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NeophyteMRR "Maybe you need a hand painted sign with prices on it?", way ahead of ya on that. Finishing that up tonight.

Mark, thanks for the compliment and that it's looking like what you recall too.

TedW, cool idea on the fire smoke. I'll have to check into that.

BradFish1, the legs are 1.5" long, glued with the "crotch" of the V, where the cross beam fits into, about 1" above the ground. The cross beams are 4.5" long.

Dave, I've kind of thought of fencing, which in the city would be fairly typical. But have not tried any ideas yet.

Tom

Dad would get our trees from a lot on the edge of the small town (population 1200) that was 2 or 3 miles away.  What I recall from my younger years isn't so far different than one that I passed on the main road on my way to work everyday until I retired a year ago.  The 21st century version looks like they use those electric torpedo heaters and bigger trucks haul the trees in from 2 counties away.  The lighting has been better in recent years too.  You are doing an excellent job, Tom!!!

Mark, yeah the current era tree lots have modernized their equipment for sure. I'm going for a much older time frame for this project, where about the only modern convenience is electricity for lighting.

Wild Mary, I'm not familiar with the bags of dyed green sawdust. What's that for?

So last night I pretty much finished coloring the lot base with the underlying shades of dirt and soot, with the tree needles sprinkled on in select areas. Sealed it all in with some Dullcoat. Will hit some areas later on with a white overspray for a snow / frost effect. With that part done, I filed a thin, shallow notch on the tops of all the string light poles to seat the string light wire into when that's added later. Then glued in the string light poles to the lot base with Gorilla wood glue. That glue dries to a yellowy color, so needed to touch up the pole bases with flat white paint to blend it in. Here's the point at that stage.

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Before adding on all the other parts to the base, I lightly airbrushed some flat white onto the light poles, tree racks, the small group of unbound trees and some areas of the base where foot traffic would be light.

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Now onto the glue-a-thon stage adding to the base all the pieces and components made earlier.

First, epoxyed in place to the underside of the base, the led wires for the corner burning drum and the large display tree. These wires feed into a hole under the shed, where all the wiring and led bridge rectifier packs are to be hidden inside.

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Next, placed heavy pieces of steel bars and scrap bar stock I have onto the thin plywood base to ensure it's glass flat while I glue in place all the parts. Used Elmer's white glue for the two tree racks and the small tree display stand. Used epoxy for the large display tree and the corner burning drum. The worker's shed is not glued in place yet as I'll need to temporarily remove it later on to heavily airbrush some white around that area and don't want to screw up the shed.

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Finally began adding on the trees, both the bound up versions I made and several opened ones that the workers cut off the shipping twine. Just used Elmer's glue to mount them. A small dot on the tree base and a bit on the tree rack where the tree contacts it. Began making a small pile of bound trees next to the shed where the workers would store their tree stockpile. Did this with Elmer's glue as well. Having to do all this gluing in several steps as it takes a while for the trees to set up and firmly lock in place.

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Next steps are to add on the remaining trees, paint on some snow and begin hanging the string lights on the poles.

Tom

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Getting close to the finish line.

Finished adding on all the trees I wanted to use, 35 in all, to the lot. Left some open spaces on the racks where a tree has been pulled and placed in a few unbound trees that the workers have cut off the twine.

Also glued on the tree trunk cutting platform by the shed entrance near the other burning scrap drum. Sprinkled on more tree needles around that drum and glued on some real wood twigs cut from one of our outside bushes.

Experimenting with some ideas on where to place on the tree lot some more Arttista figures I bought, kids sledding, #1386 and #1387, shown below. This is a winter scene and I want figures dressed for cold weather; coats, hats, boots... Can't find many that fit exactly what I want. Still looking for adults that'd be shopping for a tree.

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Removed the shed and loose figures to airbrush the trees, racks, light poles and lot with white in select areas where snow would accumulate. Varied which trees would have snow on them as some have been in place for a while and others are being moved around, restocking the racks from the storage pile. May hit a few areas a bit more later on with white after it's all put together to blend in some of the areas better. This is where I'm at now.

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Happy with the "snow" painting, moved onto the final stretch, adding the lot's string lights.

This is a 4-color 26 led light string from Evan Designs. Before attaching it to the poles, I gently twisted the wire so all the leds pointed in the same direction and when installed, the lights will shine downward onto the lot. The wire, while very pliable and easy to bend, tended to re-curl and annoyingly move around as I tried to glue it to the top of the poles. I ended up using some CA gel and applying it on one pole at a time, holding the wire in place until the gel hardened. Got the first few done before calling it quits for the day. It's a bit blurry, but you can see the progression.

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Next, finishing up the wiring and then the light up.

