Cactus and Joshua Trees

[Jesso]

Do any of you have ideas for making desert scenery, like cactus and joshua trees, I am looking to do it in N Scale.

[nachoman]

the technique I use for making prickly pear cactus makes plants that are borderline too large for HO scale, so I doubt it could be adapted for N-scale. I haven't made any joshua trees or yuccas, but the technique I was considering (using material from the flower department at a craft store) would also be too large for N scale. Ocotillo plants could be made from a bundle of wires, and larger saguaros may be constructed by either carving basswood or deforming plastic sprues. I would suggest playing around with pipe cleaners for the joshua trees. Smaller cactus would almost be unnoticeable in n-scale.

There was an article in Model Railroader sometime in the early 1980s about making desert plants.
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The article was re-published in a Kalmbach scenery book (probably out of print). I don't know if any of those techniques are adaptable to n-scale.

[doctorwayne]

I had to use Google to find out what a Joshua tree looks like.
My first impression is that a wire armature, dipped in white glue, then sprinkled with static grass might work for the trunk and branches. You might have to airbrush it afterwards to get the proper colour. To my eye, the foliage looks like the Silflor grass tufts that Kurt uses to such good effect.

I'm also not very conversant on the various species of cacti, but Woodland Scenics clump foam may offer some choices for some of the smaller varieties. I'd also use the static grass on these, in conjunction with an applicator. While the spiny effect would likely be oversize for N scale, I think that it would be similar to rivets in the smaller scales: they look better, in most cases, oversize, as ones that are "to-scale" seem to disappear. For larger varieties, such as Saguaro, I think that pipe cleaners, bundled together if necessary, could offer some possibilities.

Wayne

[shortliner]

This firm does Cacti - I know they are HO but they would simply be big ones in N - and Saguaro can grow ro a fair size <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.udisco.com/hobbies/inv/PEGASU.HTM">http://www.udisco.com/hobbies/inv/PEGASU.HTM</a><!-- m -->

[Jesso]

Thanks everyone, will try your suggestions.

[TrainNut]

Heya Jesso,
I just recently found some very convincing palm trees in N scale. Ready for this... Parrish's Magic Line quality cake decorating supplies. I have no idea if they've got what you're looking for or not but I do recall seeing cacti on cakes before so it might be something to look into!