Trees

 I mentioned in my last post that I have a preferred process for making trees.
So here goes

I start with these lovely armatures from Model Builders Supply, sadly out of business right now but I've been chatting with the fellow who bought up the inventory.

 I clip off most of the branches

 And grab some of that lovely Super Tree material, AKA Seafoam, and cutoff smaller branch sized pieces and use ACC(Superglue) to secure to the trunk

Working my around the perimeter, bottom to top

 

Precision is not desired. The beauty of using the Seafoam this way is that there is a natural randomness that comes from using a natural material.
Once I'm happy it's off to the paint booth. The entire tree gets a quick coat of a medium grey

 

I have  Noch leaves in a variety of colours on hand
For these trees I started with a layer of Olive Green
The tree is sprayed with unscented hairspray, the cheaper the better, and while it's still wet the leaf material is sprinkled on. sometimes 2 rounds are required to the coverage desired

 

Once that's had a few minutes to dry, another coat of hairspray is applied and then a lighter colour of leaves is sprinkled on to the tree

 Poke some holes in the scenery base and plant away

The same process can be used on Woodland Scenics armatures, I find a very different looking tree results

 

There you have it
15-20 minutes a tree
I think they look great, and far more controllable than Polyfibre and groundfoam, in my opinion

Back to the fun stuff

 Now that I've made the big decision to cease my commercial operations, it's time to focus on my layout again.
For the last couple of months I've been focusing on scenery.
I finally got the orange groves and vineyards all in place

 A few hundred grape vine plants from JTT!
I seem to have cleaned out North America of this product.

The other thing was that I was looking at photos of the area I'm modeling and I came to realize that there were far more trees and shrubs than I had first realized.
So it was tree planting time!
A local hobby shop started stocking Martin Welberg products, including some nice ready made trees, so I dropped a few bucks, along with making some more trees using my favorite method. Something I'll blog about later.

It's coming along, I'm very pleased with the results
Trevor is coming to visit in September, have to clean the layout and make sure it's all running. Those cars aren't gonna switch themselves.

For my US customers

 

Due to the threat of new importation restrictions being imposed by the current USA administration, sales to the USA will be temporarily(we hope) suspended, while we investigate how to navigate the current restrictions.
This decision was not taken lightly and we truly wish that we weren’t in this position.
Bear with us as we navigate this current dilemma.

This is a very distressing development, but with the current set of circumstances, it is felt that we have no alternative.
Should the De Minimus be suspended, we're looking at an increase in shipping fees near double what they are now, along with a minimum $15.00 a package brokerage fees.
At the time of this writing, I am aware of 2 other UK based companies who are also taking the same actions.
All of this presumes that the current CUSMA trade agreement remains in place and is honoured by all parties. Should the trade agreement be torn up, all bets are off.

Never thought it would come to this.