Marty, how about a prototype photo of the Larch, so we can see what you are trying to accomplish? I don't even know what a Larch is!

Drooping needles, All Right, a challenge coming up, now that's what I like!

Wayne

Tree 5 - A Larch by jove :!:  :!:

For those that are interested the below link will show you the prototype.
http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/Features/woodies/larch/larch.htm    new link needed

I tried to make mine like the second from left in the 4 Seasons picture.

I started with superglue on the lower branches and applying Heki grass with tweezers.
Thanks Wayne, the superglue was much better than the PVA but… applying the grass, tweezer load by tweezer load soon started using up the hours available. It is a good method if you "really" want to do a precise job but very time consuming…

So… you guessed it… back to the hair spray again. I sprinkled the grass from above and from the side and then while still wet used the force from the application of hair spray to orient the grass downwards (or at least that was the theory).

Anyway, here it is.




And here is a "mockup" of the Henllan Yard in late afternoon sunlight with a 2251 class 0-6-0 easing in to pick up the cattle wagons in the dock siding. In the background are all of the trees that I have made so far.




The dream is starting to become reality.

Back to finishing the track laying and wiring on the Henllan Station board.
The points to the aforementioned Cattle Dock siding are still to be wired up and the Green Grove Milk Factory siding needs to have the points laid and motors installed.

With all of the wiring under the Henllan station board practically complete I have been able to "test" trains from the Riverbank Siding around the track to Henllan Station and Yard.
However, as all the Henllan Station wiring is all just going to the one controller at the moment and the isolating sections haven't been wired in, only one loco can be in the station at a time. Rather frustrating.

Time for the controll panel and isolation.

Marty, your Larch looks super. The only idea I can come up with to maybe make it look more realistic is, can you approach it from all around with a pair of scissors and trim off some of the leaves that seem to hang down (or up?)from the branch? If you look at the actual tree, (now I need to look at it again) there is an air gap, either above or below each branch, can't remember now which is was. Anyway trim away some of the green to create that gap. I may be barking up the wrong tree,  :shock:  :lol: but it might just help. Problem is if it don't, I didn't say this!!!! :shock:  :roll:  :lol:  After what you have gone through to get this, I would be content to leave it alone if it was me, so if you try this, please do so at your own risk, as this is just a thought! :?

Wayne

Here are three links to the various larch trees that grow from Europe to Japan.

European Larch.

Dunkeld Larch.

Japanese Larch.
 New Links needed

It does look a bit hairy doesn't it?

Thanks for the links Bob.

Wayne, I'll have a look and see if the scissors idea will work. In the meantime I'll have a think about how to apply the "needles" in a better way.

cheers

Marty-i think all that you do seems to come out good,you've just got IT,the nack whatever you call it,but you have a natural flair definitely :D  :D  Yes i agree your Larch trees could do with a very slight prune. Then they would be perfect :D  :D

Well done Marty. Judging by google images it appears a very good likeness.  
 A slight pruning would help, I reckon, not that I've ever tried modelling a larch   :lol:

 Mike

Short back and sides please

Well done Everyone and thanks,  I think that the prune has made a big difference.





I trimmed quite a lot of it, keeping the scissors close above the top of the branches and then trimming the needles hanging from the branch above to give more of a gap.

Some areas near the top where less care was taken when sprinkling the grass originally were trimmed to remove the domed look that had resulted.
cheers

Tree bases

Something else I've stumbled on, my previous trees have twisted wire roots splayed out to allow the tree to stand on it's own rather than having to poke the trunk into a chunk of polystyrene to hold it up.

The roots look a little odd but I had planned to cover them with plaster when placed on the layout and blend them into the ground.

The "bark mix" for the Larch was a bit runny to start off with and ran onto the paper sheet underneath the roots. I left it to dry thinking I would cut the paper off later and let subsequent coats add to the puddle as I went on.

In the end, as you can see in the above photo, I left the paper on and cut around the puddle. Fallen needles have stuck to the base and the overall effect is quite pleasing I think.

