Cheap Tree Season
I know some have expressed sticker shock on the cost of pre made trees. (3 were $11 at hobbylobby, ooffff)
With the Chrismas decorations in full swing, I look for cheap "tree stock."
the mini tree's usually disassemble into at least a dozen mandels,
the long green string things, are a wealth of mini pine trees.
you can use tape or string to put multiples together to form non pines.
paint brown w/ spray cans, then use craft glue and stick ground foam on them
static grass also works on them great, too
So during the time from now, until the sales after xmas, I build up my stock of tree starter kits.
dr
Discussion
I'm checking local community page. Asking around the train guys if they have any stuff like trees, people figurines etc.. might find cheap and or swap.. lol everyone knows my wife bakes cookies to sell for football and I'm going to barter a dozen for items...
Youtube is loaded with super simple tree tutorials... cheap and fairly easy...
When I was building model railroads, I often used bush branches for the trunks and ground foam for the foliage with contact adhesive (like very strong rubber cement) or Walthers Goo to hold the ground foam to the branches. I've bought many premade trees from Woodland Scenics and other brands too, but they cost and time to paint them to look real made the bush branches even more appealing.
A few samples of the scenery I was doing for an HO scale photo module. It's got a combination of store bought and home made trees. It's based on a real railroad in Pennsylvania that adopted the name I came up with for my model railroad that was based on that railroad's previous names and location.
I saw some small trees at Dollar Tree very similar to the trees with the M2 Coca-Cola trucks that have trees with them. 2-3 per bag.