Hi there,

I'm considering building a diorama and I have been looking on various model manufacturer sites at their sets for photoetched leaves and grapevine sets.

There seem to be some excellent looking sets of leaves out there for 1/35 dioramas, but looking at them on the sprue is one thing. Do they look good in reality when in use? I'm thinking about the various Eduard and Voyager sets for oak leaves, maple leaves, etc.

Also I was considering a grapevine in the diorama, and I looked at the Eduard etched one and there's a paper one from Wako. The think is other than small photos of these on the manufactuer sites, I can't find any other photos. I'd love to see if anyone here has used the leaves or the grapevines and if they look realistic. Any photos please? Or advice?

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave,

I have a lot of PE plants and they look realistic if good painted and you can easily work with them. But they are pricey. You have to prime them first so the paint will hold on the plants. Also you can add some putty to the plant arm to make them look more realistic in thickness.

Also i can highly recommend laser cut paper plants from Federicus Rex or Kamizukuri. Here are some great tutorials by Calvin Tan to make realistic foliage and to save some money when working with PE-plants. You can also use some of your loose tea or some spice to make a diorama.

Here are some products from ABER shown wich looks realy amazing.

ABER - photo-etched elements

Calvin Tan tipps:
make a hedgerow

photo-etched leaves

have a look here for some PE-Accessories too

Photo Etched Diorama Accessories

Here you can see how realisitc jungle foilige is reproduced by using paper plants:

jungle foliage

You can find much more by a ggogle search or here at armorama too. Have a look at the features Section here.

Hope this helps

Bye, bye

Stefan

I agree about the paper stuff being better than the PE leaves and vines. The paper is not only cheaper,but if some paint gets knocked off the paper leaves or doesn't coat them or whatever,the leaves will just have a slightly dry look to them,whereas the PE leaves have a shiny metal glare that doesn't fool the eye at all,does it?
J

Check out 'The Scenic Factory' for a variety of leaves, etc. Their 'Roots Material' is especially good for vines.

http://www.thescenicfactory.com/category_s/1866.htm

--mike

Thanks everyone, I am glad I asked.

So has anyone made up that paper grapevine? Does it look 'right'?

Here is a small tree using paper leaves.



And the paper vine on the tree here is left unpainted to replicate winter.



The large weed is also paper. In the top pic it is painted greenish yellow and the bottom pic unpainted.
HTH,
J

Very impressive. So do these paper products come pre-cut? Or is there a lot of fiddly trimming with scissors involved? I assume they must be laser cut or something?

You may find something here:

www.treemendus-scenics.co.uk/

or

in this link - paper leaves
www.luckymodel.com

Good luck!

Cheers.

They come pre-cut and just need a few swipes with an exacto blade to get them off the backing. Very simple,even I can do it.
J

Excellent, thanks Jerry.