I want to make a swamp to go with my gundam, but I don't really know how to make coconut trees and palm, I read the features on jungle, and I try to make some palm leaves with alu sheets but I didn't have the same result at all ... So I would like to have somes tips plz ... Thx

Alex, there's a German company that has a kit of four coconut trees. Can't remember the company right now. I'll check when I get home.

Hi Alex,

What was the problem you had with the leaves? Perhaps I can help you out. It may be that you tried to cut to many sheets at a go.

Another option is to do a mangrove swamp which might be a wee bit easier. If your up to scratchbuilding then you need to source for plants with multiple branches. Turn it upside down and stick another set of branches to the top. I'd post some pics but I think the kitmaker gallery is still affected by the server changeover. Let me know if you are still game and I will try to post some pics once the servers are sorted out.

Thx for the help I just tried to cut one sheet at the time, but I don't really understand how to made it look like real one ... But I would like some pics if you have the time Or I can take pictures of my leaves and maybe you can see what it's the problem ... Thx

Hey Rider - keep scale in mind, A 6" model @ 1/144 is 72 feet tall coconut palms are 20 to 30' feet tall so they are just above the "ankle" of the mech.Keeping scale consistant throughought will lensd an air of believability and realism to your dio. For instance on my latest dio the mech is not obviously any particular scale so I chose 1/72 because I have a lot of stuff in that scale. your model appears to be a 1/144 Bandai kit so you hve fewer choices unless you make it all, N scale railroad stuff is Roughly 1/152 so it should look ok!

Someone did a feature on making palm trees ...

I thought it was here but maybe another site. It seemed easy and the trees looked good (using rope for tree trunk and cutting silk flower leaves from a craft store).

I'll look around but if I can't find it maybe somebody else remembers where / when that feature was?


N E O

Neo - theres's a post like that at Digital Dioramas

Here is a link to the "How To" palm tree feature: Link to item

Thx guys

Hi Alex,

The article referred by Marty is by Eric Sikema and its a good article. As BM2 mentioned scale is important. Perhaps if you could post some in progress pics when the server changeover is completed we could help you along the way.

If its 1/72 and smaller the aluminium foil will be a bit difficult to do. When I wrote the article on "Its a Jungle Out There" which I think that the one you read I was making the palm leaves for 1/35. Eric's article for the palm leaves might be more appropriate for smaller scales. I've used the same trunk method as his in my article.

Yup - That's the ONE! Short term memory not what it used to be...

Here's 2 links to the layout of actual swamp with some good pics to give you an idea of the type and variation of vegetation found.

http://waterquality.ifas.ufl.edu/primer/wetlands.html
http://www.nhmi.org/mangroves/id.htm

You may find that coconut palms are not that common to real swamps but more for beaches and such.

For the scale, my gundam is about 10-12 meter high ... I was thinking that in a dense jungle/swamp, trees are about 7-8 meters ... but maybe I don't have the good idea ... And were can I find plastic leaves ?? THx a lot for your help ...

Alex I think you must have meant centimeters rather than meters. If you want to have a quick and easy way of making vegetation but not always the most realistic would be to use acquarium plants. You will have to repaint them to give them different shades of green otherwise they would be too monotonous.

Check out the websites I gave you earlier and look for close equivalents in acquarium plants. The other better alternative is to go to Dried Flower shops if you don't want to scratchbuild. The most expensive but easiest would be to buy ready made ones as David suggested.

Let's see if I can post you a pic on some plants I made with dried plants from the dried flower shop and tea leaves. Nope the kitmaker section still ain't up yet.

You can't really see from the thumbnails but in the first link to my gallery there is a photo entitled "Dried Flower" and in the second link under the first "MACV SOG In Indian Country" you can just barely make out the vegetation I made using dried flowers.
http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=4148
[url]http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/500/page/3/ppuser/4148url]

Sorry that's the best I can do for now until the kitmaker is up again.

Ah ... I meant the real size of my gundam ... Does the real trees in jungle have a heigth of 8-9 meter ?? Or it's smaller or maybe bigger ... I tried to cut some dried leafs that i found in my garage but I can't cut them, they fall into peace ...

Thx for your help

I think that I solve some of my problem ... My cut was to wide ... but I have some problem to not break the aluminium when I'm cutting ... Do you have any tips for that or it's just that I have cut with more caution ?? I gonna post some pics when I going to cut a leaf without breaking it for further advise ...

Hi Alex,

As to your first question on tree height. Jungle trees as described in my article are usually found in 3 layers in undisturbed jungles. The highest layer can go as high as 80m.

For the second question in cutting the foil, I think I see the problem. I usually use the scissors from my Swiss penknife. Its pretty sharp and small enough to allow you to cut the leaflets. Bigger scissors are difficult to handle and will tear your leaftlets. It takes quite a bit of patience.

If you haven't totally given up on scratchbuilding and since the kitmaker is back up here's 2 pics I promised earlier. The first is from dried flower shops with a 1/35 fig next to it. The left one is called baby's breadth and the right one has leaves that are suitable for small jungle plants but the flowers should be removed.


The second one below shows most of the short plants I made from a combo of dried flowers and tea leaves. As you can see a trip to dried flower shop may be worth your while.


Hope that helps.

Perfect ! That's for these pictures and info. It's gonna help me a lot and no I haven't giging up yet and I hope that I not gonna give up ... lol