palm tree's

Check out Digital Dioramas. Theres a great article there on making palm trees.
I've used paper, tissue paper, silk plants (some of the leaves once cut up with scissors or xacto make pretty passable palm fronds.) Corn husks trimmed, cut and shaped give the same effect. Experiment. Some of the best methods are found by accident.

Mike

Thanx for the suggestions....i'll try both methods. Thanx again

You may also try this.

For trunk

1.) Cut a 1/8" or 1/4" diameter wire to the size simulating the height of the tree.
2.) Cut a piece of paper into about 1/4" wide strips.
3.) Put glue on one side of the paper and wind it around the wire starting from one end to the other. You may overlap a bit. Repeat this step until you reach the desired thickness of the trunk. On you final layer, be sure to add more strips on the lower end of the trunk to make it a bit conical in shape. The edge fo the strips will make good simulation of the the rings on the palm (actually coconut) tree.

For the leaves:

1.) Get some chicken (or better still duck) feathers (this is if possible)
2.) Shape the feathers by trimming the edges.
3.) Glue to the trunk.

Hi Punkrocker 69

I had the same problem when I was creating my first diorama. When I looked around for the resin/brass trees I found them to be quite expensive so I decided to make my own.
Here's what I did:

1. Get some bendy garden wire and cut a length of about 14". Then fold it in half so you will have a strong support for the trunk.

2. Take some modelling clay(play doe is just as good) and roll it into a sauaage shape. Now take the wire and work it into the clay so that the wire is covered and you have the shape of a trunk. Don't forget to bend the trunk slightly as most palms tend to lean a little.
To add some detail, use a hobby knife to carve lines around the trunk to resemble bark. Then just paint the trunk light brown and leave it to dry.

3. To make the palms, take some wet 'n dry sandpaper(it bends and gives good surface texture) and draw some palm shapes on it. Now cut the shapes out and paint them green. Once dry, take the scissors and working from the outside make lots of cuts either side of the centre of each palm shape. Be careful not to cut into the centre as this will resemble the palm stem.

4. Now glue the palms to the top of the trunk, getting them to overlap in the shape of a cross. To cover the overlap, use the same method to make 4 small palms in the shape of a cross. When these are glued to the top it should look like new growth spouting from the top.
Now you can glue the whole thing to your base-finished!

If you'd like to see how mine turned out check out my Vietnam scene in the diorama album on RonUSMC's gallery.

It's not the same as the aftermarket stuff, but it looks OK and most folks seem to like it.

Hope my ramblings help you out.

Later,

Darren.