Modeling a Forest Hill with Martin Tärnrot
Martin TärnrotDescription
In this video, modeler Martin Tärnrot will demonstrate how he models a forest hill without making any actual model railroad trees. Martin makes them smaller than they would normally be to enhance the forced perspective. To begin, Martin shows a forest that is close to where he lives. One can notice that there is a difference in the color of the foliage, but that the individual trees can’t be seen. In his scene, he has added more eye-catching model railroad trees in front while keeping the forest hill in the back to add the perspective.
The base material in Martin’s forest hill is poly fiber green from Woodland Scenics, specifically FP178. The material itself is close to what one would find in pillows and stuffing, but colored green. For the application, Martin uses spray glue.
To begin, he tears a piece of poly fiber off, and pulls it apart in all directions. He then mists some spray glue over the entire piece, and then sprinkles a variety of turfs—including coarse and fine in different colors—to create varying textures and colors. Next, he glues these pieces in place on the mountainside. He adds grass glue with a brush to the spot on the mountain he wants to place the foliage. Adding these pieces is a cheat to change the perspective when an area is too close to the backdrop.
For more tree-making techniques like how to make a tree holding tool, visit the Model Railroad Academy archives.
Hello and welcome to a Model Railroad Academy video. In this video, we will model a forest hill that is without making any actual trees and we will make them kind of small to the scale we're working with that is to enhance the forest perspective. [Narrator]- This forest hill here is close to where I live. There are differences in the color of the foliage but you don't see the individual trees in the miniature landscape I have the eye catching, light trees in front and the forest Hill in the back is adding the perspective. The base material in these forest Hills is Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber item FP one seven eight. The material itself is very close to what you find in pillows as stuffing, but colored green. Unused spray glue for the application of leaves this is a Nock six one one five one. I tear a piece of Poly Fiber off and expanded in all directions. I mix some spray glue over the entire piece, then I sprinkle a variety of turf into that glued pillow. This is a coarse Turf so this is a bit more coarse than the others and then I have also a fine turf which is a bit darker in color So I get the own color variance between the different foliage in this forest Hill. This time, these type of trees will instead camouflage a rock side which is placed too close to the backdrop. This was one of the drawbacks I realized by having the hallux too close to the backdrop but allowing for longer station tracks, here i would glue them in place on the mountainside. I glue them using grass glue or PVA glue it doesn't really matter since these types of trees covered a spot where we're gluing so it doesn't really matter. The glue doesn't has to be an all 100% mat and transparent one dry will look good and away. Important thing here is that they covered the entire surface of the Hill which is going up against the backdrop. These type of sheets is most often necessary on most layouts there are always a corner somewhere which has a bit too tight radiuses or something or you need to cover it since it's too close to the backdrop. So that is one way to model a forest Hill. Yeah, it's an old method, but very useful. So I hope you liked the video if you did please consider it to get a premium subscription here on Model Railroad Academy. The premium videos will also give you other methods the theory behind the color choice and things like that so it will more give you tools to shape your own creations rather than these short, free videos which more gives you one method. So that's something to consider gain access to the premium content. See you in the next video.
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