# Falling Trees



## Don Chovanec (Jan 13, 2009)

Yesterday I went out and got some dowling to start making trees for the forest of my layout. I have made many kinds before and they come out pretty good. After I cut the dowling down to an HO scale I will chuck it in a drill and taper it using course sandpaper, then score the sides with teeth from a sawblade. next is drilling for branches. I at first thought to use round toothpicks for branches gluing foam on it as I have done before but I had a thought. These trees will be Sequoia and Redwood and I would like crookity branches so I am thinking to get some fake fern from Michael's. They have some really real looking stuff made for flower arranging. There is a type that has real fine pointy leaves and looks a lot like the real leaves and branches of evergreen trees if you cut and use the smaller ones. Lastly I will use ink and stain to finish the trunks. What do you think of using the fern. If you have seen it it could easly pass for evergreen. I have a lot of trees to make so it may be to much hassel. Anyone come up with better idea for these trees? I have looked at many plastic, cast metal and other kinds but I always seem to come back to making them from scratch. The cast metal are pretty good though.


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## Don Chovanec (Jan 13, 2009)

*Oh yeah the falling part*

I almost forgot I also have been working on a way to get a falling tree and I think I figured one out. I have some old Trurtle switches from an old layout. the advantage is that they move slow and will stay put till switched back. I mount a tree on one flip the switch an presto - falling tree. If it will not go down far enough I will have a second tree cradle it like in real life. This is just a concept but I think I could make it work what do you think?


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## stationmaster (Dec 7, 2008)

Why not use weeds(Queen Anne's Lace would be one example)? Dried of course. Paint 'en up and use them.i believe that it would look more realistic than dowel.


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## Don Chovanec (Jan 13, 2009)

Well for one reason I have no idea what it looks like and where to get any, flower shops do not carry weeds, I will try and look it up and maybe find some. As I have said I like to use as much natural stuff as I can. The dowels really can look realistic if you do it right. I want lumber type quality so straight is good. As I said I have had good luck using dowel before but the branches are the tricky part. If they come out ok I will try and post a pix of them, but they take a while to get made. The thing about dryed flowers and plants is that they are very fragle. One thing is that I have a cabin in the mountains that is surrounded by similar trees so I know what it has to look like. I will definately check them out though. I get lots of free moss there.


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## stationmaster (Dec 7, 2008)

Queen Anne's Lace may not work for your application. I have used flowers out of the better half's flower beds. Statice and Baby's Breath are two of my favorites.


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## scratchbldr (Aug 6, 2009)

A Falling tree!! Thats cool, I never thought of that. I have done a lot animation on a club layout but never a tree. 
Do you plan on it being a deadfall tree or a logger cut tree? What about sound with it falling or being cut.


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## mr_x_ite_ment (Jun 22, 2009)

I found a VERY quick easy way to make a whole forest of evergreens...it looks authentic too. I bought a Christmas tree on clearance for $8.00 and I cut all the points (chutes) off with a clipper. The box said there were 550 points to the tree. Yes, that is 550 evergreen trees for $8! That's 1.4 cents PER TREE! I simply chose a drill bit that was about the same size as the "trunk" and started drilling holes at random on the layout. All I had to do was poke the chute from the Christmas tree into the hole...no glue needed even! Some might say it would look "fakey," but I would disagree immediately. It looks as authentic as any evergreen I have seen on any layout, and it was INSTANT! If anyone tries it, make sure to have the chute from the tree cascade downward...like a real evergreen. The "branches" left behind after clipping all the chutes off look like they will make awesome pine trees too!


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## scratchbldr (Aug 6, 2009)

*falling trees*

Did you ever get your falling trees working? If you have pleas show us. perhaps video even. I KNOW I would LOVE to see it!


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