Questions

Making Palm Trees

Posted by PDA on 01 Jan 2016, 15:54

Recent threads on making trees got me thinking....

I'm slowly making a 3rd Gaza Tank scene, and I want some palm trees for it. I don't want to pay high prices, such as for the palm trees by Pegasus, because I will be butchering the trees to use just the trunk on the front of the tank, like this...
Image
That's a small section of palm tree trunk behind the extra track links attached to the front of the tank.

Also need a couple or three whole palm trees for the background, like this...
Image

I read an article years ago that explained how to make the palm tree fronds from feathers, but I can't recall if it mentioned how to make the trunks. I have looked at the ornaments for aquaria, and I have some of the dollar store toy palm trees that come with a bucketful of dinosaurs, but none of them is realistic looking enough.

Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.
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PDA  England
 
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Posted by zulu`s 1000`s of em on 01 Jan 2016, 16:39

PDA I found a selection of Palm tree`s on ebay, posted from China about£5 for 100 and they are pretty good, look on ets for my Japs on bikes to see them.
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Posted by Ben90 on 02 Jan 2016, 16:47

I´ve tried these myself... a brilliant product:
http://www.fredericus-rex.eu/de/Masssta ... Palme.html
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Ben90  Germany
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Posted by tomikd on 04 Jan 2016, 11:04

You can try to make it from cones from any coniferous trees.
Few examples are here, but I found better, I don' t know what web site was it :(

http://www.warfactory.co.uk/scenery/aridconepalms.php
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tomikd  Slovakia
 
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Posted by Kekso on 04 Jan 2016, 11:11

I tried to make some with wire and masking tape. It turned out fine. Pity I didn't made any wip photos :oops:
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by Beano Boy on 04 Jan 2016, 13:12

You can make out of plant ties.

Image

Image

Imagination knows no boundaries. BB
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Posted by Kekso on 04 Jan 2016, 13:46

I didn't made wip photos but I found some photos of finished tree:

Image

Image

Maybe you can see some unpainted parts on leafs. That means I should paint after cutting masking tape, not before.
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by PDA on 05 Jan 2016, 02:30

@tomikd - that's fantastic! I want more "long and skinny" than "stubby and fat" but I can definitely use that idea. Maybe use some Betula pendula "cones" if I can find them under the snow.

@Kekso - brilliant! The fronds look amazing! How did you do the stem? It looks like a Sparkler (firework).

@Beano Boy - great stuff, mate! I can use that idea! Maybe dab a bit of Green Stuff on the twisted up ties.

Thanks, gentlemen. Those are splendid ideas and a great help!
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PDA  England
 
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Posted by Kekso on 05 Jan 2016, 09:25

@PDA - I used very long wires for making leaves. So when leaves were ready I twisted all wires together. Then I coated them in white glue and sprinkled with sawdust. When dried I painted it in brown and gave it coat of dark wash.
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Posted by Cryns on 05 Jan 2016, 13:01

Hello PDA,

Ten years ago I build some palm trees.
I lost the WIP picture of how to do this.
But this was the result:

Image

The palm tree at the left has feather-leaves. I bought these green feathers in a costume or decoration shop.

The other palm trees have leaves cut out of white plastic boxes for Chinese takaway food.
These leaves were not cut separate but in clusters of 3 with a joint base , like 3 fingers on a hand.
These joint bases are bend around the trunk to fasten it with glue and steelwire.

The trunks are wooden Chinese chopsticks winded with white medical bandage soaked in white glue.
The fluffy clump right below the leaves representing dead leave-springs: it is a lot of medical bandage soaked in white glue cut up with scissors.

As you can see in the picture below, these trees are not very detailed. But very strong so perfect for wargaming. If you wish, you can make them more realistic using slimmer trunks, much more leaves with even more incisions in each leave. That will fit your realistic diorama much better I think.

Image
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Cryns on 05 Jan 2016, 14:07

And what to say about this one:
It looks more like the nice and gentle palmtrees Kekso made.
These leaves look real but are made out of artificial plants from the petshop.

http://thecombatworkshop.blogspot.nl/20 ... ratch.html
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by PDA on 05 Jan 2016, 15:48

Messieurs Cryns and Kekso, thank you so much! That is extremely useful advice, and it looks to be within my talent range!
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PDA  England
 
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Posted by Cryns on 05 Jan 2016, 16:56

Also Paul's Bods added a topic on palm trees in 2012 on this website:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=11351

Original:
http://paulsbods.blogspot.de/2012/05/pa ... built.html

And from our tutorial topic there is another brilliant tutorial

by monlegionnaire:
https://monlegionnaire.files.wordpress. ... trees1.pdf

from a post by Pivo
by Pivo
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7225
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Cryns  Netherlands

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