Tom

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Tom, You have done a great job of thinking of everything.  Whether from memory, observing modern lots and backdating them, or photographs, your observation to detail has been great on this project.  Yes, finding people dressed for winter can be a challenge.  My wife has picked up a lot of them along with ceramic or resin buildings sold for Christmas displays at thrift stores.  All are out of scale for your purposes.  The ceramic people are always too large, and the resin or plastic ones are too small.  Of course it doesn't matter for the more whimsical Christmas display, but not right for a well done scale model.

Tom, you're not going to try and make one of those tree stuffers are you? That's those crazy looking things that "net" the tree tightly up so it can be tied. I think those came out later on in the 20th century whereas I think you're modeling closer to beginning to mid, right? If you did try to make one, I think model basketball net or maybe some sort of chicken wire or the like would do.

Your attention to detail reminds me of model builders for motion pictures.  I have a lot of respect for people who can summon up the patience that these projects require.  I am working on that aspect of myself.  I am learning that it is a requirement to make something truly wonderful and unique.  Thanks again for sharing.

Mark, thank you for your kind words. How I came up with this concept and design is an amalgamation of all the things you mentioned; memories, observations, pictures, movies, the works. Driving by a good number of tree lots on the way to work over the years I do look at them closely and take in their details. But I'm modeling a lot from many years ago (1930's/1940's) and obviously do not include modern features like a port-a-john, propane heaters, tree baler, etc. Besides childhood memories, I have found pictures on Shorpy of tree lots from even earlier, like the couple shown below. The first is New York City, 1903, and the second is Providence, RI, 1940. Pretty basic affairs - trees bound up, in piles or standing up on racks.

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Bill, glad you're enjoying this project's progress. Yeah, getting your tree in the city was/is a different affair. You parked on the street near the lot if you were lucky, or in an alley somewhere if you weren't. One year some guys put up a tree lot in an empty corner house lot down the street from our house. You could just carry the tree home.

Dave, no plastic netting tree balers here. Interesting historical tidbit about them though, thanks. As mentioned above, I'm creating a scene roughly from the 1930's/1940's where the trees are all bound up by hand by stout men from Wisconsin and Michigan with names like Johnson, Krueger and Vander Vleet that have hands like a catchers mitt!

NeophyteMRR, thanks for your comments. I just pay attention to real life details and then try to figure out how to recreate them on a model. Earlier attempts were pretty crappy, but I just keep plugging away. Also, look up an Aussie guy on YouTube called Luke Towan, who's produced dozens of videos of him making absolutely astounding detailed dioramas of everything. I've watched many of them and learned quite a bit, plus I like seeing the tools, fixtures, etc., he uses to make his creations. I've seen many items he uses that I didn't know existed, saying dang, I need that!



Finally, the finish line.

Completed the installation of the string lights on top of the light poles. This led string has a fairly large bridge rectifier pack that powers it and needs to be tucked away somewhere. I positioned the lights so that pack is inside the shed, with the wiring coming out of the shed and up to the poles, which I've seen done many times in real life. Just cut a thin notch on the roof's bottom to allow the wire through. Molded all the wiring by hand to give it a real life looking sag between the poles.

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All the led wiring crammed inside the shed is a real noodle factory. Had to use some double-sided tape to secure the large led power packs out of the way of the translucent windows so they don't appear when looking at the windows as the interior is now lighted.

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Decided to place the other worker by the tree trunk cutting platform, moving a tree into place to trim off the trunk. He seemed to fit that location best.

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Finished making the tree lot sign and attaching it to one of the light poles. Since I'm modeling the 30's/40's I wanted to know what a typical Christmas tree sold for back then. After numerous internet searches I learned that they generally cost only a few bucks, lower in the 30's of course during the Depression. Wanting a fairly basic operation, I decided on $2 for a small tree, and $3 for a large one. I didn't want to hand paint one (too much of a PITA in my opinion), so tried to find a font style that looked as close to a hand painted sign as possible. Ended up using 10pt font size Segoe Print that seemed to work. Printed it on plain white paper and glued it onto a small basswood strip painted flat white, using 3M's #77 spray on adhesive.

Also purposefully used the word "Xmas" instead of Christmas as I clearly remember the year when some guys set up a tree lot down the street from our house in Chicago, on the corner of 59th Street and Wood Street. They had a string of lights over the entrance that said Merry Xmas. I asked my older brothers what did that mean and they told me it was just a shortened version of the word Christmas. I'm like 5 years old, so OK.

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Done!

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Hope everyone enjoyed seeing this project's progress and the end result. Thanks for all the comments, suggestions and replies. Now onto the next project...

Tom

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