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| Vicki's tree after planting in January |
Back in January I finished and planted the large tree for the front of the Centennial Experimental Farm layout.
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| The 'prototype' tree outside Vicki's |
Paul noted the tree seemed too large and the bifurcation was too high off the ground. At the time I was obsessed with how big the tree was, so I didn't do anything. But, the comment kept rattling around in the back of my mind.
As I was working on the Mt. Lowe layout I moved the Centennial Farm layout to a corner of the workshop to give me some extra elbow room. The farm was never out of sight, and I could see that tree in all its extra tall glory every time I worked on the Mt. Lowe track.
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| Drilling a deeper and wider hole for the tree |
That constant visual reminder - nagging? :-) - convinced me that once I got the Mt. Lowe track functioning I'd reposition the tree.
And so I did.
I trust your judgment on the position of the tree and how far to pound it into the ground. I've found that sometimes the correct prototype height of things sometimes is in conflict with our layout space. For instance, on my N scale layout, I initially had a much taller backdrop. On a layout only 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep, the height overpowered it. Cutting it down caused the viewer to closer at it and made it seem bigger. Also, the trees I used were okay but on the small side. Taller trees, while correct, would've gotten our eyes looking up past the layout edges again, above the backdrop while looking from scale eye level. On double deck layouts, perhaps skyscrapers should be used on the lower level and only go up an actual foot or so, keeping our eyes closer to the ground. Shorter trees do the same.
ReplyDeleteThis little layout is meant to be viewed from all sides so I don't need to contend with the trees being taller than the background. Also, the layout was an excuse for trying my hand at prototypically sized trees. I wanted to see what they'd look like, and if I could make them. That was a good call of yours regarding the height of this tree.
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