Talking T Gauge

trainspotter-usa · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Minnesota

One of the things that attracts me to T gauge is seeing just how small I can work. To that end I have started work on some Trees to see if I could do it. These are some early attempts at tree armatures from multi strand wire. But they certainly give me the confidence to carry on further.
Any comments appreciated

Not being an electrician I can't tell you what size the wire is as its so old and devoid of any packging. But its about 3mm diameter over the covering. The trees stand about 30mm high which would make then about 47 feet tall if it were a real tree.
The next stage would be to spray some primer on them and then paint them. Then I'll have to see what kind of foliage material would be best for T gauge

Ian

DanMacK · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject:

Awesome start!

I'd say for foliage material you could probably get away with coarse ground foam

David K Smith · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject:

Nice start indeed! It will be great to see them finished.

I think it's worth pointing out that you might want to try making some larger trees. One of the most frequently-made mistakes in mmodel railroading--and at every modeling scale--is using undersized trees. T Gauge offers us the opportunity of using properly-sized trees and not "wasting" valuable space. Trees are, for the most part, much larger than modelers tend to think, so why not give bigger trees a try? The scenery-to-train ratio in T can be better than any other scale!
_________________
—David

http://www.t-gauge.net/
http://1-450.blogspot.com/

trainspotter-usa · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Minnesota

My wife has nipped out to get her hair done (a 3 hour experience) so what better thing could I do than have a go at working the trees up a bit further.
I have to admit that in my excitement I have rushed them a bit. But to be honest even rushed and fragile like this I think they look the part.

I sprayed the armatures with grey primer and then a light overspray of earth and a dark green paint. The foliage comes from Woodland scenics Fine foliage light green (part# F11332) as I happened to have a little to hand.
One thing I have learned is that the armatures can be a lot simpler than I had made them. Some of the branches are just getting in the way. I even think that the fine leaf foliage might make passable trees in itself.
Plenty to work on when I get back from vacation next week

Ian

Skibbe · Joined: 05 Sep 2008 Posts: 11

Not bad Ian. If you have some caulk laying around, it's the easiest material to use to cover the lower trunk. Use a stiff brush to apply it and you'll get some bark texture in it as you apply it, and it will hide the twisted wire trunk.
_________________
Mike Skibbe

David K Smith · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject:

Very nice. I like them--particularly the center one, which has a lot of character.

I use the WS Fine Foliage also, and it can be used for fairly decent trees on its own. I use it in Z scale for smaller trees around the perimeters of wooded areas, such as this:

_________________
—David

http://www.t-gauge.net/
http://1-450.blogspot.com/

shashinka · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Maryland

Man, those look pretty sweet. I too like the center one.
_________________
Do not feed the densha.

pray59 · Joined: 05 Sep 2008 Posts: 88 Location: Fremont, CA

Those trees are excellent, looking like the oaks we have all over the hills near home. Cool

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-Robert Ray

trainspotter-usa · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Minnesota

trainspotter-usa · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Minnesota

Now I have had my trains for a while I thought it about time I compared the trees to see how they look size wise

No too badly apparently...

The fine leaf foliage is very definitely very fragile It sheds like crazy if you're not very careful.

Ian
_________________
I CAN see how cool this stuff is!!!
http://more-t-please.blogspot.com/

michael · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:17 pm Post subject:

Really very nicely done Ian.
_________________
Michael
www.tgauge.ca
www.modelrailroader.ca

David K Smith · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

trainspotter-usa · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Minnesota

Thank you gents..
I can only see one problem with all this.
I'm building a small HO scale layout that is supposed to go to the Saint Cloud, MN train show in December. At the moment I'd much rather take a T gauge layout. Even though it isn't built yet...

Ian
_________________
I CAN see how cool this stuff is!!!
http://more-t-please.blogspot.com/

trainspotter-usa · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Minnesota

I've had to wait in all afternoon for the furnace repairman to come in so I spent the waiting time constructively working on further T-Trees.
Here's a couple of results

Its the same wire armature, this time coated with latex caulk and sprayed whatever tree bark colour I happened to have to hand.
The foliage this time is something new and decidedly cheaper than woodland scenics fine leaf foliage.
Its those "all purpose" scouring pads. They're green anyway, so that was a good start. I tore one in half depth wise and then tore out irregular patches of foliage which I then stuck to the branches of the armatures. Once that glue had set I sprayed them with some spray mount and sprinkled some woodland scenics ground cover blended turf (light green) and coarse turf (medium green) onto them.
The effect is quite pleasing. I think I'll be doing more trees by this method. Especially as the scourers were 2 for $1.50 and I'll probably get 20 trees out of them.
Tearing the scourers does tend to make them "hairy" so you need to do a bit of trimming with scissors as you go along.
Ian
_________________
I CAN see how cool this stuff is!!!
http://more-t-please.blogspot.com/

michael · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

It's funny - I was going to comment how the tree's looked good, but were decidedly 'coarser' then your first batch - but realizing the actual size of these things its a useless comment, as I'm sure there is negligible difference.

Curious, have you any shots of the trees from 'above'? I don't think I'll ever be looking at these trains from this vantage - just wanted to see the effect from a more oblique angle.

Despite this - great work - really.
_________________
Michael
www.tgauge.ca
www.modelrailroader.ca