Making cherry blossoms?

[katoftw]

So they can be brought from Kato/Noch for about $3AUD each ($9 3 pack).

 

But my thinking is that if I wanna do a section of T-Trak that is 1240mm long, then I'm gonna need $90 worth.  Trees spaced between 30-50mm apart, depend of other objects around them.

 

Or just suck it up, than it is cost of doing scenery?

Edited March 15, 2014 by katoftw

[cteno4]

The old kawai cherry blossoms are quite nice and only about a buck each

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10056612

 

Basically just twisted wire with floral tape over the wire and then the pink ground foam on the limbs. Not sure if poppendetta is going to pickup the scenery bits or not.

 

Here they are on the JRM layout

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/2011SakuraMatsuri/pages/page_26.html

 

There are these, but cheaper and not as nice looking, ill see I may have a box of these somewhere and if I do I can snap a pict with the kawai

 

Making this kind of tree is pretty easy with stranded copper wire. Just use lamp wire and strip the insulation off and untwist and then retwist into smaller branches and so on. Then paint with a dark gray primer and dry brush with brown craft paint. Then white glue on the branches as the blossoms go all around the limbs. Once you get going you can turn out a lot fast. Just getting a big quantity of pink/white ground foam as that sort od stuff is usually only sold in small quantities. You can make your own with upholstery foam and craft in a blender. Or pink and white paper and a bit water in a coffe grinder might find a bloom blend. I have a small bag of the notch paper white/pink scatter, but unforunately most of that stuff is closer to HO scale.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited March 16, 2014 by cteno4

[JR 500系]

If you don't mind, there are some slightly lower quality 'Cherry Blossom' trees on ebay from China.

 

An example here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-150-Green-Pink-Artificial-Model-Tree-Layout-Scene-8-5cm-High-20pcs-/271286913841?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f29f5cb31

 

They're cheap, and they come in bulk. I do have them on my layout and frankly they are beautiful when planted.

[E6系]

Nice, but not really Cherry Blossom tree. The shape is not right and also, when Cherry Blossom is in flower, there is no leaf on the branch.

[cteno4]

Yeah that's one thing that makes cherry trees in bloom so bloomin easy to do is they don't have leaves yet and the blossoms sprout all the way around the branches. Just takes getting your bloom mix right.

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

The old kawai cherry blossoms are quite nice and only about a buck each

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10056612

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Perfect.  Somehow missed them in previous HS searches.  Also cuts the costings in half compared to Noch option.

 

Popondetta also do some good ones.  About 30% cheaper than Noch option also.

Edited March 17, 2014 by katoftw

[cteno4]

The popendetta must be the new kawai ones as when kawai went under popendetta bought our most of their lines and have been slowly renaming them to popendetta brand. I'm guessing it may be hard to find the old kawai ones anymore.

 

Making them would be the cheapest if you can find or make the right blossom material.

 

The tomytec kits are a pretty cheap solution. Just plastic branch armatures you bend around how you want them and glue on the bloom flocking. Done $1.25 per tree, no painting, wire twisting, etc! All of 2 minutes per tree.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10102806

 

Jeff

Edited March 17, 2014 by cteno4

[katoftw]

like most of the tomytec stuff.  it is poor quality and doesn't look right.

[cteno4]

Not true, where do you get that? the armatures are quite nice. Foam is nice as well. I have some of these and actually nicer than the kawai and I would expect the kato Noch as well. The armatures are the same quality and style as Noch and woodland scenics sells.

 

Tomytecs are not at all poor quality compared to other comparable things in the hobby, I know I have tons of it and other comparable items from all the othe major brands out there. Vehicles beat just about any n scale vehicles world wide (especially tomix and kato), while most of the time being a fraction the price. Buildings give more details than most any out there as well as being prepainted better than the average modeler does for untainted kits. Yes the trains are not quite tomix/kato/ma, but most all are quite nice at a fraction of the price. Mechs are simpler but very reliable and at the same time affordable and great for kitbashing and replacing hard to find mechs.

 

Definitely not cheap junk!

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

i wasn't referring to mechs or vehicles.  just similar things relating to the subject of this thread.

 

my Railway Series LRTs and mechs are all good.

 

sorry, was a too generalized statement to make.

