Birch

The birch and its white trunk

A birch is recognized in a landscape even by someone who cannot tell trees apart. The pale bark peeling off like paper sets it apart from everything growing around it, and that very contrast makes it a rewarding element of a scenic base. In nature it is a pioneer species: it takes over clearings, embankments, abandoned plots and roadsides before the other broadleaf trees. Where it has to be clear that an area is only just becoming overgrown, the birch comes first. It works just as well, though, in a landscaped garden or in an avenue, where it is planted precisely for the look of its trunk.

The workmanship

The package holds one finished tree 9.84 cm tall. The trunk and the foliaged crown are finished in color, so the tree is planted straight away, with no painting and no assembly.

Where a tree like this belongs

A pale trunk comes into play mainly against a dark background, that is in front of conifer growth, by a plastered wall or above a deeper grass area. A single specimen looks believable on a field margin and by a farm track, in a group rather at the edge of a wood: in nature a birch grows in stands and stands alone mostly where somebody planted it.

Choosing the size

The height given corresponds to a mature tree in the common sizes of model railroading and in medium sized dioramas. No particular scale is set for this kind of item, so the intention decides: in a smaller scale the same model makes a massive old tree, in a larger one a younger specimen. It therefore pays to compare the height with a figure or a vehicle already standing on the base.