Trees at the Centennial Experimental Farm

Fits nicely on the living room coffee table. I see a trend :-)

The story so far

Back in the summer I started work on some tree armatures for the Centennial Experimental Farm layout. Throughout the summer I continued twisting up tree armatures and refining them while vegging on the back porch. Once I had 7, 3 large and 4 small, I decided to move on to applying bark.

That's when the trouble started.

Apprehensions

I tried some methods presented over at Boomer Dioramas and in Gordon Gravett's Modelling Trees for creating bark on the armatures. I was having trouble getting the hang of things. The trunks weren't looking that good. I realized I was in over my head and stopped. Stopped for a good long time. Months. 

I finally decided that even though I was having trouble learning how to coat the armature and model realistic looking bark, I should proceed. At the very least I needed the practice, and I wanted to continue on building the layout in accordance with the vision I had in mind. 

More importantly, from a learning standpoint, I wouldn't properly understand what to improve if I didn't complete the trees I currently was working on to the best of my current ability.

This is all to say that what follows is more a documentation of a learning experience than it is an expert tutorial on how to make trees. 

One tree

Across from Vickis Veggies is a model of a tree that's a few blocks down the street from my house. I've admired it for years, and wanted to have a go of at least making a simple representation.

Here it is sometime in the summer.

I should note that every tree I model I base on some real tree I've seen and photographed. As well as the tree on the left, I've used the two black walnut trees in my backyard as prototypes and a number of smaller trees that line the boulevards in my neighbourhood. I think it's important to use real trees as starting points instead of dreaming something up because the mind can be full of stereotypes.

This winter photograph gives a very clear idea of the trunk's structure.

You can see it is quite complex. Modelling it exactly as seen in HO scale would be a lengthy and daunting task, so simplification was in order.

The first thing I do is try and verbalize what the features are I like the most to help start the simplification process. In this case I particularly like the way the branch on the left arches over the road, how the trunk bifurcates near the ground, and the broad arc of the top of the leaf canopy. I figured if I could capture those aspects, and approximate the rest, I'd be happy.

There's the armature ready for the application of the leaf canopy. Let me point out a few things.

(Argh, I should have flipped the armature around before photographing so it was easier to compare to the real thing - sorry about that.)

The 'bark' consists of 4 coatings of Golden Coarse Modelling Paste. All I've managed to do fairly well is to get the trunk diameters about right. The texture and evenness of application need a lot of work.

The upper branch wires have been left extra long at this stage so I had enough material for securing the foliage. They were trimmed as I proceeded to shape the leaf canopy.

The bark is painted a mixture of Tamiya's XF-53 Neutral Grey and XF-49 Khaki. This mix was one suggested in Modelling Trees and I found it a good one for many of trees located here.

This is the tree partway through the process of adding volume to the canopy.

The fluffy, spidery structure is teased out Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber. Frankly, I haven't teased it out enough. I'd say it needs to be far less dense than I've applied. I had this problem with pine trees, and have still not overcome my reticence to have a far thinner, lacier canopy. It's some sort of mental block.

No glue is applied at this stage to hold the fibre in place. The wire branches hold it quite well by themselves. I trim the wires as I build out the canopy.

All done and ready for leaves.

I use both SuperLeaf and Noch's leaf products for texturing the canopy.

In this case I mixed some medium green leaves from SuperLeaf and Noch 50:50 to give a little subtle colour variation. It's indeed subtle, both products are very close in colour. 

I also sprinkled a little Noch dark green leaf material in areas inside the canopy to simulate shadow, and a little light green on the canopy's top to simulate dappled sunlight.

The first step is to spray on Mod Podge matte medium. It goes on white, but dries clear.

First, sprinkle a few dark leaves inside the canopy. You may need to turn the tree upside down to do this.

Then sprinkle on the medium green leaf mix, making sure no clumps fall on the canopy. 

Let dry.

A second application maybe required to even out the leaf cover.

The last application is a sprinkle of light green from relatively high above the tree.

When dry I usually need to do a final pruning to get rid of loose threads and clumps.

As you can see in the above photo, and in the others of the finished tree previously shown, the arched part is going to need to be reshaped a bit. I thought it was ok, but closer examination through taking photos highlights that work needs to be done to restore the arc I like.

Although my trees need work regarding bark and canopy density I am happy with the height, shape, basic branching structure, canopy volume, sky holes, and trunk diameter. I believe these are crucial to obtaining realistic trees, especially height as it more-or-less determines everything else. Scale-wise, real trees are much bigger than the typical items for sale at hobby shops.

Composition with trees

Before I started making tree armatures for this layout I had a plan in mind for types, sizes, number, and where they should be planted. I had to modify that when I finally had finished trees because their canopies took up more volume than I had anticipated. I modified my original arrangement to get the pleasing views I was after and still be able to gain access to the interior of the layout. 

It turned out I only planted 2 of the 4 small trees I made otherwise the layout would have been overcrowded with small trees. The small ones are planted in the picnic area between the two curved sections of track (I should note there was already a maple planted near them.)

1 and 2 mark where two additional tall trees are needed

However, after planting and looking at the layout and thinking for awhile I realized I need two more trees to balance out the composition, at least to my eye.

Outside the actual Vickis Veggies in Prince Edward County is a massive old tree that I'd like very much to try to model, and have it over hang the street outside the farm. It'll be planted at spot #1.

Spot #2? Well, I'm not sure yet what's going to go there other than it'll be tall and it's canopy needs to be above the streetcar wires.

I've started the armature for Vickis tree. It's a massive thing by itself, but not out-of-scale with respect to the other trees on the layout. I have some ideas for how to proceed with bark on this one, so I'll see how that goes.

Ok, one last thing. You might be wondering why a farm has so many trees, and big ones too. It turns out Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm, which is the inspiration for the layout, has an associated arboretum, The Dominion Arboretum. Frankly, I like streetcars, the farm, the arboretum, and Kato's Unitram track, so I squeezed them into one layout as I don't have the space, time, or money to build something more true to prototype. One thing I do hope that is true is the good feeling I get from visiting these places.