39 - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

The Art of Finescale
Michael Cougill
Trees
When I was young, I didn’t do a lot of tree climbing.
But there was this one tree that was always a temptation to
climb. As I recall, it was a big oak, custom-made for climbing.
The first branch was easy to reach from the ground,
and once up there, it seemed there was always another
limb just where you needed to have one. I gave into the
temptation one day and climbed that tree higher than I
ever climbed any others. Once up to my limits in height
and courage, I sat for maybe fifteen minutes or more, just
enjoying the gentle sway of the branches in the breeze.
Going back down was about as easy as going up. That was
well over thirty years ago, yet the memory lingers.
Trees can have that sort of impact on us. They’re often
the stuff of legend and myth. Whose imagination isn’t
fueled by the words Sherwood Forest? As the largest living
plants, trees define a geographic region and they’re
often what we see first on a model railroad and yet, they’re
likely to be the least considered aspect of scenery modeling.
Could the time have finally come when tree modeling
will come into its own? I know, its model railroading, not
model forestry. I know there are limits to everyone’s time
and patience. But, look closely at this photo taken near
Mill St. on the I&W. Would the scene be as effective if the
foreground trees didn’t have a nice bark texture to them?
Would it be as realistic if the trees didn’t tower over the
train? Would the tree covered hillside in the back look
realistic if it wasn’t so densely covered? With or without
the trees, the train cars are nothing more than models sitting
on a stretch of track, which is itself a model. The sense
of looking through the trees conveys a powerful image of
being in the scene rather than separate from it. This gives
a sense of scale. We know from real world experience
that trees often tower over other objects. Your mind wants
to see this relationship in a modeled scene, and when it’s
there, your mind can easily fill in whatever else is missing.
This is the power that thoughtfully done scenery can have,
even in a very small space, as I tried to explain in Part III of
my “Pieces of The Puzzle” series elsewhere in this issue.
Convincing looking model trees require observation of
the real thing just like any other aspect of modeling. Nice
thing about trees is you don’t have to go too far to find prototype
source material (unless you live in the southwestern
desert areas or a dense urban setting).
Most of what you see here are natural materials. I
lucked out and found a source of dried branches at my
local Hobby Lobby store that featured a fine branch structure
at the end of a slender trunk. Called wild huck, they’re
perfect for background filler material. The other materials
are baby’s breath, caspia and whatever else looked good in
the dried flowers section of the store. Real autumn colored
leaves were ground up for the forest floor cover along with
all the other ground cover techniques outlined in my article
from OST #26, May/June 2006.
While the wild huck branches
look good, they’re too skinny.
A convincing scene needs trees
with trunks of varying diameters.
Some trees will be the
dominant ones in a grove, being
the biggest because they were
faster growing and got the most
sunshine. I’ve added a couple
of trees with larger trunks since
taking this photo. Speaking of
the photo, there were no camera
tricks or digital magic involved.
This is how the scene looks.
There’s much more to say on this
subject. Check out the OST Blog
for additional coverage.
Best regards,
Mike
u
July/Aug ’08 - O Scale Trains •