Scenery Tips from Lou Sassi

One of Lou Sassi’s good friends is Pete Darling, who joins him in this video. Pete has helped Lou out on his Western Hoosic Division model railroad and is also a member of their four-person modeling group known as the Tree Group. Today, he is going to show some of the techniques they have developed over the past five years in tree construction and scenery.

To make the trees, they use natural materials such as wild oregano, wild spirea, a commercial spirea, a pepper grass material, deer moss or sphagnum moss, and a commercial buffing pad. Pete and Lou put a module together to demonstrate some of their tree and scenery techniques for this video. Some of their trees were put together a little bit differently, but they will give demonstration on the materials Lou shows and how they make the trees with them.

One tree is made using the pepper grass over a straight armature. It gives the look of an aspen or a poplar tree. The next is the wild oregano applied to an armature to create its look, followed by an evergreen-looking tree using the commercial buffing pad. The next tree uses the same technique built over a straight armature using the deer moss or sphagnum moss. Finally they make a meadow sweet tree, which is used straight from picking out of nature, making a very effective tree. For more layout scenery tips or tips for creating realistic landscapes, visit the Model Railroad Academy website.