What's a "tree"? I live in the Mojave desert. G

No need to wait a month. I make several intentional trips a year (in all seasons) to a county park/lake/woods area for the sole purpose of collecting various stuff that looks like it might work on a dio. I take several gallon-sized zip-loc baggies, a couple small hand tools and spend a few hours collecting stuff. Once home, I prep the all the stuff that may need glycerin so that when I need some 3 months later, it's ready. These resin logs/planks could be useful to those who don't want to mess with natural stuff. I also think the planks could be replicated with some balsa wood and Grandt Line bolts.

From what I understand Value Gear is a hard working one man operation. I admire and support small businesses. So for just that I would forego the DIY approach. But... I once had piles of sticks and brush and I would collect the Baby's Breath from floral arrangements but I got married, bought a house and started doing webcomics. Out went my arborium. Instead I now have art supplies and will buy after market for specific projects like logs and wooden slat armor. (My wife would ask why I was sampling the flora on all our trips... Then she saw the stash. All i was able to keep was one container of dirt and the Woodlands Scenics stuff That's my life

Gee, and all this time I just made my own planks and logs out of -wait for it- WOOD! Ya, I know, how novel. And sandbags out of epoxy putty with Evergreen support racks. Profound. And now you can simply buy it. I think I'll have to sit down now...

Whatever happened to the good old DIY part of modelling?? And I don't mean carving a Tiger tank from a block of wood.

Wayne, Reading thru the posts and yours made me stop a laugh! Not far from you buddy but some of those stretches down around I-40 can be a bit on the dry, dusty, and arid side! Cheers, Rick

I think we hashed this out a couple of years ago in the discussion over the Hobby Fan fascine bundle. One group was outraged that this giant block of resin cost so much when it was such a simple matter make your own from sticks. Another group pointed out that the fascine modeled by HF was not made from sticks but from boards and to make it from scratch would cost nearly as much as the resin piece. In other words, if you wanted design A you could make it yourself for $10, but if you wanted design B you will pay $45 for materials or $55 for the resin item. That argument never caught on with the first group because they could not wrap their heads around the idea that the two fascines used different materials and designs and thus were not interchangeable products. All they could see was that a real modeler wouldn't spend $55 for something when you could get "THE SAME THING" for $10. KL

It sounds like another example of the epic struggle between those want to reward effort and those who want to reward results. KL

Value Gear is manned and operated by Steve. When you place an order, he sends you a personal email on your order. He is always open to ideas about how to better his product and encourages you to send him photos of your workmanship. If you watch Andy's Hobby on You Tube, Steve's gear is often used to enhance a model. With each order, he puts in several free odds and ends. I encourage you to consult his website for a wide variety of interesting items..... Happy Modeling DJ