I pinched these fern fronds from my school's greenhouse, they would look perfect as a small fern plant if I pulled each individual frond off the stem. If I left the fronds on I could create a small palm tree such as the fishtail species etc. These fronds have been completely preserved, only requiring painting.

Just thought I would share this with the P.E/ laser cut lovers and encourage more people to become P.E/laser cut haters!

Chas

Nice idea Chas,how did you preserve them?I have used these before for making ferns in 75mm scale but they went brittle and broke easily,looked god though when first placed on dio.

Steve

hi chas , would you happen to have these but a little larger , as you no im building a 1/6 scale jungle ,, could do with lots of them for living plants and ground scatter

If you can't find these at school, check out Michael's or AC Moore in the dried flower aisles. I found some similar (and already preserved) fronds there a few years ago whaen I did my Predator. They were in a bag of assorted leafy material.

Steve the normal way would be to dip the cut end in a glycerin:water mix (1:5 or more). However, I've found not all ferns preserve as well due to poor absorption of glycerin so the other option is to get a bunch and lightly tie their ends, hang them upside down in a cool place away from direct sunlight. They do get a bit brittle by this method but once painted they should hold.

Thanks CK, I also use this method but I sometimes experience the same problem with glycerine.

So...My preferred method is to leave the plant inside a notepad for about a week. This works with most plants although they still need painting. The only downside is that you loose a lot of the 3D aspect and it is necessary to spread the fronds out again once preserved before they get brittle.

Ian, unfortunately I have run out of these fronds as the school has cleared out the greenhouse for the holidays!

Chas

thanks for the reply chas ,, no probs , i'll just start hunting in local flower shops and garden centres ,, regards . Ian