When it comes time to add it to the layout I'll still try and plaster up and over the base to blend it in but if not I'll cut it off.

The circular area of the base makes it much more stable when standing on it's own.

Marty, when I first saw your tree bases, they reminded me of the Triffids.

The haircut on the Larch is bang on - this is one of many parts of the hobby that I will have to get to - busy laying track right now.

If Jeff is the UK agent, then I will be the Aussie agent - no commision but just a tree every so often.

Now to go back & read your topic from page 1.

Marty, What a difference that hair cut has made! I finally took a breath after giving you that advice. :shock:  :roll: Sure glad it worked! Now it looks much more realistic.

On a personal note, are you any where near that hurricane (cyclone?) that is approaching Australia?

Wayne

Marty the tree has greatly improved after its short back and sides.

To be fair i did look like it needed it in your original photos as other members suggested. But really thats the good thing about the club/forum
you know you will get honest constructive appraisal.

Whats the term women use (A Bad Hair Day) the tree was suffering with before :lol:  :lol:

cheers Brian.W

Thats perfect now Marty :D  :D  Good idea about the base too,i'll refer back to this when i get round to more tree making

Gwent Rail said

At £120 a tree, I don't think you'll be unable to cope with the workload, Marty.
If you are inundated with orders, remember it was my idea, but I only charge 5% agent's fees :!:  :!:

As a Moderator Jeff, you swore (on Bob's buffer stop) to carry out your duties as a labour of love - i.e. for no reward save that of knowing you you do the work of the Fat controller !!!  At least that's what he made me promise !!

Petermac

Somehow the above post has been credited to me.
Just in case you are wondering, Petermac wrote it and when I corrected an error in my quote it gave me the credit for the lot :!:

Thanks for confirmation and comments all.
I'll do another Larch in a while to repeat the process and see if I can make it a faster process.

Cyclone Nicholas
Currently passing across the coast some 1100 km's or so to the north of Perth. It's been downgraded to category 1 and while that still has destructive winds up to 120km/hr should do little damage to the coastal community of Coral Bay that it will cross near.

The resultant low will dump a lot of rain into the interior desert and maybe even flood some of the goldfields roads in the centre of WA but the Perth forecast for the next 6 days is fine with temps in the mid 30's.

Sometimes the rains from the cyclones reach as far as Perth and once in a blue moon we will get one that wanders down as far as the city… I think the last one was 1982.

Of more threat to us here are the winter "tornados" or wind shears that howl in from the sea and rip the roofs of houses for a strip 400m wide by 20 kms long. They are pretty rare too but more common to Perth than Cyclone impact.

The North west coast of Western Australia gets 3 - 6 cyclones a year. Playing havoc with the mining and oil and gas industries based up there.

Marty wrote

flood some of the goldfields

I've just read a book called Rivers of Gold :lol:  :lol:

Anyway take care Marty and also make sure the layout is well protected.

Let us know if Cyclone Phillip ever hits town :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Les

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Marty wrote

Let us know if Cyclone Phillip ever hits town :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Les

Never be any where near honest  :D  :D

Seriously thou take care and be safe.
Phill

Henllan Station and Green Grove Control Panel - under construction

Enough of trees for a while…

As part of the Henllan Station development, work has progressed on the control panel for the station, yard and Green Grove milk factory.

So far the box has been made up, front panel fitted and rotary switches mounted (a few still need cutting to size and knobs).




The front panel is hinged to allow easy access to the wiring.





The whole thing is designed to be demountable by taking out a couple of screws and disconnecting a couple of D plugs for the electrics…. which still have to be wired up yet…

The layout facia fits in around the back of the control panel box and once the box has been varnished should look OK.

Here is the current plan for the Henllan Station diagram and block controls.
Once I'm happy with it I've got to work out how to stick it to the front panel.
Maybe laminate and then glue or just varnish over the paper.


Suggestions and comments welcome as always.

cheers