I think super trees are awesome, but they aren't something I want to spend alot of time on. I think around 2x the height of trees are about right. Ring a bell?
I'm in the camp that agrees that the clump foliage method can work - but for backgrounds only. I use 'Supertrees' for any foreground trees. For the backgrounds, I used Jerry's poly-fill ball method, but also added in lichen to break up the 'egg carton' uniformity: Any foreground trees are (or will be) 'Supertrees': On my previous layout scenery, I made over 300 small Supertrees to populate a hillside. It was a horribly time consuming process that really didn't yield very impressive results (especially for the effort). The newer method went far faster and I think turned out a lot better (although others here are better at it than I am). The other factor is that in N-scale, I believe the level of background detail isn't as important as in larger scales. Sure, you want to sell it, but I don't think it takes as much as we might think.
Thanks. The next step was to spray everything down with diluted matte medium (I like to use matte medium because it doesn't leave a shine after drying). Once the surface is wet with the glue, I blow on fine turf blends using folded cardboard in a 'V' shape. I used at least three shades of green (WS or Scenic Express). Then I misted on more diluted matte medium to lock it in (and maybe apply more turf as needed). Here's the after shot: A lot more foreground trees and other details are still to be added.