Edited March 17, 2014 by katoftw

[cteno4]

no worries, everyone has their opinion and personal histories! you can see from above i dont have any ;-p

 

While i have found that the tomytec trees are ok to good, much better ones can be hand made pretty easily. but i do find the tomytec kits about the same as all the others out there with plastic armature kits like noch or woodland scenics. The thing i do like about the tomytec tree kits is they do zoom down on to specific type of trees. granted things like their rice paddies are pretty horrible but no one else has even gone down this road! scenery bits get do get tough as it gets more into personal interpretation and use more than buildings and such, plus its easy to make a nice scenery bit from scratch, but much tougher to do a structure or vehicle so mass producing scenery bits is going to start off with a couple of strikes against it.

 

again if you like trees getting into making your own will really give you much better results in the end than most everything you can buy (except if you want the $10/tree ones!) but take some time and experimenting but something anyone can do with little cost or skills. This is one place youtube is great as there are a million great how to videos to get different techniques and personal approaches and tricks and evaluate them quickly.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Mudkip Orange]

The Okubo cherry blossoms @ 130yen/tree are cheaper than Popondetta.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10069303

 

I ordered five boxes for the Japan Fest layout. They actually look better in person than they do in the HS photos, if you can believe that.

[katoftw]

Thanks.  I noted those also.  You are right about the HS photo, doesn't look good which is why I didn't originally consider them.  If possible, when yours arrive, could you take a photo of them please, maybe on your layout too if possible.  Thanks.

 

Also, why 4 pink and 1 white?

[cteno4]

Because cherry blossoms can be from white to lt pink to red depending on the variant ans some even can have some variation on the same tree.

 

Jeff

Edited March 20, 2014 by cteno4

[katoftw]

Thanks for in info.

[macdon]

I get my n scale trees locally and a few months back I asked them if they can possibly make cherry blossoms. Due to their many orders at the time, they couldnt show me a sample till now. 

 

Feel free to share your feedback and if you think the color or shape isnt right.

 

Mardon

 

[cteno4]

Mardon

 

Nice, but a bit thick. Blossoms are tight just around the branches of the tree and don't flesh out far from the limbs like leaves do with their tiny branches that usually hold a few leaves do. Did they use poly fill around the branches before the ground foam? I would eliminate that if they did and up the bifurcation of the branches and just do the ground foam to the limbs themselves.

 

Also the tree shapes are ont ovals but usually get wider as they go up and tend to have flatter tops. There is the weeping variety that goes up then bends over and points down to the ground at its branch ends. But there are loads of varieties out there!

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=cherry+blossom&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HzJCU8SEB_bLsQT38oLABQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=672

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited April 7, 2014 by cteno4

[katoftw]

Thread dig.

 

 

So the above product is from a American company by the name of Scenry Express. http://www.sceneryexpress.com/

 

IST mentioned the product in the "what did you order" thread.

 

So cherry blossum only hold there pink colour when flowering with no leaves on the branches.  So this product being fine and not clump like regular foliage should work correctly right?

 

Also, E6 mentioned the shape of earlier exampled trees as being the incorrect shape.  The shape should be of arching branches from a center trunk? Yes?  Branches going sideways moreso than a tall tree.

Edited January 18, 2016 by katoftw

[katoftw]

 

Win?

[tossedman]

Yes, but glueing on each petal individually gets really old after a while.

[katoftw]

Why would you do it individually?  Put some petals into a shallow container eg- like a spray can lid.  Put glue on tree branches to your liking.  Dip branches into petals.  Wait and enjoy.  Or not that simple?

[tossedman]

Sorry, I was being a sarcastic. Never done it myself.

[inobu]

Sorry, I was being a sarcastic. Never done it myself.

lol,

 

What differentiate Sarcasm from Humor? The people who laugh other than that they are the same. Inobu  

[cteno4]

Kato, you are missing the zen of making cherry blossoms! No zen in dipping a whole tree in the pedals! Get out your tweezers... ;-p

 

Yes you have it. I tend to sprinkle rather than dunk into flocking as I find it usually gives a lighter look and I can control things as applied easily. Just do it over a larger tray or plastic container. There is a fast method by putting a fan in a large bottle and hanging some wet glued armpit urea at the top then toss in some flocking and turn on the little computer fan and let the resulting tornado flock the trees.

 

If you need to add more hit it with some cheap hair spray in the area if too hard to dab glue into it and sprinkle some more on quickly. Hit the tree with some hairspray when you are done and they are dry as that will help fix the flocking as well and seems to make them a bit more dust/cobweb resistant.

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

I can sprinkle also.