Height of Trees

[Cody J]

What is the proper height of a HO scale tree?

Thanks,
Cody

[rogertra]

What is the proper height of a HO scale tree?

Thanks,
Cody

How long is a piece of string?

[Cody J]

As long as you want it to be but I'm shopping online for trees and I'm seeing trees that are 3-5" tall, 1.25-3" tall, 2-3" tall and so on, I want to know which I should get because I don't want any that are to tall or are too short?

[ABC]

An 8' tree in 1:1 would be 1.1" in 1:87 while a 20' tree in 1:1 would be 2.8" in 1:87.

[Cody J]

Okay, thank you ABC

[jward]

in this hobby, we try to create the illusion of reality in miniature. thus, tree height is a matter of personal taste, what you think looks right.

i find that trees taller than 5 or 6 inches tend to overpower the scene, so i try to keep them less than that height. this works out to about 40-45 scale feet tall.

[OldTimer]

Trees that grow close together (as in the woods) tend to be taller than "domestic" trees.  The issue is sun...each tree is racing its neighbor up for the most sunlight.
OldTimer 

[jonathan]

What do you want to do with your trees?  That will dictate your height.

For instance; here's a hillside.  I wanted to give the illusion of distance, so I put 6-7 inch trees in the front, and used smaller trees as I moved up the hill and further away.  The slope is almost vertical in reality, the use of illusion makes it look like a more gradual slope (I hope).



Here's a downtown area where I wanted some accent trees for the median.  These are 2 inch trees; smaller so they don't overpower the scene, as stated above.



Just a couple of examples.  I've used 1 inch trees, and up to 8 inch trees.  Depends on the application.

Oh, just a personal tip:  make your own trees.  The premade trees are really pricey.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Cody J]

Jonathan:
I'm modeling WV so they are to be used in a forest environment. I am looking at trees that come in packs of 3/4"-2", packs that are 2-3" and packs that are 3-5".
And that's a great idea to put the larger trees in front.

Also, how do you make your own trees?

Thank you,
Cody J

[rogertra]

Where I live, cedars are 150 feet or more tall.

Your typical oak tree is around 80 feet tall.

Google is your friend and tree heights can be found there.

[jonathan]

Cody,

To make my own trees:

I used Woodland Scenics Armatures.  Paint them some shade of grey to remove the shine.  Cheaper than Dullcote.  Bend and twist the armatures into a tree shape.  Glue on clump foliage to the ends of the armatures. 

A tall tree (7"-8") costs about $1 to make.  A small, 2" tree, costs about 15 cents.

I have also gathered some tree-looking weeds from the woods and made some trees in a similar fashion.  I've had limited success with that method.  You have to be sure the natural material is completely dried out and bug free.

Another inexpensive tree-making method is gluing ground foam to clumps of polyfiber.  I haven't tried that one, yet.

I've made over 400 trees, with an average cost of about 25 cents per tree.

If you plan to have numerous trees on your layout, this is the way to go.  If you are planning on just a few trees, the premade trees are fine.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jward]

Where I live, cedars are 150 feet or more tall.

Your typical oak tree is around 80 feet tall.

Google is your friend and tree heights can be found there.

180' would scale out to over 2 feet tall, even the 80" would be just under a foot. this proves my point about making trees look right rather than using the actual heights scaled down. cody's layout is a 4x8, trees that tall would overpower everything else.

[Cody J]

Thank you for all of your help,
Cody

[Steam is King]

The usage of N Scale trees on elevated heights and in town squares can be used to create the illusion of distance and shrubbery. It is very common to see modelers who include mountains to use N scale trees at the heights so that the eye is fooled to look at the height of the mountain, rather than the size of a misplaced HO trees. In town, N scale trees and shrubbery can also be used to height the effect of depth as things get smaller the farther away you get.

[Cody J]

Thank you for the tip