Work stoppage at the tree factory

Back in March I made a start on twisting up trunk armatures for the trees that will appear on the Mt. Lowe layout. Since then I've been following the procedure for finishing the trunks that I used on the Loonar Module.

Once I had coated the trunks with 2 layers of sand to give them texture I started in on painting and trimming branches.

As I was working I started to test out tree placement on the layout to see how things might look. I quickly realized that just about every tree is going to need some custom trimming to make it look like it actually grew up in the area where I planted it. 

That being the case I figured I should stop working on trees until I was ready to install them as it didn't make sense to build up generic trees and then wind up trimming off a lot of work to get each one to fit. 

So, I've stopped work on trees and started making uprights for the circular bridge. Once the bridge is done, the layout's basic scenic components will all be in place and I'll be ready for adding details such as trolley wire support poles, pterodactyl petroglyphs, and trees.