I am always on the hunt for a good N scale conifer tree in N scale. One that looks good, but is also reasonably priced so that I can plant a lot without it breaking the bank. I have used Heki in the past and am using Busch currently. Does anyone have any experience with trees made by JTT? JTT Scenic Pine Trees It is difficult to look at photos from a website and determine if they suit my needs. Does anyone else have any favorites to recommend? I am currently using Busch brand trees that are 1 1/2" to 3 1/2" tall, to minimize the cost and be able to plant a dense forest.
JTT trees are very nicely done. Even the cheapy (8.99) small bundled pack look good for N scale. The nicer ones are for arcitectural use and reflect that demand in the price, but they beat most of what is on the market. It is hard to beat the choices they have.
JTTs are very nice, but again, you might want to use them for ones immediately in the foreground because of the cost. There might be some color matching to do if mixing with other brands, obviously. There is a nice range of sizes and types of trees. Homemade trees made out of bumpy chenille (from craft stores), trimmed a bit and spray painted with ground foam sprinkled on would work, especially for a lot of background trees. If you can find magazine articles by Mike Danneman on his Rio Grande layout, you can see how great they are. See also: Krauss Maffei Models you'll have to scroll down the page some for photos showing parts of his layout. Note that not all of his scenes are solid trees. A little design/planning will go a long way. Note that rock work adds interest and avoids a solid wall of trees, unless that's the look you're going for.
Our club has a requirement of around 10,000 trees, mostly pine. We are using the bumpy chenille method with a couple of variations. It is working very well. We need a smaller quantity of deciduous trees and have been looking at JTT. We purchased some of the cheaper trees and found them not to be suitable for what we want. The trees that are suitable are the professional line. However, the prices are from about $1.00-$4.00 each. We have had good luck with Super Trees from Scenic Express. Some of the trees are to large for N Scale and need to be trimmed. The trimmings make good bushes. I'll try to post some photos at some point.
I have purchased several JTT Trees and find them to be some of the best available on the market. But as stated above are some of the more expensive trees out there also. But as often in life you get what you pay for. I use them in the forefront of my layout. Then fill in background with the new line of Bachmann trees.
Attached are some trees I made starting with Super Trees from Scenic Express. I keep fiddling with techniques. Remembering no two trees are the same and there are many colors in nature.
The problem is that pine trees in the mountains are from 6-8" tall in N Scale. Bumpy chinelle is too short.
From some of the varieties on the website and a few a dealer had at a show, the JTT trees appear to be the same as those sold by British company Hornby and made in Vietnam. I've used several of the Hornby versions on my T-TRAK modules and they are good looking trees.
An LHS here in Atlanta has an extensive selection of the JTT trees. I ahve not used them yet, but plan on doing so in the near future for a few scenes that call for a "knockout" tree like an oak or weeping willow. As others have said, they look great but are cost prohibitive for using in bulk. Jamie
Some of their trees look great, others, not so good. It really depends on the style. Many of the trees show the twists of wire too much. I will say the pines they make are some of the best I have seen in RTR though. The best product they make is a box of 100 "branches". They can be used for smaller trees as is, or their intended purpose, as branches of a larger tree.
