Cherry Trees, Part 3 - Trunks & Branches

After I returned to Bahrain from my trip to the US, I needed to make the armatures (trunks & branches) for the cherry trees. I had two options using the materials I brought back with me: unraveled bits of jute twine, and floral wire.

My plan for the twine was to cut it in short lengths, fray one end to represent branches, soak the whole thing in diluted white glue, then let it dry overnight to become stiffer and hold its shape. I quickly realized the twine wasn't going to work out too well because the roll I bought was so tightly wound it had a natural coil that would have to be straightened somehow. Also, the individual strands, when unraveled, still looked too much like three little corkscrews and would need to be straightened and shaped somehow. I determined that making the twine work out was going to take more time than twisting floral wire, so I ditched that idea. Maybe I'll try it another time when I'm not so pressed for time.

I then turned to the floral wire to make my armatures. It was a fairly simple process of cutting a 50' roll of wire into 5" lengths. I then bundled four wires together, bent the bundle in half, and twisted the bundle tightly starting at the bent "loop" end. The looped end would be the bottom of the tree, and the "free ends" would form the branches. About halfway up the "trunk", I split the wires into two equal groups and twisted those about half the remaining distance, and so on. When finished, I spread the branches out to look like a natural tree, and then I bent the loops at the bottom of the trunk up 90 degrees and spread them out to make a little base for the tree to rest on... at least temporarily.

Cut wires waiting to be twisted into trees. The bottom left shows groups that have been folded and twisted together a couple of times, awaiting the next step. A finished tree armature can be seen left of center.

After some initial experimenting, I ended up with about 29 trees with a couple of bits of wire left over. I then painted them all with some clear latex caulk with a little dark brown craft paint mixed in to try and hide the obvious twisted wire look of the trunks and branches. It took a couple of coatings of caulk slopped on pretty think to get the desired result. I then slopped on a good thick coat of dark brown craft paint to further hide the twisted wire texture and green-painted wire.

At that point, the tree armatures are ready for their polyester fiber canopies.

Cherry Trees, Part 2 - Pink Ground Foam

The method for making your own ground foam, as I understood it was as follows:

1. Cut up seat cushion foam in cubes about 1"

2. Add the foam cubes and a little water to a blender

3. Squirt in some craft paint in the color of your choice

4. Blend, then dump the slurry out on some newspaper and air dry

Using this process, I made three batches of pink foam during my trip to the US while visiting family. For the first batch, I just spread out the wet foam slurry onto a large sheet of white paper. Because it was still very wet, when it dried, the foam turned a slight yellowish color on the bottom where it had been in contact with the paper. I assume this is due to some of the chemicals in the paint, and how the wet diluted paint ended up drying on the surface of the paper. Overall the first batch didn't turn out too bad and had exactly the color I was looking for, but I wasn't happy about the little bits of yellowish color mixed in with the pink, so I decided to try it again.

This time, before spreading the foam slurry out to dry, I used a clean rag to squeeze as much of the pink water out of it as I could. Then I used a stick to break up the resulting fist-sized clump of foam bits and spread them out. Something weird happened with the color on this batch. It ended up a much brighter and more vivid pink color than the first batch, and even more so than the paint itself! I've seen different varieties of cherry trees with different colored blossoms, so it was still within the realm of being realistic, so still usable. I also noticed this batch of foam ended up noticeably coarser than the first batch, probably because I didn't blend it as long.

First batch on the left, second on the right.

Second batch compared with the color of the paint used 😕

I wanted to make another batch with a color closer to the first, so I tried again, using a little less paint, and again squeezing out the wet foam before spreading it out to dry. This time, the color came out more like a light cotton candy color. Still usable, but now I had a third shade of pink foam to deal with 😬  I was a little light on the blender this time as well, so this batch came out noticeably coarser than the last one.

I put each batch into its own Ziploc bag and took them with me back to Bahrain for the next step.

Cherry Trees, Part 1 - Concept and Gathering Materials

Blossoming cherry trees are the quintessential symbol of springtime in Japan and an important part of the Japanese culture. As such, a bunch of tiny pink trees was a scenery element I wanted to include on the layout from the very beginning.

