Busch make a large range of miniature crops, flowers and other vegetation including sunflowers, grape vines and wheat fields. Whilst most come as kits to assemble some can be bought ready assembled on a small base. All of the plants are quite different in size and for example the ferns are about 10 mm high and the mushrooms are up to 4 mm. The kits come with various plastic sprues in different colours. The plants usually have 2 or more pieces for each plant and for example the strawberry plants have four tiers of leaves plus a base plate while each fern sprue each contains 24 leaves with a suggestion that around 6 fern leaves are used for each plant.
Making the kits
Making the plants is easy and fun as follows:
- Read the instructions on the back of the packet and on the supplied leaflet to see how your particular kit needs to be assembled.
- With all of the plants the leaves and flowers need to be removed from the sprue with a sharp craft knife over a self sealing cutting board. It is suggested that a dab of Busch super glue (7597) or contact adhesive be used to hold the parts together and fixed to the landscape.
- Some find that it's good to hold the parts in tweezers as each plant is assembled. Once you have made the first plant you can almost set up an assembly line to quickly assemble the remaining plants.
The main range of the plants is for OO/HO scale but there are also a number of kits available for N and TT scales. Some of the Busch Starter Kits (such as Forest and Meadow 6043) contain a selection of these plants and are a great way to learn how to use a variety of these plants to good effect on a layout.
Adding plants, flowers, weeds and crops to a layout is a great way to spend an evening. It's fun and certainly will add talking points for visitors to your layout.
TOOLS AND MATERIALS REQUIRED (all available from Ontracks)
- A sharp craft knife for cutting the plants off the plastic sprue.
- A self sealing cutting board to cut the plant parts from the sprue.
- A small pair of tweezers for handling the plants.
- Busch Superglue (7597) or contact adhesive can be used for fixing the parts together and to the landscape.
- A mixture of Busch fine foam scatter materials and Busch fine real sand for around the base of the plants.
- Busch produce magnifying glasses especially for use with their plants to be assembled.
Scales: N, TT, HO and OO
Busch Plants for Model Railways For Sale on our website
