees I decided to make some of my own. They still need work, I think some more selective trimming will get the results I am looking for.

Ponderosa != Sequoia

To clarify Dan's post:

Both " Muir Snag" (oldest tree) and " General Sherman" (biggest tree; the snowy picture with small people) are giant sequoias, not ponderosa pines. The largest Pacific Ponderosa Pine is 240' tall, 7.7' diameter. The largest Rocky Mountain Ponderosa Pine is 194' tall, 6.5' diameter. For comparison, General Sherman is 274' tall, 27.0' diameter.

In any case, they're all tremendously huge trees (for General Sherman in HO scale, if you took a 3-foot-long 4x4 post and rounded the corners off it would be almost right (about 5% undersize)!