To keep costs down, I knew I had to make my own trees. Easy enough, there's a fairly well-established method of making model trees using the appropriately-sized armatures (i.e. trunk and branches), polyester fiber to form the bulk of the canopy, and ground foam (or similar material) to add texture to the foliage. The challenge then became sourcing these three elements.

I started by looking for a commercially-made pink ground foam or similar product that I could include with my upcoming online order of the track.  The only thing I could find find was made by Scenic Express, and it was $10 for a 16-oz container. The price was enough of a deterrent that I decided I would try and make my own ground foam from scratch. I had seen online articles about how to do that with some seat cushion foam, craft paint, and an old blender, and I had always wanted to give it a try. Now I had an excuse to do it!

I planned to get my supplies during my upcoming trip to the U.S., so I started making a list. Once I was there, I gathered the supplies I needed for each of the three main components of the tree.

For the armatures, I thought about collecting tiny bits of twigs from nature but quickly realized it would take too much time to collect and prep them for use on the layout. Time was not a luxury I had, so I decided I needed to make my own armatures. I thought of a couple of different ideas, either using bits of jute twine with one end unraveled to represent the branches, or by twisting bits of floral wire into shape. I planned to make the armatures once I got back to Bahrain, but couldn't decide which method to use, so I picked up both a roll of twine and a roll of floral wire from the Dollar Tree.

For the ground foam, I planned to make what I needed while visiting with my family in the U.S., then take the finished product back to Bahrain with me. I purchased a piece of white foam and some pink craft paint from Hobby Lobby. I just needed to find a suitable blender. To make a long story... less long..., I ended up getting a small personal smoothie blender from Walmart for $10 that seemed to do the trick.

The last ingredient I needed was poly fiber to form the tree canopies. I knew I only needed about a handful of plain white poly fiber, but all I could find in the stores was a pillow-sized package for about $4. This was way more than I needed and was willing to pay, so I started looking for alternative sources. I found a small stuffed Easter Bunny at the Dollar Tree and figured he had more than enough stuffing inside to do the trick!

Benchwork

Turning my attention to planning the benchwork, I had an idea of what I would like to build.  I envisioned a simple wood open grid frame with a thin layer of plywood on top, and a layer of pink insulation foam on top of that. The sides would be covered with Masonite or luan plywood to give it a nice, finished appearance.

One of the perennially frustrating aspects of being an American living in Bahrain is that you can't simply run down to Home Depot and get what you need to build a simple project like this. For some reason, DIY isn't really a thing in the Middle East, so finding stuff like lumber and building supplies is a real challenge. Bringing this kind of stuff back from my upcoming trip to the US wasn't really an option because of its size, so I knew whatever I was going to use for benchwork, I had to find locally.

The one store I thought might have what I needed was inconveniently located at least a 45-minute drive away in heavy traffic, and there just never seemed to be a good time to attempt a trip there. Fortunately, scrounging around our storage room at home turned up just what I needed: some under-layout shelving I built for my HO layout that I had shipped with our household goods from the US but wasn't able to use in our current apartment.

The shelves consisted of a couple of thin 2'x4' loose plywood sheets that sat on top of simple 1"x3" frames that I screwed to the layout benchwork. This was a perfect start! Based on what I had on hand and the space I expected to be available at the event, I quickly determined the optimal layout size would be 2'x4' (which then dictated the track configuration and the specific Unitrack set I needed to order from the online hobby shop). I then set about cannibalizing the storage shelves to make the benchwork for the Shinkansen layout.

The two pieces of plywood are behind one of the frames on the right. The other frame has already been dismantled, and its pieces are on the left.

When I originally made the shelves, I had to trim 6" off the end of each sheet of plywood to fit my HO layout benchwork. I hated to give up any more straightaway track on the Shinkansen layout than necessary, so I decided to stick with a 2'x4' overall size. To keep the 4' length, I had to cut a 6" strip off the end of one of the sheets of plywood. I had also originally rounded the front corners on each piece of plywood, so the finished Shinkansen benchwork has a few of these funky quarter-round gaps in the plywood surface.

Somehow I ended up with two different thicknesses of plywood (of course!). To keep weight down, I used the full section of the thinner piece to cover most of the area, and cut the 6" make-up strip off the thicker piece. To keep the plywood surfaces even with each other, I trimmed off just a smidgen from the top edge of the frame under the thicker section.

