Ok maybe a bizarre question and definitely off topic. No the Sinsley Mountain Logging and Mining Co. did not move to Hawaii. I am doing a 1:48 ww2 diorama of a F4U Corsair on a South Pacific Island air strip. Bas Bas Black sheep style. And I need some palm trees. Anyone model them?
I have some that I used to use on our old O gauge traveling layout. I think we bought them at a show somewhere that were handmade. I have seen similar palms available at Hobby Lobby though.
Steve
I did do a web search and I see the make a lot from paper. And that maybe the route. We have some very clever people and was hoping some one had a nice technique
Mark Hadler said:
Did you try search of the old interwebs? Here’s a Google search result - modeling palm trees
Your search brought up stuff mine did not. It’s all in the right words I guess. There is good stuff there
Entrance to Espiritu Santo Navy/USMC base, WW II.
Lots of palm trees.
VMF 214 at Turtle Bay airfield, Espiritu Santo. No date given. US Gummint photo, no copyright.
Shade tree mechanics, without the shade. VMF 214, Espiritu Santo.
Steve Featherkile said:
Shade tree mechanics, without the shade. VMF 214, Espiritu Santo.
Great picture and comparing it to the other one it looks like this Corsair has 3 patched bullet holes on the vertical stabilizer, and both pictures are of older model 3blade propeller airplanes
Devon
I once made my HO palm trees using the twist tie found holding 3 heads of brocoli together. They are much larger than the twist tie for garbage bags. Essentially, you have a wide paper strip and a wire down the center. I used my scissors to trim the paper to pointy ‘leaves’. The wire ‘center’ is the ‘branch’ of the core of the palm. I finished up with some green paint.
If you are unable to find some or they are not big enough for 1:48, you could consider making your own with greenish colored paper and wire…
Gilbert
Devon, to add onto Gilbert’s post above, head over to a nursery, they sell Twist Tie Spools. You can cut them to various lengths, widths vary. The spool I have, the paper is 1/4 inch wide, used for tying saplings to stakes.
Gilbert,
I read your post after finding a YouTube tutorial. But that would be too small for 1:48 but what a great idea. Those big twist ties would be perfect.
With that said i did find a good YouTube tutorial and looking at a lot of war pics like the ones Steve shared i think I came up with a suitable tree. It’s not done yet still need some coconuts made from painted peppercorns and the husk stuff found at the base of the new leaves made twine. I ended up using 12 gauge house wire, just one piece of the three with the insulation. I wrapped it with 22 gauge florist wire. Then used air dry clay for the top and base. The roots i used lead wool. The leaves are card stock with a piece of the florist wire glued on. Then painted.
I will only be making two or so. They are pretty labor intensive and have decided to make this into a small diorama. Had plans for a much larger scene but I just don’t have room to display it. And have others i want to make. So this will be a small maybe 12x12 scene.
BTW sorry for not being train related. But I will say if someone is making a tropical pineapple train say for Hawaii well I think this will be helpful. There i made it train related donuts okay now.
Pete Lassen said:
Steve Featherkile said:
Shade tree mechanics, without the shade. VMF 214, Espiritu Santo.
Great picture and comparing it to the other one it looks like this Corsair has 3 patched bullet holes on the vertical stabilizer, and both pictures are of older model 3blade propeller airplanes
Pete,
Several times in the show Baa Baa Black Sheep they refer to patching the bullet holes with beer cans. I will be adding some fresh beer can patches. I wasn’t going to weather this but I have too. So dirt, grime, and repaired bullet holes are a must.
1: In Nam, used 100miles a hour tape on the holes. Really sticky stuff.
2: In the South Pacific, almost all the fields of palms, were on plantations, and they were planted in rows, evenly spaced. Not like “wooded” areas.
If you were trying to model palm trees in a garden setting (~1:24 scale) you could use gopher purge (Euphorbia lathyris).