Making Palm Trees

[marc_reusser]

Thought this might be of interest. I found this on Modellboard.de. Its a thread explianing palm tree construction for 1/72....but could likely be adapted to l1/48 or so. It's in German, but the pics pretty mich tell the story.

http://www.modellboard.de/thread.php?threadid=10387&boardid=18&sid=258289eedb05b0355bedd229057f2efe


Marc

[gin sot]

404'ed.        Sorry for the necropost.

I model Florida, so I need a LOT of palm trees.  Hart Of The South makes foreground-quality kits for a variety of palm species, but it'd be great if I could find a way a little less expensive.  Or a LOT less expensive.

I've experimented with gang-cutting multiple fronds from stacked paper.  I then attach the fronds to wire stems, spray paint 'em en masse and build palmettos from the painted fronds.  The results are acceptable for background use, but it's still a lot of work.  There's a clump of homemade palmettos behind this HO cabin I built:

[marc_reusser]

In the two years since that post the forum has changed servers and URL.

Not sure if this is the same thread as originally referenced, but here is one from that forum re. making 1/72 palms.
http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=10387.0

From reading the text in this thread, the palms in the diorama photos on this thread are 1/72 and were made fron paper leaves individually cut with nailclippers, and trunks wrapped with paper strip. Doesn't mention the substructure. Says it took about 30 mins per palm to build.
http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=13884.0

In this post in another thread the builder describes how hw found some images of palm leaves, scaled them to size in a photo program, printed them, and then cut them out individually.
http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=25352.msg336488#msg336488
Here how this approach looks in his scene/dio:
http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=25352.msg336519#msg336519


There used to be a couple of threads on the MIG forum as well, but a search through the database reveals that the the images have long since disappeared from the posts, and the other threads I was thinking about did not make it through the Forum move.

I believe that Preiser makes some 1/72 palms. I have seen people use the leaves from these, and make their own trunks (as they did not seem to like the Preiser ones).

PE is another option, though quite expensive for the amount you would need. Drawing them in CAD or Corel Draw, then having a bunch laser-cut is an option....though you would have to draw enough different leaves, and then vary the sizes of them, so that they seem random enough.

BTW....welcome to the Forum. The cabin and scene look nice. Maybe you can tell us a bit more about it.

MR

[lab-dad]

I need to make some too.
I have been thinking about some of the process mentioned.
Also thought about having Crystal River Products cut me some out of mylar.
I wonder if the right paper would help the appearance?
I was thinking using copper tube for the trunk, wrapping it with tape to get the taper and flare at the bottom then using floral tape to fabricate the "bark"
May be I will try one this way and see how crappy it looks!

Great scene Gin, very rural North Florida!

-Marty

[Belg]

Hey Marty, I read a how to once for making the trunk of the palm tree for large scale projects out of pine cones to get the scallop effect. It looked pretty convincing,but  since I don't model in large scale I did not save the how to but maybe a google search might come up with it? Pat

[jacq01]

  Here a link of brass etchings of several sorts of foliages.

  http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Scale_1_32_Foliage.html

  Jacq

[John McGuyer]

Brass grass? Good grief!

John

[shropshire lad]

Of course , you could always go to Accurate Armour's website and look under "Kamizukuri" and see the palm trees they produce . Although they are 1/35th scale I'm sure they would be fine for the "teeny-weeny" scales people still seem to model in .

  Nick

[shropshire lad]

Or even these ones .


   Nick

[JohnP]

Etched brass was used in the making of the Harvard Forest New England forest dioramas. They are a masterful demonstration of the art of diorama making from the '20s I believe. I have seen them in person and they are stunning.

http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/museum/dioramas.html

If you are curious search the web for larger photos. They have a book available and at one time had a set of 35mm slides available of the dioramas. The etched brass was used for the white pines, sort of similar to palm tree construction.

John

[lab-dad]

Got these off that auction site......
They looked awful when i got them (like they belonged in a turtle tank!)
A little paint and "presto"
Anyway I am pleased with them.

They are a little warmer in person, the WB is slightly off.
-Marty