Very nice looking trees Pete. Maybe the attached pic will help you work up the nerve to tackle some full-grown pines.
As you point out, the trees as they come out of the box are far too regular for anything but a well-groomed front lawn. Roughing them up like you did does wonders.
But I'm always amazed that so many modellers try to duplicate this perfect look, when most pines out in the bush have far fewer branches. Jack Pines for example have virtually no branches for the first 3/4 of the trunk's height, making for a lot less work when scratchbuilding!!!!
cheers
Val
PS - if you have Paul's CD he goes into a pretty cool tree-making tutorial.