Matthew Lenton reviews Noch’s new Standard Series Fir Trees in HO scale.

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Thanks!

Well, it's one step above a "bottle brush". Maybe a glorified "bottle brush". These are made for very large model railroads, and when viewed from a few feet, are only meant to represent spruce, or fir, or pine, or whatever trees they're supposed to be! They don't even look very realistic in a 1/72 scale dio. Although they might just be passable if you dump enough "snow" on them.

I don't really disagree with you, but having said that, I still haven't seen any with my own eyes that really do look the part. I've been looking for some trees to set my almost finished 1/72 Dicker Max in, based on this photo:



I was therefore interested to try these Noch firs out, although they're not quite the right type of tree seen above. This try out also gave me the opportunity for practicing a few other aspects of diorama building, having done little previously, as well as providing a mount for this now bit battered SU-122.

Some aspects of it came out OK I think: the black PlastiKote spray paint on the surround went on beautifully and I think I eventually got something like the right colour for dead pine needles, even if the material wasn't that great. The trees look OK if the focus isn't too sharp and the lighting not too bright, but then again, this is looking quite close up... I repainted the tree foliage itself, but didn't finish painting the trunks, nor did I blend the trunks into the ground, they're just as they glued into the holes, but mostly it's hidden.

So anyway, I quite like the look of the piece, being so tall, with the vehicle half hidden - while remembering that hiding in the woods was highly necessary - while at the same time I still don't have a solution for the D Max piece.







And having spotted some tiny Christmas lights for sale on the day I was finishing it, why not... Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you, too! I think the diorama works exceptionally well. The dead pine needles look like what I see under my trees.