Large Scale Central

Portable Trees in G Scale

Several years ago I came across two cases of miniature Christmas trees on clearance at a small hobby shop. They were 15" tall making them a good size for G scale. At that time the New Mexico Garden Railroaders were just starting to accumulate scenery and buildings for their annual public shows. At $3 each they were a great bargain…only problem was they were covered in white flock and mounted in burlap bags for a base.

We used them for years like that but the round bases made them easy targets for the wind to blow over and of course the flocking placed them in a permanent winter scene. Well what can you do? You got what you got right? Well not always. As long as I got my basic G scale modeling tools (a ten pound sledge and a chainsaw) there is hope.

First that flock had to go. I tried scraping it off but it is hard as concrete. Then I thought I could pulverize it. This is where the sledge hammer came in. No luck there. All I got was flat flocking still hard as concrete. So I read the directions on a can of flocking…Water soluble…

The trees all got a bath in a wheelbarrow full of water for about 30 minutes.

Low and behold the white scourge washed right off. A miracle had happened… I am pretty sure I could hear Angels singing.

Next I needed to replace the bases. The existing ones were to light weight and too small in diameter to stand up in even the slightest breeze. New bases were cut from 3/4" plywood. I rounded the edges on the bench sander and painted them green. I resisted the urge to flock them with Woodland Scenics ground foam. These have to travel and be handled by gorillas (club members) so I passed on doing anything that could shed or be knocked loose.

Holes were drilled and the trees glued in using TB3. To finish everything got a patch work paint job of multiple shades of green. Dark underneath and light on top.

There we go. Twelve trees that don’t totally suck. They make their debut this weekend at the Albuquerque Botanical Garden.

We will put down our green outdoor carpet and the plastic rock mountains from Home Depot with a few buildings. Should look great. Am I the only one that has this vision stuck in their head…

I will post pics of it next week to see how it compares.

No chickens were harmed in the making of this thread. Any resemblance to chickens living or dead is purely coincidental. Chickens are friends not food. The “nugget” is not a known part of the chicken. If you have concerns, questions or insights on chickens please forward them to Rooster.

and if you don’t like them you can use them as brushes in side your clothes dry exhaust.

Richard

yeah, G-scaled bottlebrushes, that’s new. i only knew them in H0 scale.

but any tree is better, than no tree. visitersw see: oh, that shall be a tree. - and in their mind see real trees.

Boomer, well done! 3$ trees are right up my alley.

these started their life as christmas trees too:

Thanks for the tip Boomer, we’ve got a bunch of these around the house, leftover from her Mom’s and my Mom’s Christmas decorations.

As promised, here are the trees on display.

The vision…

The reality…

A dead on match. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Boomer they look good out there.

Richard

Now they look like a great addition to the overall appearance of the layout Boomer. Nice to know how simple the conversion is, though time consuming I’m sure. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Boomer K MOGWAI said: We will put down our green outdoor carpet and the plastic rock mountains from Home Depot with a few buildings. Should look great. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)Am I the only one that has this vision stuck in their head…

don’t know what your vision is but " plastic rock mountains" connected in my mind with big rock candy mountain.

water soluble thing was a good find.