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Need a lot of tree-covered hills on your layout? In this video, MR’s editor Neil Besougloff shows you how to make common puffball trees. This technique models just the treetops, and it’s a great way to fill background hills with trees quickly.
Wow! That looks fantastic! That is one of the best scenery clinics I have seen in terms of simplicity, and what a phenomenal outcome!
Excellent video Neil. Good to see you get in on the action and have some fun with the hobby. Enjoy going back to review all the series of making trees!
Allan
Turns out that the black fiber is again available from Micro-Mark. Received some within the last two weeks.
Thank you Neil for a great video. I have completed making autumn puff ball trees for my N scale model railroad in which I model the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania in autumn. I used black poly and rolled them in various shades of green and autumn colored course ground foam. Once planted I added Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage of various autumn and green colors to the them. The addition of the fine leaf foliage has really brought the autumn mountain scenes to life. The Railroader Plus Video series has been of great assistance to me as I continue to improve my model railroad.
I am in the process of covering a mountain with the puff ball trees. I wear latex gloves which makes clean up much easier ( if you are allergic to latex nitrile gloves are available) I am also using the dark green poly and it looks fine. I use tooth picks to hold trees on steeper areas and push them in until the puffball hides it. No need to go back and remove them.
I'm definately going to use this technique on my layout. Thanks!
The finished Thin Branch Layout looks very nice except for coal conveyor finishing in the sky
Stew Hunter from Rancho Cucamonga, CA
This is a great "how to" video. Perhaps wearing some latex disposable gloves would make the clean up process easier.
I made puff ball trees for my layout and it didn't look very good. I've seen Neil make puff ball trees before, but I never got this "Hero" tree, and I missed the lighter colour tricks as well. This segment was fantastic. I went back to my layout and planted a couple of "Hero" trees and it made the difference. Thanks Neil and MRVP.
Since the black Poly Fiber is no longer available, is there another source (vendor) for it? Or, would the darker green Poly Fiber suffice as a replacement for the black, as long as it is available?
this is great Neil and thank you.
Neil,
This is, I believe the third different video in which I have seen you make puff ball trees. You are the puff ball king! Some southern trees like palms, pines (not the Christmas tree variety), live oaks or cypress would be great. How about building the original Turtle Creek Pike. The Turtle Creek Southern. It was a great design in the June 1998 Model Railroader and it would certainly challenge the MR staff to build a Southern, Florida layout. it incorporated a lot of scenery details not often featured in MR magazine.
Thanks, Mark