# Fake outdoor trees / grass?



## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

This might be a strange question, but does anyone have any experience in using scale fake trees / grass outside?

I have an elevated railroad with roll roofing on top of the deck boards and I would like to add a little green to my railroad. I DO NOT want to use any type of real vegetation or tree.


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Would save mowing and trimming.


----------



## astrayelmgod (Jan 2, 2008)

i needed some quick fill in for my layout before a January meet one year, so I bought a bunch of fake Christmas trees from Michael's Arts & Crafts. I trimmed some of them to make them a bit less Christmassy, and stuck most of them in the back of the layout. Michaels was closing them out; and I got them for anywhere from $1 to less than $5. They looked very good the first year. I got lazy, and kept them several more years. The expensive ones looked good for 5 or 6 years; the cheap ones faded and shed and looked pretty bad after about three years. 

I took them off their bases, put them into 4 or 6 inch puts, filled the rest of the pot with concrete, braced them until the concrete set, then dug a hole and stuck them in the ground.


----------



## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

There is a guy over here, you can see his layout on Gscale central, who uses grass mat. My only problem with it it , is it looks too uniform in color. I have a couple of large pieces that I am going to try and texture with some add on clumps and tufts before using.


----------



## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

The Schleich company (large scale figures) also makes trees. I bought one oak and one fir at ECLSTS. I'm not sure whether they have UV protection, but I believe that Krylon make a clear, flat finish with UV protection - and it comes in spray cans. 

The trees look fairly good next to large scale trains, although they are not "super" tall. They seem to top out at about 10 to 11 inches. 

Yours, 
David Meashey


----------



## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Thanks for the info, I didn't think of simply finding a flat clear UV spray.

I will toy with a few different ideas, first thing is to figure out how exactly I want to ballast the track.

Thanks again for the info


----------



## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

I finally got some photographs of my Schleich trees. They are fairly expensive, but less detailed trees could probably be used as background trees. (I paid $20 each for mine.) The fir is 13 inches tall, and the oak is 10 inches tall. The first photo shows the trees and their boxes. The second photo adds the Bachmann 1:20.3 Davenport gas mechanical switcher to the foreground for size comparison.



















Hope this helps,
David Meashey


----------



## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Several companies in Europe make G scale trees-- check out Pola G and Busch. I'm sure they are less pricey and much more detailed than the Schleich versions. 

Keith


----------



## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

The UV spray you'll want is Krylon UV Resistant "matte". 

Since I'm modeling desert landscapes, I haven't made any trees or grass, but it shouldn't be too difficult to knock something together using plastic foliage from Michael's. I use some of their fake flowers, modified and painted, to create my scale sagebrush and other desert flora. 

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Plants.html


----------



## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Thanks again guys for all the ideas. I wont have any progress to report for a while, we are still in the beginning stages of figuring out exactly how we want to put ballast down, so trees and grass will be a little ways off.

Thanks,

Patrick


----------



## Jonnychuffchuff (Dec 24, 2010)

I have cut up a bunch of fake Christmas trees that other folks have thrown out over the years, and some that I scored very cheaply at the Goodwill. Converted them into hundreds of miniature trees. Sometimes by reassembling the branches, sometimes by straightening them, sometimes by trimming them to shape with scissors. It all depends on the species of the plastic tree ;>) . 

You could drill a hole in yr baseboard and shove them in, tho' I suppose that would collect water and lead to rot. I use my trees indoors and outdoors at home and I let the grandchildren fool with them as well. I also use them on trainshow displays so I want to have them moveable.  

I fill a small tincan, such as a tuna can with concrete and stick the trees in that. A bag of premixed concrete is very cheap - I actually bought a couple of 'burst' bags that were full anyway, but inside another plastic outer wrap to rescue them, for half price at Lowes. Enough in each bag for a hundred trees or more I should think. I have trees ranging in height from 6-8" all the way up to two feet. All these trees have cost me next to nothing. As for ground cover, I find that the cedar leaves the fall naturally from my hedges and dry out on my baseboard are good enough, but I'm not a fussy guy. 

One of these days I may paint those cans black, but so far I haven't bothered! All my baseboards ARE painted flat black, and it all looks OK to me. I concentrate on operations more than fancy looks. Your mileage may vary...


----------