Soon enough, I had the benchwork assembled. I really wanted to top it with a layer of foam, because one of the scenery elements I was hoping to include was a bridge going over a shallow valley of rice paddies. I never found the time to go to that local hardware store, so I had to give up on that idea and settle for the flat plywood surface. Maybe I can still include some rice paddies, just without the bridge 😞

Also, I was never able to get hold of any Masonite or luan plywood trim for the sides, so they ended up being covered by nothing more than a coat of paint.

Top view of the finished "benchwork" after a coat of latex house paint (a sample size can from Lowe's that I brought back from the US). Notice the seam between the two pieces of plywood on the left side.

Underside of the finished and painted benchwork. The seam between the two pieces of plywood runs directly above the "double joist" on the left side.

Initial Preparations

I immediately knew the basics of what I wanted to build - a simple small oval of track with a Shinkansen model running around it. The "layout" itself would be a small portable flat surface that we could set up on top of a table.

The purpose of the layout is to showcase Japan, so I had several ideas of scenery elements I wanted to include on it. After a brief discussion and brainstorming session with my wife, I decided to go with a double-sided display with a scenery divider lengthwise down the middle of the layout. Half of the layout would depict Tokyo and city scenery, and on the other side would be a more rural setting with cherry trees in full blossom and Mt. Fuji as a backdrop.

First things first, I knew I had to order the actual model train and track ASAP if it was going to get to Bahrain in a timely manner. I quickly learned that the only place you can get a Shinkansen at a reasonable price is from Japan itself. A quick eBay search turned up a complete 4-unit set at a decent price and included expedited shipping to the US. My upcoming business trip to the US happened to be in the area where my family lives, so I was able to have it shipped to them so I could pick it up while I was in town. Meanwhile, I also ordered a Kato Unitrack V5 set from an online hobby shop in the US, and it arrived in Bahrain before I returned.

I made a list of other supplies I needed, and gathered what I could locally, then picked up the rest during my trip to the US.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to bed...

By way of background, I am an HO scale model railroader, and my main interest is (more-or-less) modern North American diesel freight trains. My wife is originally from Japan, and we currently live in Bahrain. Most of my model railroad stuff is packed up in storage in the US, but I did bring a small section of my layout and some rolling stock to play around with.

One night in late Feb 2017, my wife was at the computer in the living room and I stopped by to tell her good night on my way to bed. She mentioned the upcoming "International Day" at our kids' school in late March, and wondered if I had any good ideas for an exhibit for Japan. I was too tired to think at that point, so I told her I couldn't think of anything right then. She went on to say that last year, the Japanese table was kind of lame, and that the neighboring Italy table was getting all the attention because the people running it went all out and were giving away all kinds of amazing Italian food samples, etc. It seems like there was a little bit of international rivalry going on there 😁  She said none of the other Japanese moms seemed very enthused about doing anything interesting for International Day this year. I gave a sigh of sympathy and went off to bed.

After a few minutes as I was laying in bed, she came rushing into the bedroom and asked, "Do you have any Japanese trains?!!" I was kind of stunned at first but could see her thought process. I tried to explain that I did have one model made in Japan (a Kato SD70MAC), but it was a model of a US locomotive. Then my wife, who is usually super frugal, made an outrageous suggestion: could I buy a Japanese Shinkansen train model to use as a display for International Day?

(Editorial note: Shinkansen is the Japanese name for the high speed passenger "bullet trains" in Japan. Read more about them by clicking this link.)

I was initially encouraged, but didn't want to take the bait. I explained that all the Shinkansen models I knew of were N scale, and I'd have to buy the train as a set, plus the track to run it on. In total it would probably cost a few hundred dollars. Her response: "Well,... that's OK! Let's do it!"

After I agreed, she left the room and I laid there in bed with a bit of excitement and a flurry of thoughts racing through my head. I suddenly realized I was on the hook to build a small N-scale layout in a little over a month. And by the way, I was a few days away from leaving for a week-long business trip to the US. But I was determined, if I'm going to do this thing, I want to do it right! 

The next morning, I double-checked with her to confirm that she was still serious and that I wasn't dreaming the night before 😁  No, it was all for real... so, GAME ON!!!