"pre-treated lichen?" Topic

I've made a bunch of wire trees, and have been putting off putting the foliage on them or a long time. I bought a bunch of Branch Bunches from Scale Tree before they shut down, and I do think their stuff with foliage, when following their advice for applying it, looks great. But I haven't been able to get the foliage to stick well.

I've got some lichen that I treated with glycerin some time ago. It has remained soft, so I must have done it right. I was thinking of using that.

But I don't think I have enough to do all my trees. I'm not sure I want to buy glycerin and go through it again, so I was wondering if anyone makes pre-treated lichen. Have you used some and had it remain soft?

I'd also be open to other suggestions for realistic foliage for wire trees with lots of branches. It must be hardy for use in games.

thanks,
andy

My suggestion would be to go to a train modelling store and buy their lichen.
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Tim

I made trees out of pipe cleaners and store-bought lichen … gee, maybe 8 years ago now? It has remained soft, and in fact I still have several unused partial bags of it that is also soft. I've never questioned it and was stunned a couple years ago when I saw someone post on a terrain forum not to use lichen because it would dry up and get brittle.

This was Woodland Scenics lichen, here is their web page showing the different colors: link

I have found it to be a mixed bag. I have some Woodland Scenics lichen that is still in the bag that I bought years ago that is soft, but I also have a few bags a recently tossed out because much of it had gotten hard and brittle. I have also bought lichen used for floral arrangements and I can easily say that it WILL dry out and be useless. My suggestion would be to use the Woodland Scenics or similar train product and hope you get a good batch. The floral products are cheaper, but they do not last over the long run.

Jeff

Woodland Scenics says theirs are treated with dye and a 20% salt solution, and that I can spray it with water to keep it from becoming brittle.

I wonder where I bought the glycerin for my previous batch.

andy

Just got an update from Woodland Scenics:

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I just spoke with one of our product development technicians and he
indicated that the Lichen IS treated with glycerin.
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andy