How would I go about making shrubs and trees out of spices. I have seen it on the net but never paid much attention. Please help me with this, thanks!

~Chip :-)

Not difficult: Get some spices (might want to check the discount stores, as this is for dios, not supper). Parsley, oregano .. a few others that are leafy that I can't remember. Use some plant roots or lichen/moss (you can get this in the railroad section of the hobby shop. The roots or lichen/moss acts as a framework. Thin some white glue with a bit of water, mix well, dip the "framework" in the glue, then dip in the spice. shake off excess, let it dry. Glue to base.

You can leave the spices unpainted, but be warned that they will fade over time. It pays to add some airbrushed or drybrushed color to help them keep color.

Hollowpoint is right.

For the color I would suggest that you do paintbrush or airbrush them as the colors fade quite fast sometimes leaving a very unnatural look.

Paint them in a very very dark green (almost black) color, drybrush it with normal "leave green" colors and highlight it with bright yellow....yes bright yellow to make it stand out..... this makes very nice shrubs and vines.

I have heard alot of guys talk about coating dios with hair spray. Is this to protect the foliage etc from fading?

Any other things to use as framework? Besides the railroad linchen?

Thanks!

~ Chip :-)

I would stay away from the hair spray or at least dont use to much of it. I tried that on a tree on my first diorama and it turned all the foilage a milky white so i had to reapply foilage over it and then touch up with paint.

a small article i wrote a few years back now may help you out a little

simple trees

cheers

keith forsyth

Dear Chip,

Check for spices in seed stores. If they are not chopped fine enough a blender, Cuisianart, or mortor and pestle will work. Then you can sift them through different meshes until you get the size you want.
I just combined two ideas for a major tree I needed in 1/35th scale. I used wood dowels for the main trunk and branches (like in Osprey's Terrain Modeling). But, then I drilled holes in the ends of the stubby limbs and branches and at different points on the limbs and branches (angled away from the trunk, with a few verticle, like the real thing. Then I super glued in plain 7-braid copper wire in single to four strands.
The wire becomes the smaller branches and twigs. That givs me hundreds of individual ends to help flesh out the tree and the ability to bend branches to go where I want them. Plus, I have the strength of the wood for the backbone.
Next, with Flexibark not available over here, I'm experimenting with different artist's paste, gels and mediums to see what will hold and how long I have to wait until I can put in a bark pattern on the wood and where it joins to the copper.
It was the onoy way I could make a tree 12" tall without it bending under its own weight.

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

I had good luck making the tree trunk from part of an azalea (sp?). Between the limbs, I placed stretched steel wool. I then airbrushed the steel wool green. I then sprayed the whoel thing with Elmer's craft glue in the aerosol can. While wet, sprinkle the thing with oregano leaves. Once dry, paint the leaves a dark green, then drybrush with lighter shades of green until you get to a pure yellow.

Patrick

Chip there is a real easy way to make very good trees posted here in armorama. the only differences in the tree i made was instead of tying extra branches on like sea foam i used the readily available tumble weed found all over the midwest for the smaller branch groups. i took a pindrill and after clipping a suitable branch cluster drilled it and slid it over single strand end of the wire from the frame work and for the bark i textured it with a coarse razor saw just dragging it up the trunk...you can check out pics in my gallery this is my first try at a tree and i really like the way it turned out. As for the leaves,they are just plain old parsley flakes outta the container. On another note this tree is right around 12" tall and it doesnt have a problem with bending.
The wire framework is just coated with wall spackle right out of the tub...hope this helps and Merry Christmas Kevin

Thanks for all of your help guys. I will try the methods here, and see which one works best for me. Thanks again!

~Chip :-)