Take a look at any railway banks, you’ll see stumps and branches where trees have been cut back to prevent damage to passing trains and prevent falling branches blocking the line. Here’s this weeks Thrifty Thursday tip to making these tree stumps and for free.
Yes, you read that right. Free.
This weeks tip allows you to make as many tree stumps and fallen branches as you want at zero cost. Nothing. It’s not even a case of reusing house-hold items that you’ve already bought but using something that’s absolutely free in the first place.
I love this technique not just because it doesn’t cost anything and it produces superbly authentic looking trump stumps but it also works for any scale of model railway, from Z and N scale to HO and above.
Twigged what it is yet?
To make tree stumps just go out and grab some small twigs and bush branches. You’re looking for twigs that have a shoots emerging from the main trunk, like this:
To make the tree stumps, find small twigs with shoots emerging.
Now with sharp knife cut across the main stem just below the shoots and then cut diagonally above the shoots, you’ll want the branch leading to a long sharp point. You should have something like the picture below.
Cut above and below, cutting diagionally above the shoots and the rotate so the sharp end points down.
Now turn the brach upside down, so the point heads downwards and insert it into your ground surface until the inverted shoots are level with the ground (you might need to drill a small hole in which to insert it).
Hey presto a tree stump. The shoot stems look like the root collar leading into the soil and the top half tampers off as normal tree trump would.
Being real wood, our DIY tree stump has yellow tint on the inside just as real tree stumps do and textured bark.
The cut branch, showing inner wood.
Take some other small twigs and scatter them around the stump simulating cut branches and trunks and you have wonderfully realistic and authentic dead tree stumps.
The end result, postions on the railway banks. The surrounding soil is still being worked on but you can see how realistic the DIY felled trees look.
I’m currently working in N Scale so I pick very small twigs, for bigger scales just use larger twigs.
You can also sprinkle some yellow / brown scatter around the stumps to simulate sawdust from the trees but this is only necessary if you want to create the look of freshly felled trees.
> A final, personal, note: I spend a huge amount of time testing, photographing, writing and researching techniques for these articles and pay for all the running costs of MRE out of my own pocket. If you found this article useful you can support me by making a donation on my fund-raising page. Thanks and happy modelling, Andy.
Andy is a lifelong modeler, writer, and founder of modelrailwayengineer.com. He has been building model railways, dioramas, and miniatures for over 20 years. His passion for model making and railways began when he was a child, building his first layout at the age of seven.
Andy’s particular passion is making scenery and structures in 4mm scale, which he sells commercially. He is particularly interested in modelling the railways of South West England during the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, although he also enjoys making sci-fi and fantasy figures and dioramas. His website has won several awards, and he is a member of MERG (Model Railway Electronics Group) and the 009 Society.
When not making models, Andy lives in Surrey with his wife and teenage son. Other interests include history, science fiction, photography, and programming. Read more about Andy.